Fruity and fizzy, the raspberry lime rickey is a popular New England summer drink. Learn its history, plus our favorite easy raspberry lime rickey recipe.
By Bethany Bourgault|Jul 01 2021|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
It’s fruity and fizzy with a signature hint of lime, perfect for cooling off in New England’s summer months. The uniquely New England Raspberry Lime Rickey recipe – raspberry syrup, seltzer, and lime – brings back nostalgic memories of childhood for so many who grew up in the Northeast region. But did you know that this popular soda shop staple got its start in the post-Civil War, Washington D.C bar circuit?
Raspberry Lime Rickey from the Oceanic Hotel on Star Island. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Colonel Joseph Rickey moved to Washington D.C to try his hand at lobbying after the Civil War. He considered himself a bit of an expert on the governmental affairs of the time, and enjoyed his friendships with politicians. He and his friends would meet up for drinks in D.C. bars so frequently that it was no surprise when Rickey’s signature order became popularly recognized. Bartenders and bar-goers alike began calling his choice beverage – bourbon or whiskey, seltzer water, lemon and a hearty chunk of ice – the “Joe Rickey” as early as the 1800s.
Legend holds that Rickey lamented his newfound fame, regretting that he would be remembered for the drink rather than his lengthy and robust career.
(Spoiler alert: he didn’t lament it for too long. Later in life, he bought the establishment that most popularized the beverage and made some sizable profits off this new investment.)
In the meantime, though, the “Joe Rickey” worked its way into the arsenal of almost every bartender in the area. Lime replaced the lemon, and the drink showed signs of spreading even further into the country. At least until prohibition made it illegal.
The “Joe Rickey” quickly found itself facing serious threat of extinction. People were no longer turning to bars, but to speakeasies and black market trading for their fix of spirits. The Rickey as everyone knew it just didn’t have a place anymore.
Just as the country was about to say farewell to the Rickey, it made something of an inadvertent comeback. People noticed that the mocktail version tasted just as “adult” as the cocktail version. (Many say the the lime helped it retain its signature bitter kick.) For years, the Lime Rickey served as a cultural stand-in for alcoholic beverages.
Prohibition, of course, didn’t last forever, but as other once-alcoholic beverages re-embraced their former forms, the rickey did not. People had become so accustomed to the mocktail rickey that rather than regaining its popularity in bars, it found more fans in soda shops and ice cream parlors. New Yorkers added cherry syrup to theirs, and we New Englanders added raspberry syrup to ours. The new version was sweet, tangy, and much “fancier” than regular soda. Soon the “Raspberry Lime Rickey” was all the rage in every jukebox-playing, soda-on-tap dining establishment in the northeast.
Nowadays, you might not see the Raspberry Lime Rickey on the menu as frequently as you used to, but when you do – it’s a treat. For anyone looking to make their childhood favorite at home, here’s a quick Raspberry Lime Rickey recipe below.
Do you remember the Raspberry Lime Rickey? Did you try the Raspberry Lime Rickey recipe? Let us know!
This post was first published in 2016 and has been updated.
I remember riding my bike to Dedham Square (in MA) to have one at Cole’s drug store. It was one of the last of the soda counters around. I looked forward to going up there and spending my allowance for one. Gosh I think this might have been very early 80s when I was allowed to ride that far. But you had to go when the courts were in session – otherwise it was PACKED with lawyers eating their lunch!
I remember going to the JJ Newberry soda fountain counter back in the early 60’s in Bellows Falls, VT and getting a Lime Rickey for .10 and you got to keep the tall green class it came in!
When I was in college we used to go to Brighams for sundaes. There was a drugstore on the corner and that was where I got raspberry lime Rickey’s.
Love them.
Same location that I had RLRs in the late 70s with my Mom. In the 60s we lived in Lynn and Mom used to take us to Brigham’s there as a treat for RLRs..Great memories…
I also remember the soda counter at Cole’s Drug S tore in Dedham MA! The one and only place that I recall having a Raspberry Lime Rickey on the menu. And bike was the favorite mode of transportation there in the 60’s as well.
I used to work in the soda fountain at Heffernan’s Drugstore in downtown Salem, MA when I was in high school in the 1960s. I made many, many lime rickies. Drank quite a few also.
No “downtown” (Worcester, MA) shopping trip was complete if my mother and I didn’t go to Walgreen’s on the corner of Main St. and Chatham St. for a Lime Ricky back in the 50’s and 60’s. I liked it “plain.” My mother loved the raspberry. Great memories. Great drink.
It all started for me at a place called the Sea Breeze at Dane Street Beach in Beverly Mass way back in the 50’s. Fast forward to British Columbia to the present time. Always have soda water, limes and raspberry syrup on hand for those hot days when we need a good thirst quencher. Turned hubby on to them too. A favorite for both of us.
Such fond memories of stopping at the Merlin Pharmacy on Warwick Avenue in Warwick, RI. The soda fountain counter was a great stop for a Lime Rickey while walking home from school, or riding our bikes there for that favorite refreshing drink. I think we paid 55 cents for it in the late 60’s.
I love me a great raspberry lime Ricky! In Boston, Sullivan’s at Castle Island and the Boston Ice Cream Factory serve THE BEST!!! The former is straight up and the latter is with vanilla ice cream. Awesome!
Simpson Spring Bottling Company in South Easton, MA which happens to be the oldest bottling company in the US, sells bottled Raspberry Lime Rickey soda. It’s too sweet for me so I dilute it with seltzer and lime juice. It’s very refreshing and taste like the ones I’d buy at Crescent Ridge Dairy in Sharon, MA
We always look forward to fair season in Connecticut and follow the Lime Rickey stand as it moves from fair to far starting in late summer into early fall.
I too remember walking home from School & stopping to get a Lime Rickey in Salem, MA at the same drugstore soda fountain place on Essex Street. We called it “Little Eaton’s. There was a bigger “Eaton’s” across from Riley Plaza!
Raspberry Lime Rickey at the Broadway on Water Street in Worcester, MA. I believe that it is still in business and still serving the wonderful Raspberry Lime Rickey. How can one forget such a cooling treat in the heat of the summer. Anyone else remember this restaurant!
years ago I worked in post office square in Boston and at lunch would have a lime rickey..then one day saw a girl had a pink one and discovered rasp. lime rickey and I am hooked..so good esp in summer.
I grew up in Quincy. My parents are from Southie and Dorchester and they introduced the Lime Rickey to us kiddos at a young age. I can’t remember a summer without the refreshing drink. Now I’m on the West Coast and mourn everything East Coast. There is something about drinking a Lime Rickey there back home that makes it taste so good.
Im high school I worked at the Liggett’s Rexall DrugStore at the Dedham Plaza in MA. I made many many raspberry lime rickys. It’s still my favorite summer thirst quencher!!
Worked at a soda fountain in Quincy (McGilvery’s) my senior year of high school (69/70) and made (and drank) many, many of these. My favorite. I’ve thought about them over the years and now will make my own these summer and let the memories flow back!
Grew up in Randolph, MA. Worked st South Shore National Bank, would walk across the street and get RLR’s for all of us in the hot afternoon summers. Haven’t had one since moving away to Georgia.
I grew up in Randolph, MA also and used to stop at Boyle’s Drugstore on my way home from high school for a Raspberry Lime Rickey. Loved that drink. Still my favorite but almost impossible to find. Have been living in CT for more than 40 years and recently discovered that a couple of local restaurants were serving something similar.
I was introduced to them by my late husband, and I have to admit that I’ve come up with a Raspberry Lime syrup that I have on hand always, and with my Soda Stream, I can have one any time I’d like. It’s really quite simple, pun intended! Make a simple syrup (equal parts liquid, usually water, but not necessarily, and sugar. That’s it!) but instead of the water use lime juice. I make my own raspberry juice ~ raspberries, about half the amount of sugar, and about cup of water per pound of fruit, and cook it until the fruit is fully broken down. Last step is to strain out the solids and seeds. Now you need to measure out how much of each syrup you need to make your perfect Ricky, and then mix the two in the same proportions. Voilá! Now you can have your very own Raspberry Lime Ricky whenever you’d like.
So many North Shore memories! We had them on the south shore of MA too. I remember most prominently begging to get one at the little cafe in Angelo’s Supermarket in Hanover, MA right next to the Hanover Mall. Speaking of….inside the mall they could be had from the cafeterias at Woolworths, inside Almy’s Department store, at Brigham’s Ice Cream, and maybe another spot or 2….
Rented a cottage to a woman in Marshfield and she only sold raspberry lime rickey’s at the Marshfield Fair, Near the race track, always a line at race time.
Polar Beverages in Worcester makes a Raspberry Lime soda, regular and 0 calorie (lo carbs too). I’m sitting here drinking one with a dash of lime juice added to wash down my pizza. I was a soda jerk on Harvard St in Brookline around ’64 ’65 but can’t remember if we made them there. At Harry Rakey’s in Egleston Sq and Goldberg’s drug store they had the RLR and it’s cousins the Lemon Lime Rickey.
I grew up in Athol Massachusetts, and remember and miss, the Lime Rickeys at Bellinger‘s on main street. Every Saturday in the early 70s my girlfriends and I would walk downtown and go have french fries and lime Ricky‘s at this beloved little restaurant. Missing both, the friendship of my girlfriends, and The wonderful fresh taste of those beloved lime Rickeys !!!! Thanks for the memory !
As a kid growing up in Milton MA, my mother and father would take us to East Milton and you could get a Raspberry Lime Rickey or a vanilla coke, known as grasshopper, at Sher’s Drug store soda fountain. This was back when you would get a paper liner in silver holder and watch the “soda jerk” pump coke syrup or raspberry syrup into the cup and add soda water to it. A real lime would be cut and a slice would be squeezed and then dropped into the Raspberry Lime Rickey.
Later in life, my husband and I would take our kids to Dairy Freeze in Quincy during the summer where they used to make Raspberry Line Rickey’s.
Our kids now give our grandkids Polar Cola Raspberry Lime Rickeys as a treat during heat waves…..so glad my parents didn’t make my brother and I wait for a heatwave.
Sage Allen department store cafeteria in Hartford,CT. When shopping on Saturdays . Could not wait to go to lunch and get Rasberry Lime Rickey. Miss them.
I loved the Raspberry Lime Rickeys at Eatons Drug Store in Salem. We moved to Swampscott when I turned five in 1950. My Florida born and raised children and grandchildren have no idea when I tell them about how great it was. It’s great that you included a recipe. Thank you.
Took my babysitting money from Saturday nights and went to Duffy’s drug store in Tiverton Rhode Island for my raspberry lime rickey on Sunday afternoon!
I grew up in Braintree and worked at the South Shore Plaza in the 80’s and I loved getting the Raspberry Lime Rickey at Brigham’s in the mall! I love that you have the recipe here.
Go to Nino’s deli in Kingston. It’s right across the street from Silver Lake High School. Best lime Rickey. Try the pizza and Italian food while you are there. You will thank me.
I remember riding my bike to Dedham Square (in MA) to have one at Cole’s drug store. It was one of the last of the soda counters around. I looked forward to going up there and spending my allowance for one. Gosh I think this might have been very early 80s when I was allowed to ride that far. But you had to go when the courts were in session – otherwise it was PACKED with lawyers eating their lunch!
OMG I know that place. Loved it there. Yeah many lawyers for sure….
I remember going to the JJ Newberry soda fountain counter back in the early 60’s in Bellows Falls, VT and getting a Lime Rickey for .10 and you got to keep the tall green class it came in!
Met my husband over a rasberry lime Rickey at a brighams ice cream shop in Wollaston ma in 1959. A great drink
When I was in college we used to go to Brighams for sundaes. There was a drugstore on the corner and that was where I got raspberry lime Rickey’s.
Love them.
Same location that I had RLRs in the late 70s with my Mom. In the 60s we lived in Lynn and Mom used to take us to Brigham’s there as a treat for RLRs..Great memories…
Oh my gosh! I went to brighams in the 70s too on boston st. In lynn.????
I also remember the soda counter at Cole’s Drug S tore in Dedham MA! The one and only place that I recall having a Raspberry Lime Rickey on the menu. And bike was the favorite mode of transportation there in the 60’s as well.
I used to work in the soda fountain at Heffernan’s Drugstore in downtown Salem, MA when I was in high school in the 1960s. I made many, many lime rickies. Drank quite a few also.
I remember Heffernans! Grew up in Peabody. Loved raspberry lime Rickey’s!
I worked at Heffernan’s in the early 70s! I made lots of those lime rickeys too!
No “downtown” (Worcester, MA) shopping trip was complete if my mother and I didn’t go to Walgreen’s on the corner of Main St. and Chatham St. for a Lime Ricky back in the 50’s and 60’s. I liked it “plain.” My mother loved the raspberry. Great memories. Great drink.
That is precisely the place I used to get my lime rickeys from. Wow over 50 years ago and then some.
I still get Raspberry Lime Rickeys at the Goldenrod(open summers) in York Beach, Maine
Rapberry Lime Rickeys can be found on the menu at Johnny’s Luncheonette in Newton Center!
It all started for me at a place called the Sea Breeze at Dane Street Beach in Beverly Mass way back in the 50’s. Fast forward to British Columbia to the present time. Always have soda water, limes and raspberry syrup on hand for those hot days when we need a good thirst quencher. Turned hubby on to them too. A favorite for both of us.
Such fond memories of stopping at the Merlin Pharmacy on Warwick Avenue in Warwick, RI. The soda fountain counter was a great stop for a Lime Rickey while walking home from school, or riding our bikes there for that favorite refreshing drink. I think we paid 55 cents for it in the late 60’s.
I love me a great raspberry lime Ricky! In Boston, Sullivan’s at Castle Island and the Boston Ice Cream Factory serve THE BEST!!! The former is straight up and the latter is with vanilla ice cream. Awesome!
Always order the Lime Rickey at The Goldenrod. So refreshing.
In the 50’s and 60’s, Joe Price’s Rexall in North Reading, had a great soda fountain that served a great Lime Rickey and Bushway’s Ice Cream too..
50’s, 60’s RLR at Stone’s pharmacy, Teele Square , Somerville. Mr. Stone, the pharmacist, would frequently make them for us at his soda fountain.
Best RLR at Eaton’s Drug Store on Essex St Salem Ma! Live in California now but can still taste them.
LGH
Simpson Spring Bottling Company in South Easton, MA which happens to be the oldest bottling company in the US, sells bottled Raspberry Lime Rickey soda. It’s too sweet for me so I dilute it with seltzer and lime juice. It’s very refreshing and taste like the ones I’d buy at Crescent Ridge Dairy in Sharon, MA
We always look forward to fair season in Connecticut and follow the Lime Rickey stand as it moves from fair to far starting in late summer into early fall.
I too remember walking home from School & stopping to get a Lime Rickey in Salem, MA at the same drugstore soda fountain place on Essex Street. We called it “Little Eaton’s. There was a bigger “Eaton’s” across from Riley Plaza!
Grew up in Maine, never heard of it.
Haven’t you been to the goldenrod?
Fond childhood memories of the treat of a Lime Rickey at Vernon Drug Soda Fountain counter in Webster, MA
Raspberry Lime Rickey at the Broadway on Water Street in Worcester, MA. I believe that it is still in business and still serving the wonderful Raspberry Lime Rickey. How can one forget such a cooling treat in the heat of the summer. Anyone else remember this restaurant!
I so remember drinking lime Ricky drinks in my youth back in Quincy Mass. Forgot what’s in them; would love the recipe!
years ago I worked in post office square in Boston and at lunch would have a lime rickey..then one day saw a girl had a pink one and discovered rasp. lime rickey and I am hooked..so good esp in summer.
I grew up in Quincy. My parents are from Southie and Dorchester and they introduced the Lime Rickey to us kiddos at a young age. I can’t remember a summer without the refreshing drink. Now I’m on the West Coast and mourn everything East Coast. There is something about drinking a Lime Rickey there back home that makes it taste so good.
Im high school I worked at the Liggett’s Rexall DrugStore at the Dedham Plaza in MA. I made many many raspberry lime rickys. It’s still my favorite summer thirst quencher!!
Tell me the recipe haha. I’m dying for one haha
Worked at a soda fountain in Quincy (McGilvery’s) my senior year of high school (69/70) and made (and drank) many, many of these. My favorite. I’ve thought about them over the years and now will make my own these summer and let the memories flow back!
Grew up in Randolph, MA. Worked st South Shore National Bank, would walk across the street and get RLR’s for all of us in the hot afternoon summers. Haven’t had one since moving away to Georgia.
I grew up in Randolph, MA also and used to stop at Boyle’s Drugstore on my way home from high school for a Raspberry Lime Rickey. Loved that drink. Still my favorite but almost impossible to find. Have been living in CT for more than 40 years and recently discovered that a couple of local restaurants were serving something similar.
I was introduced to them by my late husband, and I have to admit that I’ve come up with a Raspberry Lime syrup that I have on hand always, and with my Soda Stream, I can have one any time I’d like. It’s really quite simple, pun intended! Make a simple syrup (equal parts liquid, usually water, but not necessarily, and sugar. That’s it!) but instead of the water use lime juice. I make my own raspberry juice ~ raspberries, about half the amount of sugar, and about cup of water per pound of fruit, and cook it until the fruit is fully broken down. Last step is to strain out the solids and seeds. Now you need to measure out how much of each syrup you need to make your perfect Ricky, and then mix the two in the same proportions. Voilá! Now you can have your very own Raspberry Lime Ricky whenever you’d like.
So many North Shore memories! We had them on the south shore of MA too. I remember most prominently begging to get one at the little cafe in Angelo’s Supermarket in Hanover, MA right next to the Hanover Mall. Speaking of….inside the mall they could be had from the cafeterias at Woolworths, inside Almy’s Department store, at Brigham’s Ice Cream, and maybe another spot or 2….
My favorite Lime Rickey was from the soda fountain at Chaney’s Pharmacy in Brockton, MA.
Best Lime Rickey are at the Soda Fountain in Ocean Park Maine. Perfect for coming of the beach.
Rented a cottage to a woman in Marshfield and she only sold raspberry lime rickey’s at the Marshfield Fair, Near the race track, always a line at race time.
Polar Beverages in Worcester makes a Raspberry Lime soda, regular and 0 calorie (lo carbs too). I’m sitting here drinking one with a dash of lime juice added to wash down my pizza. I was a soda jerk on Harvard St in Brookline around ’64 ’65 but can’t remember if we made them there. At Harry Rakey’s in Egleston Sq and Goldberg’s drug store they had the RLR and it’s cousins the Lemon Lime Rickey.
Always got one at the candy shop on the Weirs Beach pier, Laconia NH
Loved lime Rickeys. Haven’t one forever. I think got them at the drugstore in Winthrop as well as many other good things! Also at Briggies
I grew up in Athol Massachusetts, and remember and miss, the Lime Rickeys at Bellinger‘s on main street. Every Saturday in the early 70s my girlfriends and I would walk downtown and go have french fries and lime Ricky‘s at this beloved little restaurant. Missing both, the friendship of my girlfriends, and The wonderful fresh taste of those beloved lime Rickeys !!!! Thanks for the memory !
As a kid growing up in Milton MA, my mother and father would take us to East Milton and you could get a Raspberry Lime Rickey or a vanilla coke, known as grasshopper, at Sher’s Drug store soda fountain. This was back when you would get a paper liner in silver holder and watch the “soda jerk” pump coke syrup or raspberry syrup into the cup and add soda water to it. A real lime would be cut and a slice would be squeezed and then dropped into the Raspberry Lime Rickey.
Later in life, my husband and I would take our kids to Dairy Freeze in Quincy during the summer where they used to make Raspberry Line Rickey’s.
Our kids now give our grandkids Polar Cola Raspberry Lime Rickeys as a treat during heat waves…..so glad my parents didn’t make my brother and I wait for a heatwave.
Sage Allen department store cafeteria in Hartford,CT. When shopping on Saturdays . Could not wait to go to lunch and get Rasberry Lime Rickey. Miss them.
I loved the Raspberry Lime Rickeys at Eatons Drug Store in Salem. We moved to Swampscott when I turned five in 1950. My Florida born and raised children and grandchildren have no idea when I tell them about how great it was. It’s great that you included a recipe. Thank you.
Took my babysitting money from Saturday nights and went to Duffy’s drug store in Tiverton Rhode Island for my raspberry lime rickey on Sunday afternoon!
I grew up in Braintree and worked at the South Shore Plaza in the 80’s and I loved getting the Raspberry Lime Rickey at Brigham’s in the mall! I love that you have the recipe here.
Go to Nino’s deli in Kingston. It’s right across the street from Silver Lake High School. Best lime Rickey. Try the pizza and Italian food while you are there. You will thank me.
My raspberry lime rickeys were served at the original Marshall’s soda fountain in North Beverly, MA in the late 50’s. Such a delicious treat!
This is the most Massachusetts thing I’ve everr read