Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

If the labels on can and bottles are any indication everyone in Jamaica ingests nothing but ginger beer all day long. Okay, sometimes they mix in a little pineapple pop, but other than that straight ginger beer. I think that is a place I would like to visit. You wake up in the morning turn on the tap and out flows ginger beer. Even the “water” in the toilets is actually ginger beer. It's heaven for those who crave the burn. For those who are babies and can't handle the spice it's akin to the lake of fire in Hades.

I find it humorous that I bought this drink in Canada by way of the United Kingdom. It's like playing Seven Degrees of Jamaica. I was up in Toronto with Night Birds, and I was the definition of a glutton. I don't think I stopped consuming food and beverages from the moment I stepped out of the car until I was driving back to Buffalo. At the point when I saw this I was already ridiculously full and had to pee like nobodies business, which is terrible in a city with no bathrooms. I'm shocked that Toronto doesn't ever really smell like urine. Good job guys. Anyway there I was walking around and I passed a candy shop that had a bunch of coolers inside. I really didn't have a chance but to enter. One of the coolers was pretty much all British drinks. Unfortunately I was almost out of Canadian money and I needed to save some for veggie dogs on the way home. Ever the sucker for ginger beer I went with this can. Sure I could have just held on to it, but the gluttony was calling my name, so I cracked it open the moment I finished off my bubble tea. It smells very spicy, but I thought it had a medium burn. I let (read: made) my friend Dave Dluga try it and he said it burned the hell out of his mouth. I guess I've built up a tolerance. It was extremely flavorful with a bit of a kick. It was actually a nice blending of burn and flavor. If I ever find myself back in the UK I'll be sure to drink a bunch of these, especially with a 49p price tag on it. I ended up paying $2.25 Canadian. Ouch.

You know how in Canada they use a sound frequency that only young people can hear to keep kids from congregating in certain areas (at least I think it's Canada)? Well I think a similar thing goes on with Mountain Dew. When I was a teenager my friends and I loved it, but now that I'm older I takes some effort to choke down a bottle. I think there is something in the flavor that is only enjoyable to those under the age of 21. Perhaps it's a conspiracy. Or perhaps the Mountain Dew company made a deal with the devil in order to make kids crave their product. If so, I think they found a loophole in their contract with the Dark Lord and started producing other flavors. I know tons of adults that love the flavored Dew, but hardly any that like the original anymore.

Personally Voltage is the only flavor I am really a fan of, but I really love it. I actually started drinking far too much of it a few years ago, and I had to start limiting my intake. It tastes like a raspberry flavored energy drink, minus the chemical garbage that is found in actual energy drinks. If you are weary of trying the other flavors of Mountain Dew because you think the original is garbage, put your prejudice on hold and give this a try. It's candy like in the best possible way.

There is something about sodas from Mexico. All of the fruit flavored pop I've ever tried from that southern nation all have a similar taste to them. I don't really know what it is, but it is not present in other fruit flavored pops I've had. It's this certain sweetness that I just can't put into words. If you've tries Barrilitos, Jarritos or Goya you may know what I speak of.

So this has that specific Mexican sweetness, but it also has a fake tangerine flavor. This is to tangerines what Crush is to oranges. They don't really taste like the fruit, but we like them anyways. If tangerine sodas were in the everyday spectrum of sodas in your grocery store, this wouldn't stand out at all, but since it's rare that you get to taste a pop of this flavor I am a fan of it.

I would also like to state that I am proud of myself for not being a glutton. In the past I would have downed this 24oz bottle of soda in 10-15 minutes. It's now 5 hours later and I still have half a bottle. It's the little things, you know?

If Fosters is Australian for Beer, then Bundaberg is Australian for soda. Before this all I had tried was their ginger beer, but it was one of the best I have ever tasted. When we got a bottle shipped to us, it really knocked my socks off. Truth be told I really thought the company only made the one flavor until our friend Terry brought us back a bottle of guava soda and this bottle of burgundee creaming soda. I wasn't exactly sure what this was going to be but my money was on red cream soda. I was partly right. It is a cream soda style beverage that is reddish in color, but it wasn't quite like the Canadian red cream soda I was used to. A quick look at the ingredients list showed me that this was actually red grape cream soda (made with actual grape juice). I would have never have thought to mix grape juice and cream soda, but what do I know I'm from Western New York. Apparently in Australia it is a traditional drink. As soon as I read the ingredients I could pick out the grape in the flavor that I originally thought was some sort of berry. It really is a spectacular drink. I drank about half of the bottle while Mike and I were hanging out earlier, and thanks to the twist cap, I was able to save the rest for later. I must say it somehow tasted even better when I went back for seconds.

With a drink this good I can only imagine that kangaroos carry them around in their pouches and the only way to get one is to box it for a bottle. Watch out, or you may find yourself disemboweled. No one likes to be disemboweled, just like no one in Australia wants to be solely associated with kangaroos. Don't worry folks, from here on out whenever I hear the word Australia I will instantly think of your fantastic sodas.

Do you love the taste of ginger beer, but have the sensitivity of an infant when it comes to the burn of it? If you answered yes to the above question than this ginger ale is for you. When you open it open it has the strong aroma of a quality ginger beer. I thought I was in for a treat, and that they “mislabeled” it ginger ale. I was still uncertain when I took a swig and the flavor equaled that of ginger beer as well, but was confused by the lack of the burn. From the scent and taste this should have been a 4 out of 5 on the burn-o-meter. Instead it's fairly smooth (well as far as ginger ales go). It's strange. For someone like myself who drinks ginger beer for the burn, it's a let down, but for those like my ladyfriend who can't handle the burn it's a nice little treat. I would say this is what pale ginger ale should taste like, not what you would normally associate it with.

Here in the dungeon we make one thing and that is root beer. No cola or grape or pineapple pop, just root beer. We do it in the dungeon down underground because the humidity is just right. Unfortunately we don't get the best products to make our root beer so it tastes a bit basic but it's not bad. It's just something we have the prisoners do when they are waiting to be set free. They like it, too because it's a fun process that bides their time while they are serving it. Get it? They serve their time while serving root beer. That doesn't sound that bad to me but I'm happy that I get to see the sun every once in a while.

One time, we got the wrong shipment and they sent us cream soda by mistake. We don't get a lot of shipments so we had to make due with what we had. Ever since then, we have had root beer that tastes a little like cream soda. The dungeon masters seem to like it a lot, which is good because the more they like you, the sooner you will get out.

It's not all torture and starvation down here. Sometimes we make root beer and have a good time. Next time you drink Big Shot root beer, think of the fun a prisoner had while making it.

It's well known that many people out there are straight up coffee addicts. Perhaps it started like it was in the olden days with a mug for breakfast. Then it grew to a mug or two at the office. Now those same people drink it all day, everyday. I am amazed that people can do this can still fall asleep at night with no problems. It boggles (bottles) the mind.

So yes, people love their coffee. In the winter it's not a problem because it helps to warm them up and keep them moving. On days like today when it's a broiler out the last thing I would want to do it drink a nice hot mug of coffee. Sure you can go to a coffee shop and get a fancy iced coffee of some sort, but does iced coffee fit at a backyard bbq? I think not. Simpson Spring has the solution to this problem. They have created a coffee soda that is pretty insane. When you twist off that cap it smells like a bag of coffee grounds, which is one of the best smells ever. The taste is also surprisingly good. It tastes like someone somehow brewed coffee with carbonated water and then added a bit of sugar to it. It was refreshing, yet it still filled the need some of the people I was with had for their 4PM mug. The flavor is definitely more coffee than soda, but it's still carbonated. It basically tastes exactly like you would want it to. I'm not a huge coffee fan myself, but I really liked it and those of me that dig on the bean absolutely loved it. I'd say it's a fairly perfect drink.

Okay, this is an all-natural drink, with no sugar added, yet it still kind of tastes like that fake candy green apple flavor. I don't get it, there is nothing in here that should give it that taste. It's a mixture of apple, white grape and acerola juices. Could it be that there is a variety of green apple that actually tastes this way that I'm just not aware of? I'm from an area where there are apple orchards all over and I've never tasted such a thing. The green apples that I've had are actually my favorite type of apple.

Actually…€¦.

The more I drink of this, the less candy-like it actually tastes and the more I feel like I'm eating one of my tasty green apples. Now I'm done with the can and I could certainly enjoy another instantly. It's juice and sparkling water combined in a wonderful way without the need for sugar. Thanks Izze.

One of the many things that I love about Canada is that their cream soda is red. I don't know if it was a ruling made by Parliament (speaking of which, why is their a unicorn sticking it's tongue out on the front of their Parliament building?) or if it was just a coincidence. Either way I love it. It has a very average cream soda flavor (you know subtly vanilla) mixed with a little bit of berry. The extra flavor does nothing but enhance the cream soda. This tastes very similar to the Crush soda mousse.

I have no idea why I found this Canadian made soda at a Big Lots in Western Pennsylvania, but who am I to question the universe? I'm simply a man who enjoys the beverages from the country to the north of him.

At that point in your life when you inevitably find yourself lost in the desert, don't fret. You may not know it but refreshment is but a plant away. If you crack an “arm off of a cactus soda will pour out. I don't know why no one who has been lost has ever realized it before. They must all be a bunch of dummies.

In all seriousness when I first saw this soda I was praying that it was sweetened with agave, which is a desert plant that I thought was a cactus, but apparently it's not. Once I learned that it was no shock that it wasn't made with agave. It was made with HFCS. No biggie. It is still orange pineapple flavored, and that has to be good right? Wrong! This is a fairly gross soda that tastes nothing like actual oranges or pineapple. I actually am having a hard time saying that it tastes like the fake candy version of either of those fruits. It tastes like generic sugar water with some vague citrus element to it. I honestly think I might rather suck on a cactus than drink this.

Honey, I'm sorry that I'm too sick to go to the fair tonight. I don't know where this headache and dizziness came from. I know how badly you wanted to ride the merry-go-round and the Ferris Wheel. We can go tomorrow but for now I've got to rest. I did get you something just in case a scenario just like this would occur. I bought you some cotton candy pop. I saw it and had to get it for you because I know you love it so much. What's not to love, though? It's so much fun to eat. It's so big and then you put it in your mouth and it almost disappears.

Here you go buddy. What do you think? It certainly smells good. It's sweet? How sweet? Too sweet? How is the flavor? May I have a sip, buddy? Thanks. Ooofff. You're right. It is sweet. Uhhh. The flavor isn't bad. It's certainly cotton candy-esque. This is great if you are in a city that...say...forbids carnivals, lawn fetes, or fairs. You have a couple ounces of summer fun right there.

Buddy, tomorrow we will go and pet all the llamas, drink all the sweet tea, play all the "I Got It", and eat some hot dogs. I promise. For now, let daddy just sit here and listen to the soothing sounds of Sade.

The Caruros are a family that means business, just look at that photo. The man looks like he's a pleasant enough chap, who enjoys a good time, but his wife looks as if she doesn't take guff from anyone. It is because of this combination that they were able to achieve and uphold a level of quality in their sodas.

With this root beer they were not out to invent something new, they wanted to keep things tasting classic, and to make it in the same way. Many companies nowadays use “root beer extract” or some such thing to get a generic root beer taste. When companies do that their product suffers from mediocrity. The Carusos took their time perfecting a formula and then ran with it. It's full bodied with a nice wintergreen aftertaste. When I got closer to the bottom of the bottle it had a kind of woodsy flavor that reminds me a lot of the Sprecher sodas. This blows their root beer out of the water though.

Now go and wash up. It's dinnertime and you don't want to keep Mrs. Caruso waiting.

With the exception of Bright Citrus, us folks here at Thirsty Dudes have not been huge fans of Cascal sodas. I think we would have loved most of the flavors, if the whole point of the company weren't that they make fermented sodas. Take away the fermentation and slight alcohol taste that it causes and these would be severely interesting sodas. With flavors like apple and anise things are bound to get wacky. Unfortunately that flavor that is gross to those of us who don't drink gets in the way and ruins everything. I have to admit that my friends who do partake in alcohol like these a lot more than those of us who do not. I believe they are accustomed to that flavor.

While this flavor does tastes a bit hoppy, it didn't bother me as much as it has with the other flavors. Perhaps I myself am becoming more accustomed to the flavor, but it wasn't bad. It tastes like a citrus and berry soda, two flavors that normally don't commingle. Why is that? There is berry based fruit punch and tropical citrus bases, but it's not often that they overlap. That needs to change because if this drink is any indication they pair nicely. It's a good tasting sparkling juice and as I said if you don't mind the fermentation flavor grab yourself a can.

One thing I would like to do before I die is chop a pineapple down from a tree and eat it. I guess I could have someone more skilled get it down for me but I want it inside of me no more than two minutes after it came down from the tree. That's a fresh pineapple. I want it. I don't think that's a dramatic request. I can catch it, even though I am aware it might hurt me. It's like a slightly spikey, oddly shaped football. I love pineapple, though and want a fresh one. No more of this out of season garbage. Fresh, son.

This pop, although probably distant from a fresh pineapple, tastes a lot like pineapple. Not quite carbonated pineapple juice, but close. It's very sweet. You should not drink this alone. It's not destructive in its calories content at a pretty standard 120, but it is sweet, man.

Who knows, a fresh pineapple might not be that far away. I don't have any plans to travel to an exotic paradise any time soon but in the scheme of things, even five years isn't that long to have to wait for hopefully the best pineapple I will ever have in my life.

Our friend Eric from GourmetRootBeer.com took a trip to Portugal recently and brought us back this bottle of Sumol. There was also a can of the pineapple version that was lost to airport security. Damn the man! While I do love pineapple drinks, the one that made it back with him is nothing to scoff at. Eric described it as being similar to Orangina. I can see where he's coming from, but it is a bit different. When each of us took a sip we all thought it initially tasted like grapefruit Squirt. The more we drank the more the orange flavor set in. I'm still uncertain as to exactly what it tastes like, but I'm 95% certain that I think it's a lemon lime soda that has orange switched out for the lime. You can taste that actual orange juice is involved in the creation of this soda. That on it's own makes this better than the majority of other orange sodas out there. Now that we've finished the bottle I want to pull some sort of elaborate prank on the members of airport security that confiscated the can of the pineapple Sumol. I'm thinking something involving marbles, caterpillars and a whole lot of honey.

I've had Day's stuff before. It's good. It's basic, but it's good. I wanted a root beer so I went through my stash, picked one out, went to put it in the fridge, and noticed that this was queued up all ready to go. Awesome.

Now I will admit that I've become a bit of a drink snob since I've been doing the website. It happens since I drink so much. I have to pick favorites and you really get to hone down what you really want in a specific drink. Teas I like a little bitey. Root beer I like dark with a lot of licorice. Sweet tea I like with real sugar and as little ingredients as I can get. When I come across a can of root beer with high fructose corn syrup, I almost instantly don't care. I will still drink it with an open mind, but my brain tells me that I already know what it's going to taste like. This was different.

There is a little bite to this and the ingredients don't really do the drink itself justice, I feel. This is a medium to dark root beer with a strong root beer taste. It tastes less sweet than a standard root beer would taste. The fact that I'm still explaining how this tastes is extra credit to them. What's great is this is good enough to get again and I don't think it's hard to find.

Day's; I'm sorry for not having faith in you. You have most certainly earned it.

Terry worked as a heating and cooling repairman for 13 years of his life. He drove his van around Western New York fixing people's stoves, fridges and air conditioners. Most days he didn't hate his job, but there wasn't much room for advancement. He did love driving around a lot though. Then one day he was fixing a guy's air conditioner and he got to talking to him. You see Terry loved fixing things, and he liked to explain it as well. The man was so impressed with his passion that he offered him a job at his company. He would make more money and promotions were a possibility. Terry knew he would miss his driving around and didn't like the idea of being stuck in one play all day, but the money was nice and he needed a change. He took to the job like a fish to water. He took a couple of trips to other states to fix some industrial units, and getting away was nice. Then one day he got asked if he would be willing to go to Australia for a week for the job. Not being a dummy he jumped at the chance. So within six months this fine man went from working a quasi dead end job to working for a growing company and being sent around the world doing work that he found interesting. It's times like these that I am incredibly proud of my friends. It's also times like these when I am thankful that I have friends who travel around the globe and bring me back gifts of drinks.

This is a bottle of Australian sarsaparilla that was purchased at a roadside fruit stand in said country. (As a side note, if you don't take advantage of roadside fruit stands when you are traveling then you are a fool.) I expected this to be a very strong sarsaparilla for some reason, but it's not and I'm okay with that. It has a very classic soda flavor to it. I could see this being served in a 50's soda shop with a couple sharing a bottle with two straws. It starts off as just a generic old time soda flavor but when you swallow it has a strong sarsaparilla aftertaste. It's not what I was looking for but it's a soda that has its place and I can respect and enjoy that. I do with the licorice flavor was a bit stronger in this. Then it would be superb.

Oddly enough this is made by the Fosters Beer company. I don't know why I find that weird, but I definitely do. Also the tagline on the bottle is “Refreshingly Tasmanian.” Now that I find charming.

I've been looking for a nice, high quality cola for a while now. Jay was turned on to my search, too so now we're both on a little bit of a liquid quest. I went to get lunch and run errands with one of my bosses today and we stopped at a little sandwich place that usually has pretty good drinks. This, which is new, was there and I had to get it. I might not stop until I find a cola that I absolutely love. Five bottles and I'll stop and move on to something else. I was very anxious to get my hands on this. So much in fact that when I used the old "take the cap off the bottle by hitting it against a concrete curb" trick, this happened:



I have never done this before. If I ever break something, it's usually a small crack or a piece but this was the entire lip. It was downright hard to drink and quite dangerous. I may have shards of glass inside of me because if you think that not having a crucial part to a bottle will stop me from drinking you're crazy. I did what I set out to do which was drinking this cola and it was good. Cola, being inherently dark, didn't have a lot of the complexity that Maine Root stuff often has. Sure, "spices" was one of the ingredients, but it didn't really get to me. It was a good cola, though and if I had to compare it to something, it would be the Mexican Coke. I personally haven't had the Mexican Pepsi so I can't compare it to that.

I risk my lips and bowels for this website and for what? A great cola? You bet'cha!

What's this? It's a plum covered in sugar? Are you telling me that this is a sugarplum? Part of me doesn't know what an actual sugarplum is, but the other part of me thinks that you are trying to pull a fast one on me. I'm drinking this Jones Sugar Plum pop and it's really sweet but doesn't have any taste that I can compare it to. Stop shoving that plum in my face. You're getting sugar everywhere. Eww, really dude? You licked it and then stuck it in sugar? That's gross and I'm that much happier that I didn't touch it. What does this taste like? It's hard to say: Fruity and sugary and carbonated. Does anyone actually know what a sugarplum tastes like? Do people still eat them? I thought it was only in that Christmas song. This is good but I bet your spitty, sugar covered plum is disgusting. It might not be for you since it's your spit but for others, you might want to do what we used to do with pretzels to get salt to stick with it and just spray it with a spray bottle of water. Stop spitting on fruit!

Earlier today Mike said that he could really go for a nice cola, and he noted that we don't really find too many “non-mainstream” colas. That got me thinking about cola all day, and I didn't think that I had any at home. When I got home later I perused my beverage shelf and discovered that I did have this can hiding in the back. Everything was coming up Milhouse.

Now I don't know what the difference is between this and their Natural Soda Cola. The ingredient lists look the same except this can says “organic cane juice” and the other says “ real sugar.” The order of the ingredients is different as well. This has natural cola nut flavor higher up on the list. I'm assuming they are pretty much the same drink though, except all of the ingredients in this can are organic. Regardless of the difference, the two things that really stand out about this cola over its everyday competitors is the fact that they do use cola nut and also it is caffeine free due to the company using natural ingredients. Neither Coke nor Pepsi use cola nut in their recipes. Instead they use some artificial concoction that they came up with to create a similar flavor. I must say that you can taste the difference, and this certainly tastes more natural and it's not harsh like the previously mentioned brands.

It may not be the best cola I have ever had, and it didn't quite live up to my expectations, but I certainly enjoyed it. If all of the colas in the world were organic this would probably fall somewhere in the middle of the road, but I prefer it over your common gas station alternatives.