There’s nothing better than an ice cold beverage on a hot summer’s day. Well, maybe air conditioning but with the heat being more of a temporary thing in Poland, at times AC is hardly worth the trouble.
This summer season two of Poland’s lead beer manufacturers are offering completely new refreshments in the form of a Shandy or a Radler, both their own versions of mixing beer and lemonade to quench that summer thirst.
So which one’s better? Hard to tell really. Karolina did a blind taste test but couldn’t tell which one she preferred more. Their taste is both very similar and yet very much distinguishable at the same time. I think that Warka’s Radler is more lemonadish which is also more evident by looking at the structure of the liquid itself, it doesn’t resemble beer at all. Lech seems to taste a little sweeter, I think, and definitely looks more like beer.
Lech is also a little stronger with a 2.6% alcohol content per can to Warka’s 2.0%, but warka’s can is bigger in comparison; 500ml to Lech’s 420ml can. The price difference is also not a deal braker; only 0.20zl (~7 US Cents). So it all comes down to marketing and here the clear winner is Lech with a much cooler commercial featuring ‘Midnight City’ by M83. Cheers!
Lech Shandy commercial:
Warka Radler commercial:
The Polish Magician 
The Radlers I’ve had in Austria are a blend of beer and lemon juice (as opposed to lemonade). Amusingly, it’s marketed there as a “healthy” beer! The name is a part of that marketing, as it translates into English as “cyclist”. Funnily enough, I hear rumours that a major brewer is going to try to market it in the UK; it’ll have to be different to “shandy” to stand a chance of success, though the change of name will probably work in its favour as the term “shandy” here has acquired a different connotation of a sexual nature…
Wait, the term Shandy has a sexual meaning as well? I have got to do some research 🙂
It could be a purely Brit thing. The term you need to look for is “hand shandy” (which may give you a clue)…