OffLady,
I’ve not watched the creation of one of the Sonic Drinks…just consummed the results ! They toss in the Lime pieces after squeezing them and add some Lime juice and a cherry syrup, but add a couple of Marashino Cherries (more for decoration than flavor, I think). The Strawberry-Lemon adds lemon pieces as well as ‘smushed’ strawberries to the syrup flavors in the drink too. I am talking about the ‘ADES’ beverage. The Slushes are similar!

We had a ‘Hot Dog on a Stick’ Kiosk in the Mall near us in SoCal. We lived on the high desert there and those lemonades with real lemon in them were a tasty beverage for sure. We didn’t have the slush version available then. Also, I did not see the berry or cherry versions of the lemon back in the "old days" (the ’90’s!!)[;)]

Comparing the two "ades" is pretty ‘even’. I have yet to find a beverage that compares to the Sonic Slush format !