Now This Is a Big Dill! SONIC and Grillo's Pickles Drop a Pickle-Packed Meal with a Special Surprise
Every item in the meal delivers the unmistakable crisp, clean and garden-fresh flavor of Grillo's. The pickle-themed lineup includes:
SONIC x Grillo's Pickles Big Dill Double & Triple SONIC Smasher TM: A larger-than-life take on the beloved Double SONIC Smasher, featuring hand-smashed Angus beef. Each burger is layered with two slices of melty American cheese, dill pickle-seasoned crispy cucumbers, dilly ranch, Grillo's Pickle Chips and fresh lettuce, all served on a pillowy soft potato bun. The Big Dill Double SONIC Smasher starts at $7.49*, while the Big Dill Triple SONIC Smasher is available starting at $8.49* for those with an even bigger appetite.
SONIC x Grillo's Pickles Picklerita Slush: A refreshingly tart and sweet slush made with a bold blend of pickle juice and tart lime, Pickle Juice Flavor Bubbles and topped with a Grillo's Pickle Chip. The Picklerita Slush starts at just $3.99* for a 20 oz.
SONIC x Grillo's Pickles Seasoned Tots or Groovy Fries: Choose from crispy, golden classic SONIC Tots or Groovy Fries covered in Grillo's Pickle seasoning for a bright, tangy flavor twist that satisfies pickle and snack cravings, starting at $2.99* for a medium.
'Pickle-flavored menu items are trending, but not all pickle meals are created equal,' said Barb Williams, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy at SONIC. 'We've been innovating in pickles since 2018, so pickles are kind of our thing. We've done slushes, we've done burgers – and now, with help from our friends at Grillo's, we're taking our pickle obsession to the next level. It's our most craveable pickle lineup yet — crafted for pickle lovers, by pickle lovers. Every item in the Big Dill Meal is curated to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience and showcase what we do best: bold, unexpected and unapologetically pickle-forward flavor.'
As a special surprise for the guests who order the full Big Dill Meal, they'll receive a complimentary pickle-scented car air freshener, depicting the iconic Grillo's mascot, 'Sam-Sam the Pickle Man,' to bring a whiff of dill to every drive, while supplies last.** The partnership also includes limited-edition Sam-Sam packaging, plus an exclusive pickle-inspired merch drop on June 30 at LiveFreeShopSonic.com that features hats, tees, and a nugget ice maker. For every pickle merch item purchased, 100% of the proceeds will be donated to support public education through the SONIC Foundation.***
'We're pumped to partner with SONIC on a fun new menu collaboration,' said Mark Luker, Chief Marketing Officer of Grillo's Pickles. 'We encourage fans of both brands to Live Free, Eat Pickles and enjoy the Big Dill Meal.'
*Tax not included.
**Quantities are limited, with up to 250 air fresheners distributed per participating SONIC location.
***100% of net proceeds from merchandise benefit the SONIC Foundation, a division of the Inspire Brands Foundation. For more information about the SONIC Foundation, visit foundation.sonicdrivein.com.
About SONIC Drive-In
SONIC, a leader in food and beverage innovation, was founded in 1953 and now has more than 3,400 restaurants in 47 states. SONIC is part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants. For more information, visit SONICDriveIn.com and InspireBrands.com.
For people who want freshness, Grillo's is the pickle company that is changing the game. That's because Grillo's uses only clean, garden-fresh ingredients to make deliciously simple foods that deliver all the crunchy, tangy, satisfying flavor you've been searching for, with none of the junk. How do we do it? Our products are made cold, shipped cold and consumed cold. You get an incredible crunch and we never have to mess with artificial preservatives. In fact, the only thing traditional about us is our 100-year-old family recipe. The rest? It's fresh. Grillo's offers mouthwatering bites nationwide with their selection of spears, chips, wholes and Pickle de Gallo. For more information, visit GrillosPickles.com or contact grillos@autumncommunications.com.
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Forbes
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Forbes Vetted Forbes Vetted ratings are based on thorough evaluations by our editorial team to help you choose the best products with confidence. Quantity: (6, 12, 24) 12-ounce cans | Price: $13.99 and up | Tasting Notes: Citrus, light hops, light malt Also known as New England IPA, hazy IPAs are unfiltered, thus a cloudy appearance and a softer mouthfeel than traditional IPAs. Rather than a crispness, you get more of a smooth, almost creamy texture. Hazy IPAs are juicy and fruit-forward in flavor, with the malt nestling beneath the hops. I use all this time to describe the beer category generally because Athletic Brewing's Free Wave Hazy IPA embodies the beer type wonderfully well. It's golden and cloudy in color and has an aroma that's mildly sweet. It has what one tester described as 'almost like a grapefruit or citrus scent,' while another pointed out that it smelled more like fruit than hops. 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Quantity: (12) 12-ounce cans | Price: $30 and up | Tasting Notes: Sour, fruit-forward If you're looking to eat some bold, flavorful foods and you want a perfect counterbalance in a beverage, reach for Go Brewing's New School Sour Berry NA beer. One of our testers said of this pink-colored brew: 'This would be great for a warm summer night at a BBQ. I think the sour could nicely play off the sweetness of the BBQ.' I couldn't agree more. Made with water, barley, hops, yeast, and juice from blueberries and strawberries, it's a well balanced and tasty sour beer. The sourness is potent enough here that at first some people might even think this beer has turned rancid. Live with it for a second, let your tastebuds calm down, and then begin to notice that behind that sharp, tart leading edge are hops and malt to balance it out. Amazon Coors Edge Non-Alcoholic Brew Forbes Vetted Forbes Vetted ratings are based on thorough evaluations by our editorial team to help you choose the best products with confidence. Quantity: (5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30) 12-ounce bottles | Price: $11 and up | Tasting Notes: Mild hops, light sweetness There was little division among the Forbes Vetted tasting panel when it came to this brew. One Vetted staffer said of Coors Edge: 'This one is surprisingly refreshing. It has a sweet taste that's very, very light. It's not overpowering, and it's not too sickly sweet. It's very lovely.' She was shocked when she found out this wasn't the work of craft brew outfit, but a mega-brewery. Another praised the vivacious carbonation that led to an exciting mouthfeel. A 12-ounce serving of Coors Edge contains 41 calories, thus us highlighting it as a low calorie NA beer. There are many NA beers with many fewer calories, but this one truly tastes like a beer, not like a lightly-hopped seltzer water, making it our winner in the category. It has a good hop/malt balance and is quite refreshing. Plus, you can get this beer in a variety of size packs at Amazon, making it a great choice for stocking a party or gathering. The widely appealing Coors Edge Non-Alcoholic Brew won as best low-calorie non-alcoholic beer, and ... More as a bonus, it comes in a variety of size packs. Rebecca Isaacs for Forbes Low Calorie Runner-Up: Athletic Lite This has been one of my go-to lawnmower beers for years, so I was glad that some other panelists enjoyed it to, with one calling it 'bitter" ''real' beer tasting.' This is a 25-calorie NA brew that is as refreshing as Gatorade. Other Non-Alcoholic Beers We Tested These are the other brews we tried that just didn't make the cut as winners or as runners-up. They may still have fans elsewhere, so we included some tasting notes in case you want to check the mout. Athletic Brewing All Out Extra Dark (3.25/5 stars): This brew smells great with roasted chocolate notes, but most tasters found it a bit too bitter for the category. Athletic Brewing Wit's Peak Belgian Style White (3/5 stars): While this is a refreshing brew with a bit of citrus to it, the mouthfeel is too thin for a wheat beer; some found it watery. Best Day Brewing Hazy IPA (3/5 stars): While Best Day's Hazy IPA certainly looks right and smells good, it just doesn't have enough flavor compared to others we tried. Hedlum Grapefruit Love (3/5 stars): Grapefruit Love tastes more like a lemonade than a beer. It's not bad, but may not be a fit for what your palate will be expecting. Lagunitas IPNA (3.5/5 stars): This one was divisive. I personally love this brew, and think it fits the IPA category well, but many other tasters described it as medicinal and unpleasant. Partake Brewing Pils (2.75/5 stars): Ironically, this pilsner brew almost had too much flavor for many tasters, being more bitter than they felt suited a pilsner. Stella Artois 0.0 (3.25/5 stars): Another divisive brew, the feelings here were split between true beer flavor and bitterness without balance. Many did agree it tasted close to Stella once they knew the brewery, though. Untitled Art Grapefruit Radler (3/5 stars): This radler was so fruity that it tastes more like juice than beer. This is a brew some people will love, others will pour out. Woodland Farms Ruby Sour (3/5 stars): There's real fruit added to this beer, and you can tell upon sipping it. The tart finish will be welcomed by some, but others on our panel found it to be overpowering. How We Tested The Best Non-Alcoholic Beers Let's take a moment to fully acknowledge that taste is subjective: You may loathe a beer I love, and love a beer I'd prefer to never sip again. We enlisted a taste-test panel of several people to arrive our top picks for each category of NA beer. Here's how we tested: We conducted a blind taste with 26 brews to find the best non-alcoholic beers. Rebecca Isaacs for Forbes I considered a baseline of what an alcoholic beer should taste like, which is a balance of malt and hops tied together by yeast, and with a slight touch of heat from the alcohol (there are caveats based on category, as well as ingredients like added fruit). NA beers have extra work to do to tease flavor out of their grain bill, hops and yeast to compensate for the near total absence of alcohol. Tasters considered this while sampling beers. I established different categories of beer types to consider popular NA brews. These categories included IPA, hazy IPA, Pilsner, lager, stout, wheat, sour and low-calorie. I spoke to experts in the non-alcoholic beverage world to gain their insights into what makes the best non-alcoholic beers. I also sought suggestions of specific breweries and brews to include in our tests. I did extensive research on popular non-alcoholic breweries and identified which of their NA beers might best fit into each slot described above. I secured beers from at least three breweries that fit into each category and then gathered our panel. Each beer was served chilled to approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit in a clear cup labeled simply 1, 2 or 3—only I knew which beer was in which cup. The panelists spent over three hours sipping NA beers and leaving detailed notes on each tasting experience, cleansing palates in between tasting with crackers and water. I compiled all of the notes and ratings into one document and established winners (and in many cases runners-up) based on averaging ratings and on the praise or criticism of each beer. Why Trust Forbes Vetted The Forbes Vetted staff has extensive experience testing and reviewing the best non-alcoholic drinks, and we brought the same level of scrutiny to testing the best non-alcoholic beers as we do to all of our product evaluations. We spoke with three experts and pored over NA beer offerings to find 26 to test. Rebecca Isaacs for Forbes Forbes Vetted staff writer Steven John wrote this article. Not only has John worked as a journalist for more than 13 years, he is a hobbyist beer brewer, ran a (now defunct) beer review website for many years and has written scores of articles covering the food and beverage space. This article was edited by Anna Perling, the senior reviews editor with Forbes Vetted. Perling has years of experience testing the best non-alcoholic drinks. A team of Forbes Vetted staffers convened to conduct a blind taste test of nearly 30 different NA beers. They shared extensive notes and ratings for every brew they sipped. Prior to selecting which non-alcoholic beers to test, John spoke to several experts in the non-alcoholic beer space, including Matthew Campion, the co-founder of Lunchbox Brewing Company, Alison Morris Roslyn, a level three sommelier and the founder and CEO of Francey Not Fancy and Richard Simm, owner of Fonthill Brewing Co. As with any product category, we know new NA beers hit the market frequently and that breweries sometimes cease production of certain beers. We will update this article periodically to make sure it remains relevant. This version was last published in July 2025. How To Choose The Best Non-Alcoholic Beers There was one view expressed by every taste-testing panelist and every expert to whom I spoke for this story: The best non-alcoholic beers 'actually tastes like real beer,' says Roslyn. It's a simple sentiment, but it's a truth for this NA beverage category—especially now that so many delicious brews are available after decades during which only a few subpar NA beers were available. Here are the factors to consider when looking for the best non-alcoholic beers, across a range of categories. Consider factors like taste, aroma, style and more when choosing the best non-alcoholic beers for ... More you. Rebecca Isaacs for Forbes Appearance Assuming you enjoy your beers in a glass, the first sensory experience you will have with an NA beer is visual. Does the beer meet your expectations in terms of color, clarity and head retention? An NA stout should be dark and hold that foam. A hazy IPA should be cloudy, as should a non-alcoholic wheat beer. Pilsners and lagers should golden. A beer's appearance should match its category. Aroma You can tell a lot about a beer, non-alcoholic or regular, by its scent. Do you detect those wonderfully bitter hops in the aroma? Is there a citrus note? Or maybe pine forest? As with appearance, the aroma of an NA beer should match your expectations, with IPAs smelling hoppy, stouts smelling of chocolate, toast or coffee, and so on. Mouthfeel Mouthfeel, in the context of NA beer and alcoholic beer, too, refers to the physical sensations a beer creates in your mouth and on your tongue. That goes beyond just taste and aroma. It's the sensation of the carbonation, and the thick and creamy or light and smooth feel of the liquid. It's also how the finish lingers on your tongue and palate after each sip. Taste The way an NA beer tastes is what matters the most (given, of course, that taste depends on the drinker). That hazy IPA needs to be citrus fruit-forward, that IPA hoppy, that stout robust and toasty, and so forth. There's latitude in each style of beer as long as certain tasting note boxes are checked. The best NA beers will match the taste of a beer style even without alcohol. 'Not all beer styles translate equally well to NA,' says Campion. 'Alcohol contributes significantly to aroma, mouthfeel and flavor perception. Without it, certain styles often fall flat.' That certainly wasn't the case with our winners and runners-up. Beer Style As with regular beer, when choosing your favorite non-alcoholic beer, reach for the kind of brew you want to drink given the season, food pairing or the occasion. 'As NA alternatives have come along, there are a wide variety of NA equivalents to almost every style of beer,' says Simm. 'There are some great NA IPAs and darker beers which are becoming more popular.' Many beers will list suggested pairings or tasting notes; we've included these in our guide as well. What Are Some Suggestions For Non-Alcoholic Beer Food Pairings? Pale ales and IPAs 'pair well with grilled foods, tacos, spicy dishes and fried foods, where the bitterness helps cut through richness and elevate flavor,' says Campion. He adds that NA stouts and porters have a 'roasted malt character—think coffee, chocolate, dark toast' that adds body and complexity, creating a satisfying experience. He recommends enjoying these types of beers with 'BBQ, smoked meats or desserts like chocolate cake.' Which Is The Best Non-Alcoholic Beer? In our tests, Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA won as the best non-alcoholic IPA, while the Sam Adams Golden Lager took the prize for best non-alcoholic lager. We included picks for a range of categories as well as tasting notes so you can choose the best non-alcoholic beer for your palate, mood or meal. Why Has Non-Alcoholic Beer Gotten So Much Better? Non-alcoholic beer is now taken seriously as a category instead of being treated as an afterthought, which has helped improve NA beer offerings. 'Mass produced non-alcoholic beers often taste quite sweet, either because the lack of alcohol makes the taste of these residual sugars more prominent, or the addition of ingredients to improve mouthfeel,' says Simm. While some large breweries do offer good NA brews, often it's smaller craft breweries focused on non-alcoholic beers that truly nail each style.
Yahoo
2 days ago
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Trump's Fed visit: What to expect from FOMC next week
Consumers are cautious as some companies report mixed sales results amid ongoing economic uncertainty. CFRA Research chief investment strategist Sam Stovall and Yahoo Finance Senior Reporters Brooke DiPalma and Ines Ferré discuss what the latest earnings say about the market and the Federal Reserve's next moves. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Opening Bid here. ever seen that type of exchange between a Fed chair uh and a sitting president? Uh it just extraordinary stuff. And then what's the read through to markets if there's any? Well, no. I have never seen that kind of an exchange before. Uh so it certainly does make for interesting headlines. I'm not necessarily sure it's going to be affecting bottom lines because I think Fed chair Powell is going to stick with the timetable that is based upon the data. So when they meet next week, I think the outcome is likely to be that uh that they are happy with the trajectory of inflation, uh that the economy remains resilient along with employment trends that uh the trade agreements are coming through. Uh but they're not going to be cutting rates until they feel that they need to. And we think that will probably happen first in September and then again sometime in the fourth quarter. Sam, I mean the the Fed chair got embarrassed again now on a very public exchange. Um do you think I mean he's still human of course. But do you think this digs him in even more? I mean, how could he come out next week and cut rates? But then how could he also even signal that rate cuts may happen next year or even at the end of this year? Well, I think like I said, he's basically trying to block out uh outside interference and focus on the data. So we don't think that they're going to be cutting rates next week, but we would not be surprised if there were a bit more dovish statements acknowledgement of the two members who are encouraging a rate cut to take place at the July meeting. Um but we feel that the focus will be on the data uh because Powell's term does end uh in the first half of 2026. And as a result, I think he would like to go out looking good rather than simply responding to what others are requesting. And as I never thought I would see a Fed chair uh wearing a hard hat. Um I go back to when I first started, it was Alan Greenspan. I know for damn sure he would never be putting on a hard hat. Um but I think one thing to watch next week is in the Fed meeting is who dissents against pal? For sure. And look, can we say just awkward because it was an awkward scene? It was to the point almost ridiculous comical when you were watching them together there with those two hard hats because you could tell that Powell did not want to be there. He would have been anywhere else but next to Trump in that scene. But look, I think that this underscores two things. One of them, this highlights that the government is desperate. I mean, Trump is desperate for these interest rates to come down. Interest expenses are sky high and he wants those rates lower. The other one is, I think that there is a perception that Fed independence is eroding before our very own eyes because there seems to be a shadow fed emerging here. And this is signaling to the markets that the next person that is sitting in that in Jerome Powell's seat will do what Trump wants them to do or will do what the government wants him to do and it puts that person in an awkward situation. So whether or not even Powell sits out the rest of the term, which he's expected to, that is almost irrelevant because it's almost like you're watching this erosion of Federal Reserve independence. Well said and as Brook, uh you were running through the results out of Decker's. Uh Uggs, I believe up double digit sales, Hoka up double digit sales. And this is not If the economy was falling apart and in badly need of a rate cut, I don't think you get these results out of a out of a brand or a company. I really don't need a lot more of what they How many more pairs of Uggs do we need in our closet? How many more pairs of Uggs? I mean, I certainly I could have tons. I love wearing them. But but when you really hear this story, it's an ongoing environment of what we've seen over this past quarter really play out. The consumer needs to be convinced to buy. Now, keep in mind, here in domestic here in the US, we did see a same store sales decline of 2.8%. And they're really alluding that to this ongoing volatile environment. And this is largely what we've seen play out over the course of this past earnings week. We've heard from Chipotle cite an ongoing volatile consumer environment that led to their second consecutive quarter of sales decline. And so it's really this this lean into this idea that certain companies are winning in this environment and certain companies are not performing as well because they're not really catering to the company. Chipotle even saying that they lost their value proposition. On the other hand, Decker's saying that overseas, they saw their international sales rise. And so certainly they're able to lend themselves to this consumer that is willing to spend up if they're convinced to. 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