I know a Shirley Temple hates to see me coming.
When Paige Bueckers posted those words to her X account in July 2024, she invoked a swarm of millennial nostalgia. So much so that the Wings superstar is now synonymous with the kid-friendly mocktail made up of lemon-lime soda and grenadine garnished with maraschino cherries.
After a simple post, Bueckers became the unofficial—but also kind of official—spokesperson of the Shirley Temple. The Wings superstar has become synonymous with her favorite drink, so much so that Kylie Kelce brought the ingredients to Unrivaled’s stop in Philadelphia over the WNBA offseason so she could enjoy one with Bueckers postgame.
During Bueckers’s rookie season last year, Gatorade created a limited edition Shirley Temple flavor for her that was dubbed “Paige’s favorite flavor” right on the bottle, which the 2025 Rookie of the Year couldn’t stop smiling about. Since then, Bueckers’s Shirley Temple ambassadorship has only kicked up a notch. Gatorade made the flavor available to the public through an exclusive drop on its website that included a limited-edition bottle as well as co-branded merch with Nike with a new logo for Bueckers: two cherries with a “P” on one side and her No. 5 on the other.
Nike dropped a player exclusive of its G.T. Cut 4 shoe called the “Shirley Buckets” with the logo and a print that mimicked Bueckers’s favorite drink all around the sneaker. Endless memes, a new Gatorade flavor and an exclusive shoe all from an obsession over a childhood favorite. Never stop dreaming, kids.
Sports Illustrated was able to get our hands on one bottle of the exclusive Shirley Temple Gatorade and we couldn’t gatekeep the experience from you, our loyal reader.
Trying the limited Shirley Temple Gatorade inspired by Paige Bueckers
Gatorade released a capsule which included the limited-edition flavor on Aug. 6 and 13. Both drops quickly sold out. The flavor isn’t widely available (as of yet, at least) like your more traditional lemon lime or glacier freeze Gatorades. Currently on eBay, the cheapest buy it now option for one of the limited capsules—which gets you the limited flavor—is listed for $99.99. Considering most people wouldn’t drop a Benjamin Franklin just to try a new Gatorade flavor, we cracked our bottle for you.
Mine was serial numbered 5,530 out of 6,000—so if anyone tries to sell you that specific bottle, don’t buy it. (You can never be too careful with counterfeiters.) Gatorade’s Shirley Temple flavor is self described as “pomegranate, lime, cherry flavored with other natural flavors.” The reddish-pink hue hits the mark of an actual Shirley Temple and upon first taste, it hits the flavor notes proclaimed.
The carbonation/bubbles that make up a traditional Shirley Temple obviously aren’t there. If you’re looking for a normal Shirley Temple just go and get one. For a sports drink, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor and would work it into my normal Gatorade rotation should it become widely available. The tartness of the cherry and lime is cut by the pomegranate, which represents the soda aspect that’s missing from a non-soda beverage.
If I had to be extra picky, I could use a little more emphasis on the cherry. That’s coming from a cherry guy, though, who consumed way too many maraschino cherries as a child. I’d always ask the bartender to load up on the cherry garnish when I ordered a Shirley Temple back in the good ol’ days. That’s the beauty of Bueckers’s release—a good bit of nostalgia.
All in all, it’s a good Gatorade—7.8 out of 10 in my humble opinion. I still prefer my usual lemon lime or fruit punch, but I’d hope Gatorade works this into mass production. Anything Shirley Temple-inspired is worth a shot in my book, though. Bueckers is a certified ball knower, even when it comes to her taste in beverages.
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