Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

To put the capstone on my trip to New York, I wanted to do it right. I wanted to give a big "thank you" to Brooklyn for its hospitality so I found the highly regarded Manhattan Special. After that Arizona that was the same thing, on paper, this didn't have a high bar to jump over.

There was a bit of time before we went to dinner and I knew I had to catch a flight early in the morning so I needed to drink it now or never. I popped the top on it, took a sip, and loved Brooklyn all over again.

The sweetened, canned coffee drinks that I love have now been carbonated. It's got a great coffee taste and is justly sweetened. It never at any point made me feel like I was going to lose a tooth. The carbonation was just a nice touch. I feel like carbonating it was just a nice touch, something to push it over the edge of greatness.

Brooklyn, I will miss you as I sit in this terminal awaiting my flight that is miraculously on time. Manhattan Special was a nice way to go out.

My stars. As you may or may not know, I am in Brooklyn. I have wanted to try Brooklyn Soda Works but it's not available in Buffalo and it's not really ship friendly. Well you can't duck me for long because I came to you and you can't escape your own home.

I went to a bar in the middle of the day filled with day drinking women with their kids and ordered a root beer. Upon delivery, I made my friend drink it first because it couldn't look more like beer. Honestly, it could and might play as beer's stunt double in Spike Lee films.

This root beer was fantastic. It was almost like a sarsaparilla because it was so sweet but every sip was a treat. It was a dark flavor that was just super bold and just a treat.

Now this isn't something that we would normally review but there are enough people in the Brooklyn/Manhattan area and enough distribution centers that people can enjoy this. Please, enjoy this. Please.

Back story time. There is a little beverage center here in Buffalo that sells little glass bottles of soda for like $.30 each. It's not mind blowing, but it's better than most “normal” pop. They usually came in Pop Shoppe bottles, so we thought that was what it was, until we discovered that it was actually made by a company called College Club from Rochester, NY. They just bought up reusable bottles from old companies who no longer used them. Later on we were on a trip to Canada and I came across some soda that was made by the real Pop Shoppe. In reality it wasn't much different than the Pop Shoppe stuff, but that means that it was still good. It came in glass bottles so that was a plus, even if it was about 5x more expensive (still only $1.50).

Now you're caught up to the time when my band was doing a Canadian weekend a little while back and I came across Pop Shoppe skinny cans in a grocery store. I bought a couple of four packs because they were on sale for $1.50 each. Sadly this Groovin' Grape did not measure up to their bottled sodas. It tastes like they were trying to go for a more actual grape taste than grape soda normally does. The problem is that they didn't get it quite right. There is no grape juice in this, and while I can taste where they were trying to go, they missed their mark. It's not horrible, but it's not great. I don't know if I would even call it good. It's just kind of there. I could drink it if it were served to me, but never would I purchase it again myself.

Dear Rubicon, I wanted to tell you that you've come a long way, but then I remembered that I actually loved the juices you sold in juice box form. I had expected them to be overly sweetened and watered down versions of the pure fruit, and while they did have extra sugar added to them, they were fairly spectacular. Any slight reservations I had about your juices have been thrown out the window by the addition of a few tiny bubbles. This actually tastes less sweet than the juice version, and I am fine with that. It's guava puree spiced up with a little sugar and some carbonated water. It tastes like real guavas, which makes it automatically better than 90% of the drinks in the world. Rubicon, you have proved yourself yet again and I can't wait to see what you have planned next.

Color me jealous that this is a Canadian drug stores' house brand. Why can't Walgreens, CVS or Rite Aid have products this good? I live right near a couple of stores and I would walk to them more often for a drink such as this. It's simply carbonated mineral water and juice. It's a mixture of grapefruit, grape, lemon and apple juices, but it really just tastes like someone juiced a grapefruit into some sparkling water. I'm assuming the apple juice is there to sweeten it up a tad, as while it is fairly bitter, it's not over the top face making bitter. It's great regardless, and I wish it were available in the States. Looks like I will be stocking up the next time I head up to Canada.

Every time I looked at this drink I saw snakes. Confused? Let me explain. Remember in Pee Wee's Big Adventure when the pet store is burning and Pee Wee keeps going in to save the pets, but each time he shivers as he passes the aquarium of snakes, because he knows that eventually he's going to have to reach in and save those snakes? Well this drink is like the contents of that aquarium.

Pears and I are not on the best of terms. When I was growing up the old lady who lived next door had two pear trees in her backyard that she never took care of. Come fall her backyard would be full of the stench of rotting pears that littered the lawn, which brought a bunch of bees and other bugs along with it. This eventually over spilled into my backyard. Bees and decay are not a fun combination. Ever since then I have this thing about pears that I can't shake. Even though we have absolutely loved every other flavor of the Sonoma Sparkler line it has taken me five months to finally drink this soda because of the cursed pear.

I was a fool. This sparkling juice is better than anyone could have ever expected. Yes, this would surprise even pear enthusiasts. The way the pears mix in with the apples is spectacular. They become a Ying and Yang of fruit juices. Neither overpowers the other. They just live in harmony. With no sweeteners added this is nothing but carbonation and juice, which makes it an unbeatable healthy force.

I have faced my fears. I came out with an armful of snakes and I didn't scream and pass out like that baby Pee Wee. In fact, I'm ready to head back in to save some more.

I'm in the process of dealing with what I can only describe as week-long carsickness that other people are telling me is vertigo. Whatever it is, it sucks and is unwelcome in my head. I've got constant spinning and slight nausea, which is enough to make me just sick enough in the head and stomach that my days totally suck. In order to combat this, I decided to recruit good old ginger ale to help me. Is it helping? No, unfortunately not.

For a ginger ale, this is as average as they come. "It's a mixer." you are wishing you could tell me but in reality, it's a drink all to itself and it is average. It's sweet and tastes like ginger ale. Ever since I've found ginger ale that has an essence of actual ginger, everything else is "just" ginger ale. Basic ginger ale is becoming increasingly difficult to review, as like orange juice, it really tastes the same.

I don't know what I'm going to do about this barrage of nausea, as it's exhausting. This ginger ale isn't helping. Sleep isn't helping. I might just have to taco it out. Honestly, it couldn't hurt at this point and sounds like the best treatment at this juncture.

Well I just find this amusing. Fresca in the US is a low calorie soda. While there are other flavors the “normal” or original flavor is grapefruit. That's not funny at all on it's own. What makes it interesting is that normally pop from Mexico is made with cane sugar, yet for this well known “diet” grapefruit soda they decided to sweeten their version with high fructose corn syrup. Way to take things in t'other direction.

It tastes just like a non-diet American Fresca would. It's a smooth grapefruit soda. That is slightly blended with orange and lemon. Those other fruits help to minimize the harshness of its contemporaries like Squirt. It's got a nice flavor and due to them being smart asses and using a different sweetener that isn't low calories, makes me have a bit of respect for them. That alone makes me give this a slightly higher rating.

Have you ever heard the Patton Oswalt bit he does about an open mic he hosted in Toronto? Well it is relevant to this review since the guy he talks about in the bit is named Dr. Pepper. You know what, do yourself a favor and listen to/watch the bit:



Sadly this can of Diet Dr. Pepper isn't as funny as that. It's not as bad as most diet sodas, but it's also not as good as most other varieties of Dr. Pepper. At least we got to hear a funny bit from Patton Oswalt right?

Al Capone. You and your cronies have done a wonderful thing here. You have broken the correct legs to get to this diet root beer. All of those threats, violin cases filled with Tommy guns, guitar cases filled with machine guns, briefcases filled with handguns have allowed you to create one of the best diet root beers I have ever had. The slight taste of diet in this is quickly smoothed over with a nice root beer taste complete with vanilla. This is better than some regular root beers I have had and that is saying a lot.

I trust that with this review, we will be in your good graces so when I pass your men on the street, which, if I may be so frank, are blatant since normally I don't see a gaggle of men in pinstriped suits, they will give me a nod and be on their way. I will leave you to your business of smuggling rum into places, underground fighting rings, and other general cahoots that you and your men perform. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. If I may be of any service, please let me know. Know in advance, I do have my limits. I might not be the best man for things like killing, poisoning, slashing tires, bomb installation, or anything in the "almost legal" category. If you want me to be a wheelman, I would love to do that, though.

Would you look at that face? That is the face of a child who just opened her birthday presents and she is not happy with the results. All she wanted was a classic blonde 1972 Fender Telecaster bass and instead what she got was a brand new knock off that looks like a toy. To add insult to injury it was also fretless…€¦ick. Well at least her parents got her a case of orange and cream soda. Orange cream is her favorite soda flavors and only the sweet, sweet flavor of creamsicle soda will right this evil that has been put upon her. What the hell is this? This one is certainly not her parent's fault. It's labeled orange and cream, but this doesn't taste the way she wants it to. Neither the orange, nor the vanilla cream tastes are right, and together they taste nothing like a melted creamsicle. It's like they took garbage generic orange pop and put in the smallest hint of vanilla that is just not pulling its weight. In fact it tastes more like a generic sweet soda flavor than anything. That's it. She's just turned two and this little girl already knows this is the worst birthday that has and will ever exist. She might as well burn the house down.

With a name like 'Royalty', I was expecting this to be a fancy ginger beer. Okay, maybe not THAT fancy since I got it for $1.30 at Spice Bazaar, but still. If ginger beer were as common as cola or root beer, I would call this a 'classic tasting ginger beer'. Mike and Jay will probably know what I mean since they are some of the few humans who have tasted around the same amount of ginger beer as I have. With that I'm saying that it has a good ginger taste, but a very minimal burn. While I prefer a good burn with ginger beer, this is still pretty tasty.

Vanilla, Licorice, Cinnamon, Clove, Spice, Pep, Pizzazz...Some root beers have these ingredients in them. They excel and are the ones that we, self-proclaimed professionals, enjoy the most. Root Beer is a dime a dozen, like a cola, but an exceptional one comes few and far between. We are always on the lookout for the next great drink. Most of the time we come up short. It's not a loss because we have to weed through stuff to get to the gems and we have found some in all categories of drink.

This one will be dumped in the "the rest" bucket. It tastes like root beer and nothing else. I know, if you are drinking a root beer you want it to taste like a root beer but who is happy with a C? Yeah, I passed, what more do you want from me? It might and probably is the "diet" of this drink that makes it just an average thing. The sucralose really takes a dump on the potential of this drink, figuratively speaking. Sucralose has no digestive system and still sucks without it.

Look. Everyone knows that one of my favorite pops is Hansen's Cherry Vanilla Cream. Hansen's owns Blue Sky. This is cherry vanilla cream and that is cherry vanilla cream. So why isn't this as good? I don't know. This is great. No doubt about it. It doesn't have as many calories, still has a great taste, and is actually pretty easy for me to find. I think that the one thing that is different is that this is less smooth, probably less cream or creme depending on where you live. French? Creme. American? Cream.

It's odd. They had it. It also seems strange that a subsidiary company would make such an iconic, specific drink as their parent, but they did. It's not far off and it's definitely not a failure, it's just not my baby.

When people make a blanket statement and call all soda "sugar water", I immediately want to cry out and tell them about all the amazing sodas I have had that are far from sugar water.

Then I had this soda, and understood what they meant. There is barely any raspberry flavor in this Windex looking soda. Liquid Jolly Ranchers at it's worst. I thought this was going to be a sweet treat for myself, but I was sadly disappointed.

This is one of those beverages that walks the line between a soda pop and sparkling juice. I really don't even know how I make the differentiation any more. I guess if there is no sweeteners added it is just sparkling juice by default. It could also be said that if it is sweetened with HFCS, or has an overabundance of sugar in it, it is classified as a soda. This has sugar added to it, but it's evaporated cane juice, and it falls under juice on the ingredients list. I'm just going to proclaim that it is both, as in the larger scheme of life it does not matter at all. What does matter is that it is delicious. Just this morning my girlfriend pulled out a container of blackberries that she had been hiding from me in the fridge. I can't blame her, when they are put in front of me I can't stop myself and I just keep eating them until they are gone. Case in point I think she ate 2 or 3 today and I ate the rest of them. I would say I was a glutton, but it's fruit, so does that even count as gluttonous? The important thing is I have the memory of the actual fruit fresh in my mind, and this drink is not far from it. The berries they used taste like they weren't completely ripe, but I know that is actually how a lot of people prefer their blackberries. It's just a little more tart than one would expect from a berry soda. That is helped by the low amount of sugar that is added to it. There are only 13g of sugar in this bottle and in the world of non-diet sodas that is like nothing. This is a beverage that tastes great that you don't have to feel guilty about drinking.

Look at Rubicon stepping up their line and their image. They have given the contents of their juice boxes with some carbonation and packaged them in these fancy little cans. Seriously it's the same juice, just carbonated and it's glorious. For those of us with dreams of passionfruit, mango and guava sodas that actually taste like juice and not some weird bastardization of it, the dream has become a reality. Sure this is pretty sweet, but so is the actual fruit, and it's pop now, so it's supposed to be sweet. Don't complain, just be grateful that they actually did things right and it tastes like you're eating fruit, and not like fake flavoring or seltzer.

I occasionally, well...more than occasionally get behind in my drinks and start "taking from the front." Anyone who has ever restocked shelves knows that is a no-no. Yogurt is expiring, milk is curdling, children are crying because of the results of my actions. Jay came over and set me straight by spending ten minutes in my back room, pulling out all my old stock, organizing my current back stock, stealing a couple drinks for himself, and being a generally great dude as per usual.

Among the old stock was this drink, which I had no idea I had. A chocolate cola: can you imagine? It's two great inventions in one bottle, ready for my drinking pleasure. Forgotten like it never happened. Poor, dusty bottle. I took everything Jay said needed to be reviewed due to companies sending it to us or expiration date to work and here we are, finally, after all these cold nights alone, together at last. Two objects, looking deep into each other's eyes, wanting each other. Desire. I took off the bottle's top lustfully only to be delivered with what I can only describe in the current context as "me doing most of the work." You feel me, ladies and gentlemen? It's not a great cola in itself. It's not a great chocolate taste in itself. Together cancels each other out more so leaving me looking to find pleasure elsewhere. It smells like a bowl of Tootsie Pops but it only tastes slightly like chocolate. The cola is non-existent.

While I'm not having actual sex with a bottle of pop, if it were good enough, I might at least think about it. This is a regrettable one night stand who is nice outside of the bedroom. She smells good, is a great person to talk to, but you should have never taken it further than that.

I decided I need/want to get into better shape. I'm not going to lie, I'm a chubby dude. I can only blame the beverages from this site so much (seeing as both the other 'dudes' have reviewed much more than me and still weigh much less than me). And no, this is not a "new years resolution" because I joined a gym 2 months before New Years. I just decided today to start getting serious about it.

I did yoga for the first time in a while today and I came to the conclusion that I need something better than pajamas to work out in. So after dinner today, Jenna and I went to Old Navy because I had a gift card from X-mas. I proceeded to purchase 2 different kinds of workout pants and a pair of mesh shorts to workout in.

Did you know Old Navy sells drinks? I've passed by the cooler several times but have never given it more than a half glance. Today they had a decent selection of Jones soda and I had never seen this one so I grabbed it without thinking on the way to the counter. I guess that's how they get you.

Like I expected, this is basically a cream soda with a strong vanilla taste. Even though I'm pretty used to diet soda fake sugars, this has a chemically aftertaste that I don't like. So close Jones, so close.

Here, if you have a cream soda, and I have a cream soda, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching? And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your cream soda... I... drink... your... cream soda!

Wait…€¦You've tricked me! That's not cream soda at all!!! You're bottle clearly says Schweppes Cream Soda, but it doesn't taste much like cream soda. Due to the brand and the slightly yellow color my mind was half expecting it to be a ginger ale cream soda. Now that would be an amazing drink, but that wasn't it. It tastes like Kola Champagne aka bubble gum, with a hint of cream. You have disappointed me twice friend, and I shall leave you now as to not to be confounded a third time.

I'm finished.