Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

What is there to be surprised about? You like green apples and you like jalapenos. Together how could it be bad? Sure, it's strange. You get green apple, which is sour and sweet, and you've got jalapeno, which is spicy hot. Where it gets strange is that the tastes are close but not totally accurate.

The green apple doesn't take like a green apple or even what candy green apple tastes like. It tastes like a green apple Airhead where it's delicious but almost a green apple flavored soft plastic. The jalapeno is not jalapeno at all as much as it is the burn from a ginger beer. It's spicy so in the sense that peppers are hot, this is hot, but you know what? Lemons and bananas are the same color but taste different. A red car and a red apple are the same color but taste different. It seems a bit misleading but I will accept the argument of "hot is hot" and I can throw down my gloves and accept a truce.

This is good. If you had a ginger beer but replaced the ginger with a green apple Jolly Rancher, you'd be on the right track. It's got a nice burn after a childish, green apple flavor. I bet kids would like this more than adults for that reason. A spicy pop is great for adults but the candiness of it knocks it down to the kid-zone. Regardless of age, if you see this try it because it's totally different than any pop you've ever tried. Sure I broke it down pretty simply so you know what to expect but still, you aren't going to see it coming.

It's exciting when Village Beer Merchant updates their tap list and posts it to Facebook. Every time, I click "read more" and scroll down to the bottom to see if they have a new soda. Last week, it read "Apple Cinnamon Soda". It makes sense. It's a very winter-esque soda. I feel like it may be a little more appropriate during the fall, but I'm not picky.

It took a little bit of time but I finally made it over there today to get my growler filled with this delicious sounding soda. I have never had an apple cinnamon soda, and as far as I know neither has Mike or Jay. So this first sip was an adventure. I was expecting this to taste like apple cider with carbonation.

Was I right? Nope. It tastes like apple pie filling with extra cinnamon. Not classic mom made apple pie, more so the sugar filled ones you can get at any gas station for 99 cents. While it's not what I was expecting, I really like it. The cinnamon has a nice kick to it and is similar (but not as intense) as a good ginger burn. Village Beer Merchant/Flying Bison did it again, good job!

Ahh Germany: lovers of everything industrial and Hasselhoff. You have a soft side, too, and it's this lemonade. You make wonderful lemonade with orange in it and I feel like it's your attempt to look a bit tamer. You are known by the world as precise, perfectionists and although this is nothing less, it's lemonade with orange pop in it. It doesn't need to be so intense. You don't need to buckle down and hit the book, get out a micrometer, measure and calculate. You can kick up your shoes and enjoy a lightly flavored, carbonated, orange drink with a touch of lemonade. It's different than what you would be thinking because the flavors are a bit calmer than you would expect.

Germans, you're great. I would love to one day own a BMW. This pop is good and you did a good job. Congrats.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True raspberry soda love in all thy sons command.
With carbonated hearts we see cans rise,
The True North cold and delicious!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we drink the soda for thee.
God keep our soda glorious and free!
O Canada, we drink the soda for thee.
O Canada, we drink the soda for thee.

Translation: This blue raspberry soda is amazing, one of the best I've ever had. Other countries take note: Canada knows how to make delicious soda.

I just had one of those “everything I ever thought was truth is now a lie” moments. This is soda mousse aka Canadian cream soda. From the can I expected it to be red, like the Crush version of it. Instead it is clear like most cream sodas. There is nothing mind shattering there. That came when I saw that it was made with real grapes. Does cream soda normally have some sort of grape base that I have been completely ignorant of my whole life? I don't think that is does, and my tertiary search online came up with nothing. That leads me to a follow up question; why does this have grape juice in it? Until I noticed that it had grape juice in it I thought it tasted similarly to the Crush cream soda; fairly standard with a slight berry flavor to it. Now I'm second guessing that. It tastes weird to me knowing that there is grape juice involved. I feel like my taste buds are trying their hardest to search out a grape flavor. Do I actually taste it or am I imagining it? I can't say for sure, and there is no one around for me to have them try it. I can say I enjoy the pop. It's hard to go wrong with cream soda, especially one that is slightly unusual.

We're all in agreement that root beer (and it's like brethren) is the best soda out there, right? I could drink the stuff all day long. Sure I would feel like garbage, weigh a couple hundred pounds more and my teeth would fall out of my head as I talked, but I would have a happy palate doing it.

I hope it's safe to assume that we all also think that “normal” diet pop is grozzzzzz. Some people say you just have to get used to it. I say I could also get used to drinking glasses on vinegar on a daily bases, but I'm sure as hell not going to do that.

So here we are with a flavor that is amongst the best and a version that is amongst the worst. Traditionally when these two things are combined the diet overpowers the greatness of the root beer, and it just tastes like a diet soda. They all taste more similar than they do their individual flavors. Krisda stood up and said “No world, I will not accept that! I will create a diet root beer that actually tastes more like root beer than diet and the world will love me for it!” Apparently Krisda realized that the solution was just to raise the black licorice content of the soda. This tastes so much like the good version of licorice (not the black jelly bean version) that it's ridiculous. It's more licorice that root beer. I'll tell you what though. The combo of that and using stevia as a sweetener creates the best diet root beer I have ever tasted. For a second you can tell that it's diet, but then that licorice aftertaste kicks in and erases your zero calorie memories.

Generally when pop is blue you are in for one of two things: a cream soda based beverage, or something that is so overly sweetened that you can't believe it's still a liquid. When I took a sip of this and I didn't feel like my teeth were going to fall out from liquid candy, I awaited the cream aftertaste. It never came. I have to admit that I waited longer than I should have. I even took another sip and concentrated on trying to taste it. I got nothing. Capone has succeeded in beating the odds. They have created a blue soda that just tastes fruity. Well, it doesn't actually taste like raspberries. It actually kind of tastes like a Bahama Mamma Slush Puppie (aka my favorite). It tastes tropical in a berry sort of way. It's not something that I would want all the time, but this would be great on a hot summer day, too bad we're having our first snow storm of the year.

What I have in my hand is perhaps one of the most uniquely flavored drinks I have ever tasted. Let's start with the base of aloe shall we? Aloe the plant that is used to sooth burns is absolutely disgusting in its raw form. Seriously, just take it from me save yourself the taste of poison in your mouth. Just use it on burns caused by the sun or other. Processed aloe, or whatever they do to it to make it into a beverage is one of my favorite tasting drinks ever. So we have this vat of delicious aloe juice, what should we put in it? Oh how about the most refreshing of flavors of all time: the cucumber. Cucumber flavored drinks sounds ridiculous, that is until you try it and then you want it constantly. Every cucumber beverage I have tried tastes exactly like the vegetable, and as I said it's the peak of refreshment; move over lemonade. So we have some cucumber aloe juice now. Truth be told we could stop right here, but why not see how far we can take it? Why don't you throw some mint into the mix? Not enough to give it that toothpaste taste, but just enough to make it crisp. You know, so you don't really realize it's there until the aftertaste. To top it all off, why not pump some CO2 into it and give it some bubbles? Bam! Done! Perfect! It's crisp, it's refreshing and it ends on a nice cool note. It's a combination I have never tasted before. Why this company is not huge I have no idea. This is a base that other beverages should be modeled after.

I will be the first to admit that I am a complete snob when it comes to ginger ale/beer. When done properly it can be one of the finest beverages to ever grace your mouth. When done improperly it's just a bubbly sea of mediocrity (yet I've never tasted one that I would call bad). Due to this snobbery I tend to stay away from the “big names” of soda for this flavor. I get real annoyed, real fast when a ginger drink doesn't even have any real ginger in it. Luckily Canada Dry still uses ginger in their mix, so I decided to take it for a little test ride. Sure I've had it before, but it's been over five years, and in actuality it has probably been closer to ten. Seriously, since I had a real ginger beer I hardly ever go back to the light stuff, well except on flight. I always drink ginger ale and apple juice on planes for some reason.

With the exception of their choice of sweetener, Canada Dry makes a ginger ale the way it should be made. It's bubbly and crisp. You can taste the ginger in it, but it's not enough to have any sort of burn. This is a dry ginger ale after all. (For those of you not in the know, pale or dry in reference to a ginger drink means that it doesn't have any kick.) This is of higher quality than most big name sodas. I appreciate that they took a little bit of time with this one instead of just cranking out generic soda.

Yes, I am here as a guest of the Underhills. Mr Underhill said to just apply any charges I accrue to their account. With that being said I will be needing the largest yacht you have available, a whole mess of towels, some scuba gear, a barrel of peanut butter filler pretzels, a case of ball bearings, a couple of bottles of your finest root beer, a bloody mary a steak sandwich, and a steak sandwich. No you may not inquire what I need all of these items for. The Underhills had told me that this club was all about digression and the privacy of their guests. I certainly hope that they were not wrong.

Yes, I understand it may take a short bit of time to get all of those items together. I will be waiting down by the dock. Say, can I get one of those root beers and a steak sandwich while I wait?

Well twenty minutes sure was a long time for you to gather everything I needed. I will most certainly have a talk with the Underhills about the promptness of this club. I will say the root beer was quite delicious though, and those seagulls certainly seemed to enjoy the steak sandwich. I'm a vegetarian you know, so I don't put death into my mouth. Those birds though, they went crazy for it, so their compliments to the chef. About that root beer though, I saw that it was called Yacht Club, is that this clubs own brand? Oh no, it's a company that caters to all yachting aficionados? Oh it's actually made by Yachting Aficionados magazine? Who'd have known? Well my compliments to that rag for finally doing something right for once. I had expected a regular, run of the mill root beer, but what your crew is serving is top notch. I see that the ingredients list it as just “root beer flavor,” but you can really taste the high concentration of wintergreen and licorice without them being distracting. There's a nice hint of vanilla in there as well. I also see that it's made with Artesian water. You got lucky with that one friend. I solely drink water from Artesia. If water from anywhere else on this planet had passed over my lips you would be in for a world of hurt.

How about this? You help me load all of this stuff onto the yacht, go grab me another case of this brew and I won't mention any of these negative aspects of this little adventure to the Underhills. You wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a tongue lashing from that group, I can tell you that.

I found myself at P.F. Changs a few days ago. The food was mediocre, and the service was horrible. But this review isn't about how the waitress brought out our appetizer 1 minute before our meal or how she brought us the wrong check. Nope, this is about their homemade ginger beer.

How have I gone this long and not heard that P.F. Changs makes their own ginger beer? I blame myself for not being friends with people who frequent the establishment.

Unlike most ginger beer's I've had so far, this has a very strong lemon taste to it. Based on the description, it's mixed with lemon juice and you can definitely taste it. As far as the ginger goes, it's mild at first but has a nice sharp after taste. Another interesting/unique aspect of this ginger beer is that it was served with a mint leave in the glass. I couldn't really taste much mint, but maybe if I had submerged it in the glass it would have been more abundant.

P.F. Changs: bottle this ginger beer and you will sell a lot.

(Note: All my photos of the glass didn't come out so I opted for a photo I took of the menu listing).

Black cherry; the most goth of all fruits. You want to meet up with them? They sleep until noon, work at a bookstore that sells nothing but books on murder, cats, and unlicensed Robert Smith biographies, and go to clubs that are in locations you thought were closed down for a decade. They don't get along with people because they feel they are on the outside looking in. Looking in on all the squares, sellouts, poseurs, conformists, and zealots making fools of themselves on a day-to-day basis. Black cherry listens to Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and scoffs at your record collection regardless of how much you like it. Black cherry is one with the dark arts.

Recently, black cherry has put on a little weight and needs to slim down a bit. Torrid is fine and essential to black cherry but some things are stretching a bit and it's becoming a health issue that your mom is getting concerned about. So you add a little sucralose to the mix. It's alright. Sure, it "diet's" you up a little bit and makes you feel like you are trying to be one of those blonde bimbos that swarm the schools like bees to a hive. There is a big difference between anorexia and teenage obesity. You still taste good, like you are supposed to, but there's just you can just tell that you are trying to lose a little weight and use artificial sweeteners. It's fine. You are beautiful no matter what the "cool kids" say. Now head on over to your black Volkswagon Jetta, pop in that old Bauhaus record, and think about what sweet kick moves you are going to do at the club tonight in front of yourself in the mirrors.

Get yourself a quart of fresh red raspberries, put them in a cheese cloth (one with a small rip in it) and just smash the hell out of them. Gather the juice and the few chunks that found their way through the hole into a cup. Fill the cup up the rest of the way with bubbly water and mix in a bit of sugar. What you will have created is essentially what is in this bottle. It's strange how much it tastes like raspberries. I know it's supposed to taste like them, but normally any fruit flavored pop doesn't actually taste like the fruit, and if it does you usually have to concentrate to find the flavor. This tastes exactly like you're eating raspberries, and the little mushy chunks do nothing but help it.

This is the first time I have ever said this about a soda, but I think it could do with a little bit more sugar. There is something about it that is just the tiniest bit off from making it absolutely perfect. I think a bit more sugar would balance things out and give it the little boost it needs to stand tall at the top of the soda pop pyramid.

To paraphrase the popular children's song/game: “Bubble gum, bubble gum in a bottle, how many mouthfuls will you swallow?” The answer sadly is not many. I love bubble gum. When I was a kid I thought I was going to die when my dentist told me that I wouldn't be able to chew it anymore once I got braces put on. Guess what I did it anyways. I'm also a fan of bubble gum ice cream. My point being is that it is a wonderful flavor, but it just doesn't need to exist in soda form. Something about it is just all wrong. I doubt the makers of cola champagne were shooting to make a bubble gum flavored soda, but that's just what happened with the ingredients they used. This version by Rio Grande is worse than most. It tastes like someone rubbed a piece of gum into a pile of various spices.

I understand that this drink is very popular in the Puerto Rican culture. I guess that if it were something that you grew up with it probably wouldn't seem so bad. On the other hand, this is the same culture that embraced the undrinkable swill that is Malta Goya, so I have my suspicions about their tastes.

I have been duped. I walked into my local convenience store today and saw this 2 liter of Faygo in the cooler. While there were lots of flavors to choose from that we haven't reviewed yet, this one caught my eye because it has holiday packaging so I assumed it was a limited edition flavor. Limited edition flavors are what we love to find because: a. they are usually a weird flavor a company is trying out and b. they aren't around for a long time so it's best to review them ASAP.

When I saw this I immediately thought of Pepsi Spice. Sadly they stopped making Pepsi Spice before we started Thirsty Dudes, but it was basically Pepsi with nutmeg in it. They didn't have any small bottles of this St. Nick's Cola. I really didn't want a whole 2 liter, but I needed to try it in hopes it was like Pepsi Spice.

Boy was I disappointed when I tried it. It tastes exactly like the normal Faygo Cola. After a quick search and reading the bottle, it turns out Faygo makes "St. Nick" versions of some of their sodas and money from the sales goes to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. On one hand I'm sad this didn't taste like Pepsi Spice, but on the other I'm glad it's going to a good cause.

Lemon Lime: The illegitimate child of sodas. Everyone pretends to love it, but in reality it's normally the only soda left over after the family get together. I've never met a single person in my life that had lemon lime as a go to pop. Sure it mixes well with other drinks, alcoholic for some and for others such as myself it works well with cranberry juice, when out at bars. On it's own it's just a bland soda by nature. I mean how can it not when one of its key ingredients is lemon, the most meaningless of all fruit. Lemonade is amazing, but in all other forms I could do without the golden citrus king. I wonder if lime will forever feel cheated in this arrangement. A straight up lime soda aka a Lime Rickey is a thing of beauty. It's just too bad that on most days it's held back by its cousin the lime.

Now that I've expressed in detail the mediocrity of lemon lime pop, I will say that Jones has made a version that is better than most. It's no surprise that the reason for it's spender is that it tastes more of lime than lemon. The use of cane sugar helps a lot as well, but it's the lime that makes this pop worthwhile. If this is what this flavor of soda always tasted like, I feel like there wouldn't be anything left in the coolers at the end of the party and that everyone would finally come to accept and truly love this soda made out of wedlock

I don't think that I've eaten a grapefruit in well over two decades. I just remember them being super tart and/or bitter. I've had things that are grapefruit flavored with no additional sugar that are quite awful. People eat it with tons of sugar on top. If you have to put sugar on your fruit, you're defeating the point of fruit. "Nature's candy", right? Isn't that what they say? "Nature's candy." You don't add sugar to candy. You're not supposed to. If you do, you don't really understand how candy works. If you add it to fruit, you don't understand how fruit works.

This drink knows how grapefruit pop should work. It's not terribly sweet and not wildly punchy like a lot of other ones. Squirt is good, right, but it's really sweet. This drink is more grapefruit and less pop. It could be the real sugar versus the corn syrup, which can kind of wipe out a lot of flavors. It's got a good smell and is not as strong as, say, Ting, but it's still good. If this is how they do grapefruit on the islands, as their moniker of "Island Soda," then I might have to frequent these islands. Maybe get a coconut so that I can drink this pop out of. It's how they do it. I hate feeling like I'm not a local.

The rocky coasts of Maine are a wonderful place. It's blustery and the air is salty. There is no other place on this Earth (that I have visited) that makes you feel more like a sailor. When I'm there I constantly feel like I should be wearing waders and smoking a pipe, telling tales of Old Gregg.

While it is a wonderful place that makes me feel connected to the vastness of the sea, there is one thing that could not possibly grow there: oranges. I believe that is why this soda lacks a little something. The ingredients in here are carbonated pure water, organic cane juice and spices. There is no mention of fruit of any kind. I suppose ground up orange rind could be considered a spice, but to me that is not orange flavored.

To me this just has a general sweet soda taste with some flavoring in it that tastes more of orange holiday spice than and actual mandarin orange. It's also not consistent from sip to sip either. The bottle says settling is normal, and to roll it to help mix it up, but there is only so much rolling you can do with a carbonated drink, and I believe I reached that point without achieving consistency

In it's own way it's a decent drink. Just be advised to not go into it expecting a standard cheap orange soda, nor a carbonated orange juice. It is neither of these things, nor does it fall anywhere between them. It is its own entity, forged in the caverns of Maine. After you try it, tell me one thing: “What did it mean to you to drink that?”

Wait so did Somona leave the partnership with Williams, or is this beverage just an example of what you can make with the fancy appliances they sell in their stores? Oh neither, it's just the name of a city in California that is located close to where this fancy sparkling beverage is made? Well that's less exciting that knowing that I could pay way too much money to buy kitchen doodads that would allow me to make this drink in the privacy of my own home, but I'll let it slide due to the delectable nature of this juice. It is juice; don't be mistaken. It is simply a mixture of apple and blood orange juices that have had carbon dioxide added to it. There are no sweeteners in here mucking things up. It's pure and it is wonderful. I was hoping it would be pure blood orange juice, so the addition of apples is the only reason this didn't get top marks. It tastes better than 99% of the beverages you have ever drunk, but to be honest it is more apple than orange. The apple flavoring is like a roller coaster car slowly climbing the hill, and the blood orange hits you suddenly and quickly like rushing down that self same hill. Don't worry, there are no loopy loops on this ride to make you lose your lunch.

Dear Grandpa Lundquist,
I know we haven't seen each other in many, many years, but I needed to write you about something important. Despite being family, I think it's important that I am completely honest with you. I found a bottle of your "Christmas Soda" in the basement last night and drank it. Well, tried to drink it. Mom said it's called Julmust in Sweden and you used to trick her with it when she wanted a treat. I wish she had warned me before I took a big swig. If I knew it had barley and hops in it, I would have never taken it off the shelf. To quote a friend who I let try it, "it tastes like cough medicine, flat beer, and diet coke". While I've never tasted beer myself, I agree completely. My question to you is why would you make something so gross?

Thanks for the proverbial lump of coal.

Your disgusted grandson,
Derek