I just found out that ten months ago, my state legislature passed a bill making lemonade the official state beverage.

The bill was suggested by a high school student.

I was never consulted.

Shouldn’t there have been a referendum? Shouldn’t the good voters of Arizona have had the privilege of choosing the state beverage?

Because the obvious choice for state beverage would be lemon water. (What’s lemon water? Water with fresh lemon juice squeezed into it.)

Much of Arizona is desert. It’s hot and dry. Arizonans sip water all day long to stay hydrated.

But our water doesn’t always taste so good. When we moved here more than thirty years ago, our tap water smelled like chlorine. I would get a glass of tap water halfway to my mouth and change my mind about drinking it. Many Arizonans buy bottled drinking water or have reverse osmosis water systems to remove the stinky chemicals and pollutants from their water. (Actually, our tap water tastes much better now. Or maybe I’m just used to it.)

I don’t like to drink liquids that contain sugar. That includes most lemonade. But restaurants usually carry only one “diet” beverage—diet cola. And cola has caffeine in it. Which wouldn’t be a problem in the morning; but if I drink caffeine at dinner time, I’m bouncing off walls all night.

So my go-to restaurant drink is water. But, as I said before, the tap water isn’t very pleasant. If I know the restaurant serves tap water, I ask for water and lemon.

And like many Arizona residents, we have a lemon tree in our yard, so we have fresh lemons a good part of the year, so it’s our standard drink at home, too.

Lemon water is the natural choice for Arizona state beverage. Saddling us with the sugary version is gross injustice foisted upon us by our elected officials. It’s an outrage.

Now it’s your turn—does your state have a state beverage? (Go Google it. I’ll wait.) Is it a good choice, or what would you rather have as your official drink? Share in the comments below.