Lemon & Paeroa, often shortened to L&P, is a sweet, lemon-flavoured soft drink manufactured in New Zealand.

It is considered Kiwiana,[1] and was traditionally made by combining lemon juice with naturally carbonated mineral water from the town of Paeroa.

[2] James Coote and Alexander Hogg, who were both from Paeroa, owned the land where the spring was located.

[2] In August 1887 they subdivided the property, transferring the plot with the spring (13 acres) to Sir John Logan Campbell.

[2] Wohlman believed that due to the colony's widespread consumption of tea, demand for the spring's water would be limited.

[12] In 1916 Grey & Menzies advertised their "new idea" of bottled Paeroa mineral water with added lemon.

[15] In 1969 Lemon & Paeroa won the British Bottlers' Institute Diploma of Excellence Award, the only non-British company to do so.

[2][16] Innes Tartan and Schweppes was acquired by Oasis Industries in the late 1970s,[2][5] who were later bought by Coca Cola in 1989.

[17] In the 1970s the Paeroa factory was upgraded, increasing the floor space to 1,115 square metres (12,000 sq ft).

[19][2] In 1995 a complaint was made under the Fair Trading Act to the Commerce Commission, stating that as the water used in the drink now comes from Auckland rather than the Paeroa spring, it should renamed to Lemon & Panmure (Panmure is the current location of the water supply), or production moved back to Paeroa.

After advertising marking the rebrand, the new branding was rolled out three months later in stores so that people would recognise the new bottle designs.

[22] In 2012 the branding was redesigned by Dow Design with the intention of making it look more up to date and in line with the younger generation.

Critics including Hauraki District Mayor Toby Adams have mentioned that because the brown bottle is iconic, people may have a hard time supporting the change.

[24] In October 2016 Lemon & Paeroa launched a limited edition Chilli & Lime flavour with stereotypical Mexican branding.

To introduce this flavour an unscripted "L&P Live" show was created, which was set in a dairy and hosted by comedians Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery.

[24] There have been multiple L&P fusion foods, such as a Whittaker's chocolate in 2013,[29] Griffin's L&P biscuit around 2017,[30] L&P Fruju in the summer of 2017,[31] and a Pineapple lumps-flavoured drink for three months in 2020.

[32][33] In 2019 Lemon & Paeroa created a limited edition set of bottles which were 70 cm (28 in) tall.

[2] It began in 1967 as a replica rocket in the centre of town for a Christmas promotion of Paeroa, which was taken down after the summer.

[40] Chief executive of the council, Langley Cavers, ordered that Whittaker's pay for damage of the crash.

[45] An instrumental piece written for a Lemon & Paeroa advertisement won the writer, Mike Harvey, the Clio Award in 1978 for the best musical soundtrack in a commercial.

[22] The campaign mocked cringeworthy parts of the recent past,[50] featuring 1970s and 1980s imagery such as stubbies, speedos, and the phrase "bring back the mullet".

It featured friends and family playing cricket using unconventional gear, such as beer crates as wickets and tennis balls for bowling.

The campaign creative said that the goal of the advertisements was to align Lemon & Paeroa with New Zealand pastimes, and that "backyard cricket is something every Kiwi can relate to".

It was named "On the lamb", where sheep drank Lemon & Paeroa, escaped the paddock, and then participated in iconic small town New Zealand pastimes such as playing arcade games, visiting the local Four Square, and having a swim at the beach, before returning back to a Māori farmer.

[55][56] In 2023 Lemon & Paeroa started Manu Applied Sciences Aotearoa (MASA) which had a logo with similar appearance to the one of NASA.

The advertising campaign where the phrase was used would playfully mock aspects of Paeroa, such as by saying "it ain't famous for its [surf, Hollywood mansions, harbour bridge]".

[50][clarification needed] In a hearing in December 2009, Brian Jones, assistant commissioner of trademarks, said that L&P had used the phrase since 1993, and later decided in favour of Coca Cola.