Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

To break up a 20 hour drive from the UK to Italy, we stopped in a town right outside of Dijon, France. I was one hungry little boy since the only vegetarian food I was able to find (that wasn't candy or chips) since we crossed into France was baguettes at a gas station. For the record they were warm and cost 60 cents each, in short they were wonderful, but I was starving. We finally got to our stop and hit up a grocery store. Let me tell you non-meat eaters/pseudo vegans of the world, when you can't read labels France is no place for our kind. Everything was meats and cheeses. I ended up getting a couple more baguettes and a handful of avocados for my day's meals. It some that may seem ridiculous, but it's actually what I eat a lot at home, so I was comfortable with my situation. While in the store I also picked up this bottle of soda on the cheap and I was very excited about it.

With this fancy bottle I really thought I was in for something special. Then I remembered that things just look fancier in Europe than they do back home in the US. It wasn't bad at all; it just didn't have that special pizzazz that I was hoping for. According to my traveling companions it tasted like a generic cola that they have back in Wales. I wish I remember what it was called, but the name escapes me. The thing is that even though it may be budget cola to them, it's made with beet sugar so it already has a leg up in my world. One would think that such a sweetener would give the cola an unusual flavor, but it tastes just like it was sweetened with cane sugar.

Had this been the first cola I had in France i probably would have enjoyed it immensely, but I had drunk a Coke earlier in our travels, and that blew the American version out of the water. A fountain Coke in Italy is better than most artisan sodas in the US. We're doing something wrong people.

There's nothing like spending a day at the beach and keeping cool with a nice tall glass of tanning oil. Wait…€¦No that is disgusting. Unfortunately that is how nearly all pina colada drinks smell/taste; A potentially great drink is ruined by olfactory association.

Lucky for everyone involved that this soda breaks free from that mold. This company is taking pina colada back for you, the common (wo)man. In fact, this may be the tastiest pina colada I have ever tasted (keep in mind I don't drink alcohol, so I've never had “the real thing.”). The flavor here is mostly pineapple, but the coconut smooths it out, and I do mean smoothed out. The coconut in here is almost like vanilla is in cream soda. It almost tastes like candy, but not in a “this tastes cheap, like candy” sort of way. It reminds me of those giant suckers you could get at amusement parks (specifically Crystal Beach) in the 80s/early 90s.

For a flavor that I don't normally get into, this really hit the spot on a nice hot day.

This smells like a showgirl's dressing room in a retirement home. Let me tell you that would not be a pleasant place to be if such a place in fact did exist. This beverage has the scent of far too much perfume and old ladies. It's horrible, but two be expected when two different flowers are mixed together. Luckily the flavor is infinitely better than the nose on this thing.

The elderflower is the stronger of the two flavors, but there is definitely some rose in the planning hijinks. It's right on the cusp of going overboard and taking things to far. It seems like it's going to just up and throw a pie in your face (that's what showgirls do, right?), but at the last minute it decides better of it, gets ashamed and hides in with the scenery. I'm pretty sure that it's the lemon juice in here that is the moral compass that the drink needs. It keeps everyone in line and brings the best out of all flavors involved.

This is one of those drinks that you are unsure of after a sip, but the more you drink it the more you learn to enjoy it's intricacies. Don't be put off by that smell. Think of all the wonderful things your grandmother did for you over the years, and then forgive the scent, and the unwrapped pocket candies and learn to love it like you love her.

I don't know why John is so moody. What does he have to complain about when he's created drinks such as that perfect raspberry ginger soda, and now this traditional ginger beer? Also, the guy lives in Scotland, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, and also the place where I have come the closest to losing my life. I know that John has something against me, so I thought that knowing how I nearly tumbled down a cliff side onto the jagged rocks below might bring a smile to his crabby face. Alas it did not. He's still complaining about everything. I don't know how to get him out of his slump. Then again if it's his disposition that caused him to create this fantastic ginger beer, maybe we should just let him be.

This is the smoothest ginger beer I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, and I've had quite a lot. Normally I prefer more of a burn to my ginger sodas, but there is something about this that just sits perfectly with me. It has enough of a burn to keep me happy, but at the same time it manages to be so damn smooth that 90's R&B songs should be written about it. John, you keep doing what you're doing, and I'll keep reaping the rewards of your unhappiness.

After I drank the Levi Roots' Mango N Pineapple soda I had some reservations about giving a different flavor a try. There are some pluses to the soda, I mean it does contain some actual juice, but then again there are artificial sweeteners that just ruin it all.

This appears to be the same soda, except with the apple juice mixed out for grapefruit. I'll tell you that the grapefruit is the real game changer. It really cuts through the flavor and helps mask most of the artificial sweetener flavor. With some sips you get more of a pineapple taste, but one thing that is constant is that the orange flavor is always just mellowing out in the background. It is the roots rock rhythm of this soda.

With the use of real sugar this could have been fantastic, but as much as you try to cover it up the taste of sucralose/acesulfame is going to be there in the undertaste. Did I make that word up? I'm going to start using it, because I like it and I think it should be a real word, if it isn't already.

At some point in your life you may find yourself on a ferry returning to England from France. It's a pleasant experience, even on the dreariest of days. Actually shouldn't life at sea be dreary anyways? That's how I always imagine it in books. If you ever find yourself in the situation I would recommend that you do the same thing I did, listen to The Cure and Joy Division on your headphones and just space out looking at the sea. I don't care if it's overly melodramatic; it was flat out enjoyable. In the moments when you come out of it why not enjoy a nice German soda? I myself chose a can of this Valensina.

Now, I can't read a word on this can, but I can read the language of flavor, and the book I'm reading it a real page-turner. This is a lemon-orange beverage that is somewhere between a soda pop and a sparkling water (although I do consider anything carbonated with added sugar to be a soda). Each of the two fruits are equally present in a battle for flavor supremacy. To tell you the truth I don't want either of them to win, because their struggle is so darn tasty. It's slightly tart and very flavorful. I don't know why we don't get this flavor combo back home, but I really wish we did.

Oh, and when you're ferry is approaching the dock, take advantage of the numerous gigantic seagulls that are hovering around. You can totally get them to eat out of your hand, if you are a turd who gets excited about things like that like I am. One of my traveling companions just wanted to feed them and then punch them as they grabbed the cracker. Now I'm against animal cruelty, but the visual of that in my head is over the top hilarious, and I hope the same visions are now in your mind grapes.

Orangina is a trickster. It is in fact the Loki of soft drinks. You think to yourself, this is just carbonated orange juice, so it's the healthier choice. You down an entire huge bottle and then that jokester comes out to point out that yes there is orange juice in here, but there is also a cubic butt-load of added sugar as well. It has the same amount of sugar as Coke, according to the internet. Deceit!

Even though I have been tricked before, I still jumped at a chance to buy an alternate flavor that we do not have back home in the States. Rouge! I believe this is the same formula with the boring regular orange juice swapped out for blood oranges. The results are astronomically better. It's the perfect midpoint between a normal orange and grapefruit. With that in mind think of this as mixing orange juice with Squirt. Tasty indeed.

For added effect you may notice that the orange on the label has a devil cap and tail. I love that. I also love that it's made with real sugar in France and not high fructose corn syrup. We have a lot to learn America.

While I know in reality this is not true, with all of my heart I want to believe that the huge contribution of the Jamaican/Caribbean culture in England came from the Clash going to record Give …€˜Em Enough Rope in Jamaica. I'd like to think that they got so hooked on the cuisine on their trip that they came back home and made it for everyone and it just caught on like wildfire. It's such a ridiculous notion that it's wonderful.

I unfortunately know this isn't true because the Ka soft drink company started in the 1960s, nearly 20 years before Mick, Joe, Topper and Paul make their trek. The company claims their drinks are based on original Jamaican soft drink recipes, but they are either liars, or they just did something wrong. I've had pineapple sodas from its country of inception and they are generally wonderful. This Ka pineapple soda is completely middle of the road. It tastes very generic. I wouldn't ever question it if it were store brand. It's perfectly fine for family parties, but I wouldn't drink it for my own pleasure. I will listen to the Clash's second masterpiece now and pretend I have a more fitting soda.

If you were a “cool” teenager in the 90`s you hung out in coffee shops. It was a different time, before the great Starbucks takeover when these locals were the homes of true weirdos. You couldn't just pop off in your local suburb; you had to go the often seedy artsy parts of town. I'm sure if I were to go back in time to 1996 and head to Topic coffee it wouldn't seem nearly as insane as it did to a 16 year old. It was dirty, dimly lit and it seemed like John Cale was always playing. It was filled with the kind of people I wanted to surround myself in, and I felt like I was finally home. There was one problem though; I didn't like coffee. I loved the culture of the place, but I just couldn't get into the drink of choice. Sure at Perkins and Dennys I would get it, but I would also add so much sugar that it could turn a walrus diabetic. I could tell that that would be frowned upon at this establishment, and you know I had to keep the cool air about me. I mean cut-off dress pants with combat boots and a painted army coat only took me so far. My solution was that I would occasionally order an iced coffee (it never seemed as harsh), but most ofhte time I would drink Afri Cola. It always seemed exotic to me with the name and weirdly shaped bottle. Topic was the only place that I had ever come across it during my short time on this planet and since it wasn't a standard Coke or Pepsi I felt that the patrons wouldn't look down on me for drinking it. In reality most of them were probably nodding off on heroin or some other opiate. Oh if my mother knew where her little boy spent her nights.

So now you have the back-story of my love affair with Afri Cola. Shortly after Topic moved, and it didn't have the same esthetic. Coffee culture started to rise and more cafes opened and eventually what I thought would be my savior closed down for good. With it went my supply of Afri Cola. Occasionally throughout the years I would stumble upon it in some small store in another city, but I never had a steady supply. You can understand my joy when I came cross a decent display of it in a grocery store in Frankfurt, Germany. I bought the biggest bottle I could find and it was like going home again. I went home to a hole in the wall that was home to all of the disenfranchised of Buffalo; the punks, the weirdos, the junkies, the transgendered and many more.

Afri Cola has a special taste in the cola world. It's not like Coke, Pepsi or the unimpressive store brands. It's clearly a cola but it doesn't fit into those molds, just like the patrons of Topic didn't fit into the molds of the normal world. If I had to compare it to another cola I would say that it was closest to RC Cola. Keep in mind it is no clone, it is it's own soda and I miss it dearly.

When Harry Nilsson sang about putting limes into coconut for a nice treat he had it all wrong. When he should have been singing is “You put the orange in the cola and you drink it all up.” That concoction is a true treat, albeit one with a learning curve. When I first tried Mezzo Mix I was not a fan, but after being fed a couple of bottles, I grew to love it. In America we are taught that the only fruit flavor that really mixes with cola is cherry (and to a lesser extent lemon and possibly lime). We have it all wrong. Cherry cola is fine and dandy, but orange cola is wonderful. Unfortunately this bottle didn't have as much orange flavor as I would have liked. I would describe it as a cola with hints of orange around the edges. I'm sure that is what most people like, but I would prefer a bolder orange flavor. The cola is also pretty middle of the road. I wouldn't give it a second thought if my citrus friend weren't involved. When I'm in Germany in the future I'll probably stick to Mezzo Mix, but I wouldn't turn one of these down if it was handed to me.

It's not like I'm ever going to turn down an apple when it's offered to me. You're reading the words of a man who has eaten apples until he was physically sick on several occasions, solely because he was hanging out in an apple orchard. I have no self control. The thing is that if the choice is given between a green, red or yellow apple, green is going to win out every time. It's a shame that when most companies make products that they deem to be green apple flavored they taste like sour, artificial garbage. Tango on the other hand does things right, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back in time to my first encounter with this wonderful soda.

The year was 2007 and I was touring Europe for the first time. We had just taken a ferry from France to England and we had played a show in Brighton. That night we stayed at some abandoned office building that some kids, and I mean a lot of kids, were squatting. The building was pretty run down and only a couple parts of it had weird makeshift electricity that I believe they were stealing from an adjacent building. The kids were nice enough and I accompanied them to a store so they could pick up some beer. As a non-drinker I was looking for something more kid friendly. I had still not given up my search for root beer or iced tea at this point, and my hopes were high when we entered the corner store. Of course there was no sign of what I was looking for, and since money was extremely tight, I bought a giant bottle of Tango, because it was under a pound and it would last me all night. I took some swigs from the bottle as we walked back to our home for the night and a wonderfully sweet, fruity flavor washed over my tongue. Over the next two hours I downed that whole bottle, and felt like garbage for it. I didn't regret it though as it was delicious. The soda was made with real apple juice and it tasted like actual fruit and not sour chemicals. It was like taking a teaspoon of sugar in your mouth and biting into a nice crisp Granny Smith. The night went long, and I was beverageless for most of it. I ended up hanging out in the building's break room, which was now the current denizen's kitchen most of the night. I always seem to end up hanging out in the kitchen of a party for some reason. The following morning I woke up and my saliva glands were just secreting apple flavor, which was fairly gross and concerning. I drank many more bottles of Tango on that trip, and I enjoyed every one, especially when I drank them in moderation and they weren't altering my chemical make up.

Not only is Tango a fine beverage, but it's also the best tasting apple soda with added sugar that I have ever drunk.

Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.
I bought this in Edinboro, Scotland at a little shop where I got vegan haggis. I ended up getting a water to accompany my meal, and slipped this can into my bag where it went forgotten for a couple of days.

Cut to a couple countries later and I reach in my bag for a granola bar and find this floating around at the bottom, still somehow fairly cold. I didn't expect much from this from the get go. I'm not a huge rhubarb fan, and the sodas I've had of that flavor were perfectly fine, but nothing exceptional. This though, this is a game changer. I've been kicking myself ever since I drank it that I didn't drink it with my haggis. I would have instantly bought several more cans for my travels.

I suppose I should tell you what this glorious liquid tasted like, but I'm afraid I won't be able to do it justice. The Cawston Press company bases all of their beverages on apple juice, and they do that very well. Without the addition of the rhubarb this would have been a nearly perfect sparkling apple juice. Sure they add some sugar, which I normally frown upon, but they made it work and taste natural. You add a little bit of rhubarb to that and the flavor just skyrockets. You would expect the rhubarb to be overpowering, but it sits perfectly in the mix. It's a match made in heaven that no one else has seemed to exploit yet.

I need to stop thinking about this because it's depressing me that I don't know if I'll ever be able to taste this again. Perhaps I'll book another tour with the sole reasoning of acquiring more of it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Step right up. Step right up! Do you love the sour citrus taste of limes? Does your body crave the brisk, refreshing taste of mint? Then do we have a product for you! We have created a soda with an extremely strong lime flavor and added just the right amount of mint to give it the perfect taste. I know what you're thinking, and you're right who wants the sensation of drinking soda while chewing gum at the same time? No one, that is who. We have carefully engineered this drink to perfection so that it has no similarity to imbibing post tooth brushing or while chewing gum.

When flavors commingle like this true magic occurs. Not only does it taste amazing but also it is also ridiculously refreshing. This is a nice take on a classic alcoholic beverage. Kids and adult teetotalers can now enjoy it at their leisure. All for the low, low price of one Euro. Where are you going to beat that on the streets of Italy, friends?

I know very little of Jamaica. I mean so little that it's a little embarrassing. When you compartmentalize an entire country into reggae music and spicy foods you feel a bit like a small minded. Then someone like Levi Roots comes around who's entire world seems to be comprised of those exact two things, and you start to think, …€˜Man, was I right?” Then you feel even worse, so you just sit back and drink your soda and try to shut off your brain.

Roots was raised in Jamaica where his grandmother taught him how to cook and the surrounding culture taught him about music. I'm not well versed in reggae music, so I don't know how good his contributions to it are, but they sound fine enough to me. I would be more than happy to try his cooking, but his soda just doesn't do anything for me.

This is just an overly sweet soda. If it were a more common flavor it would pass as generic store brand. Since it is mango and pineapple it stands out a bit more. 5% of the total is made up of pineapple, mango and apple juice. While it's a low percentage it's still more than most companies, so this should be better than it is. Unfortunately, the added artificial sweeteners ruin it for me. Perhaps if there was a higher percentage of juice it would mask the flavor of the sucralose, but the flavor is on the weak side and that fake grossness just cuts right through.

Let's go through the things I know about Scotland. I really like nearly every band I've heard from there, It's where the Loch Ness Monster resides, It's the home of the grossness that is Irn Bru. Haggis is served there. Glasgow is one hell of a drinking town that tends to get violent. They apparently deep fry everything. Scotland: The carnival of the United Kingdom. Okay that might not be an official term, but with the amount of deep friend food in that country, perhaps it should be.

So I like the music, but the food and beverages are not really up to my standards…€¦or so I thought. Everything I knew about Scottish cuisine came crashing down around me as soon as this John Crabbie soda touched my lips. I, my friends, have been converted. This is one of the single greatest beverages I have ever tasted. I knew a raspberry and ginger soda would be right up my alley, but I didn't expect it to be executed so perfectly.

Let's start with the magic. This says that it just has raspberry flavourings (note the U) in it, but they somehow perfected it and it tastes exactly like I'm jamming my pie hole full of fresh berries. JC and Co could have stopped right there and this would have been an amazing soda, but they are apparently famous for their ginger beer, so they decided to add a little bit of that root to this soda as well, which took it up to a level that will be hard to beat. At first I thought that the minimal burn was a let down, but then I realized that if it were more present it would distract the drinker for the wonderful raspberry taste. The way they did it everything sits perfectly in harmony.

I can't express to you how upset I was when I had finished this bottle and I realized that even though I had access to more, I shouldn't purchase it because there were so many other sodas I needed to review for this site. So thanks Thirsty Dudes for keeping me from what could have been my one true love in this world.

Welcome my friends to the botanical gardens, where we celebrate all things plant. Did you ever in your life think that you would see a banana tree growing in these climates? Of course you didn't silly boy, yet here it is at the botanical gardens. Everything you could possibly want to see that is a plant can be found here on the premises. No matter what the weather, what the season, you can pretend you are in the tropics or just upstate New York for a few moments as you gaze upon the plants.

We also have a little cafeteria area what serves only foodstuffs that we produce from plants on the premises. Okay that part is a lie, but we only have vegetarian foods available here. We also have a line of nice botanical sodas. Here try this Orchard Cola on for size. I guarantee it will not be what you expect, but it is nice in it's own little way. You see this botanical soda is not your father's cola, no sir. This is something new and unusual. Those of you expecting the briskness of a Coca Cola will be surprised by a mouthful of fruity soda with a cola aftertaste.

I understand at first that it is a bit off putting, but I assure you that the more you drink, the more you will enjoy it. I myself was not a fan at first. I actually proclaimed that it tasted like wine and cola mixed after imbibing my first sip. After I made it about a third of the way through the bottle I changed my tune though. I slowly became acclimated and started to truly enjoy it.

This is apple juice, carbonated water, plus botanical and malt extracts. It's a strange combination of ingredients that sort of go well together. I must confess that I do not love this drink, but I do think it is worth trying. Once you get used to the flavor it tastes like a fancy apple cola that is a bit heavy on the apple side of things. It doesn't taste floral like some would expect. The apple juice takes care of the botanical side of things.

Go ahead treat yourself to something that you will more than likely not experience in your life. Take your taste buds on an adventure. You may not fully appreciate where it takes you, but just enjoy the journey.

The United Kingdom doesn't even know how good they have it. The non-existence of high fructose corn syrup in their sodas is a treat that I could only dream of. This can of cola has 39p printed right on the can. That's a can of soda for 39 cents in the American world. We'd be lucky to find a generic brand at that price in a convenience store. In the UK you can pay that much for a product from a Scottish company that pre-dates Coca Cola. On top of that it is made with real sugar. It's just obscene in the best way possible.

I do admit that there is nothing spectacular about the soda. I mean from the taste of it it's clear why the company hasn't done many sales outside of the UK, and Coke is a worldwide phenomenon, but it's a perfectly decent cola. If this were an American cola I would probably lump it in with store brands, as it doesn't have the right bite to it, but the use of sugar makes it so much more enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure this was just overstock left over from Halloween, and that this is their normal cola in a seasonal can. I still enjoy the idea of a creepy cola though. Made by ghouls just for you.

The majority of the people in the world are probably completely unaware of this, but when bands from the US tour in Europe they are taken care of very, very well by the promoters/venues. I mean I'm sure bigger bands are treated this well wherever they go, but when you're in a small band that maybe two people in the city have actually heard of before you get a bit overwhelmed with what they do for you. The food, lodging and drinks are more than we could ever possibly deserve. Recently when I played Frankfurt Germany we were basically given free domain over the bar, and lucky for me that included a decent selection of German sodas. As a result I drank way more pop than I ever would normally and I felt like crap. I also apparently stored this bottle of cola away in our merch for later enjoyment because I simply couldn't handle any more bubbles/sugar.

I had completely forgotten about it until we were packing everything up to fly home and I found it in some leftover shirts. Keep in mind it's 7am and we're about to leave for the airport and my luggage is at the maximum weight, so I can't store it away. Never one to let a potentially great soda go to waste I cracked it open and started to drink. Let me be straight here, no one should ever be drinking soda at 7am. I don't care if you stayed up all night on some adventure; you find water or juice to satiate your thirst. That being said, if soda was the only thing available and you were in one of those famous drink or die situations that everyone finds themselves in bi-monthly, you could do a lot worse than Premium Cola.

This is a dark, bold cola. Normally when colas branch out from the typical flavor, they do so by going the herbal route, which I enjoy but it's very different than what you expect from cola. Premium didn't do that at all. They somehow took a general cola and made it taste dark. This is kind of like what birch beer is to root beer. You know it's in the same family, but it's just stronger and more flavorful.

The Germans know how to make a cola. Of course I immediately regretted drinking it (and eating chocolate croissants) at 7am, but hell my tour/vacation was coming to an end and why not try to enjoy the last of my beverages?

The UK has some crazy rest stops. I know there's one in Delaware here that is supposed to be all fancy, but the one where I purchased this was beyond anything I could ever anticipate in the states. There was a nice duck pond and a fancy restaurant. Heck even the cafeteria style section looked like a rich persons version of Old Country Buffet with everything being served to you by people in chef outfits. I can only imagine that they spoke French while doing so as I saw a multitude of people eating fancy croissants.

With all of the lavishness around me, and a cooler full of “artisanal sodas,” I thought this ginger beer would blow my socks off. I cracked open the bottle cap and prepared to enter the station at flavor town, all the while preparing myself for one hell of a burn. What I got was not what I wanted or expected at all. There was a decent ginger flavor, but the proper burn just wasn't there. There was something happening, but it wasn't what normally comes with a ginger beer. It was like the soda was trying to match it's ornate surroundings and just couldn't pull it off. This soda is a classic movie where a down and out character from the wrong side of the tracks gets a make over and tries to live like the other half. It never works out in the movies and it didn't work out for the soda. In the film everyone would end up accepting it for what it was, but you know what this is real life and I'm not going to accept an inferior soda just because it came clean to me.

I might have too high of a standard for ginger beer, but it's what I love and I will not accept anything less than greatness. The company also makes a “Cool Ginger Beer” that I can only assume tastes like ginger ale, that I would like to try. This would have been decent if it wasn't for the weirdness of the burn.

I'm feeling stressed. I need to calm down. There is too much going on. I've got to slow down and worry less. I have to stop being so critical. I have to take a breath. I have to breathe. Breathe. In and out. Do it. Do it again. In and out. Alright...I'm OK. I need a drink. What've we got here? Cream soda? That's as smooth as I want to be. Let's have at that.

Hmm. Not too bad. What is this? Oh. Honey cream. Cool. Take a sip here...I read that, right? Honey cream. Alright. Round two. Perhaps the cream of it all is overshadowing the honey because I can hardly taste it. It's good cream soda but it's not great honey cream soda. I wish that it were. Let's...yeah...let's go in for round three. Why not? I can do what I want in these fifteen minutes of pleasure I have for myself. Not a lot of honey going on at all. Good cream. Poor honey.

Welp, there goes my fifteen minutes. It comes and it goes every day like the blink of an eye. Back to work. Back to the grind. Back to my thirties being a blur of clichès and redundancies. Such is life I suppose.