Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

When things are in different languages, I no longer fear the contents of the container. Why? Because I drank that Korean "Essence of Chicken" drink that tasted like pee and I don't think that anything will be as bad as that. This little green gem is quite nice. Why? Well it's tarragon flavored. "Ewww. That's a spice or an herb and I don't want to drink something that's off a spice rack." Well that's a lame response. Open your mind up then travel to around Turkey where this drink was made, shell out like $2 or 1.57120 Azerbaijani New Manat and enjoy a nice, anise-like drink.

I, for one, enjoy anise. I can never have enough. Black licorice, those little red anise candies in the dark red wrapper, or black jellybeans and I'm set, dude. This drink can be added to the list. I liked it. If you've ever had Ouzon then you know what this is all about. This might be stronger, if you're an adult when it comes to your flavors, it's great.

I wonder where I can get it around here. I'm sure there is some dusty old Eastern European bodega somewhere around here that would have this. You know the one. It's the place with all sorts of unpronounceable cuts of meat and cured fish that you have never seen and everything has a light dusting of dust on it. You've never seen anyone in there but they have somehow been open for like fifty years. It's got to be a front, right? I mean, you can't stay in business legitimately. They're probably fighting hens in the stockroom for a cut of the profits.

I'm going to start putting tarragon in everything I make from now on. What a delicious start to my culinary career.

The fine folks of Azerbaijan have dreams, big dreams. In case you didn't know it Azerbaijan is a country in Eurasia that borders Armenia. If you didn't know that you certainly did not know of the countries collective love of all things bubblegum. The people of Azerbaijan dream of a world where all things have a bubblegum flavored equivalent: ice cream, steak, asparagus and even sugar. They have come close to their goal. In fact just recently that have perfected a bubblegum flavored pickle that I'm told will knock your socks off.

Now that their goal is nearly achieved they have decided to up the ante a bit. They now want different flavors mixed with the classic bubblegum flavor to give people options. You know that classic Azerbaijan saying, “Life is all about options. Without them people are no better than a tortoise.” Well they take that very serious, so their scientists have been hard at work at splicing flavors. So far they have perfected the coupling of bubblegum with mint, cantaloupe, cardamom and the often sought after artichoke. Rumors have it that recently the scientists have set their sights on the flavor of pear, you know apple's bastard cousin. I believe what I hold in my hand here is a concentrate of the pear bubblegum flavoring. I say that because the flavor is so strong and sweet that to think it was an actual beverage blows my mind grapes. I hadn't even twisted the cap off all the way before the entire room I was sitting in suddenly smelled incredibly strongly of pears. It is strange because once you get the cap off and smell the liquid directly it smells more of bubblegum than pear, but it's still detectable. The flavor is that of the strongest cola champagne I have ever tasted with slight undertones of pear. I guess it's true what people say that the people of Azerbaijan love their bubblegum flavor, but sometimes like a pinch of something else. Had I not known the history of this fine country I would have not expected this beverage to taste like this at all. I would have expected simply nothing but sparkling pear juice. That is why you must learn the history of the world, so that bubblegum flavored drinks don't sneak up on you.

All three of us Thirsty Dudes have been having the same issue as of late. We are sadly uninspired from drinks as of late. Sure, we've been pushing out some stories and tall-tales, but those are hard to do. Normally they flow like water as if our hands are miniature hoses and water is flowing out of them and miraculously pressing the right keys to easily spit out a funny review about a Malamute on a skateboard.

There is no rhyme or reason to what inspires us but I can tell you what didn't inspire me; this drink. It's alright, but it's nothing special. It's black cherry. It might not even be as good as cheaper variations. There is a certain...offness to this one, though. Once it hits the back of your throat, something numbing and not fantastic happens. That's not something that I signed up for. The smell is inviting enough for me to bear the pain for three quarters of a bottle.

They can't all be hits like their new birch beer flavors, that's for sure. This might be the worst Johnny Ryan I've ever had. You have to start somewhere, I guess, and this would be at the bottom. Sorry local friends but I've got to tell it how it is.

MOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM, I want lemonade! Now son, you know we're in Mexico and you can't just have everything you want. We've been here for a week and all you've done is complain about how you want some lemonade. I told you before I looked in every store and nowhere sells it. I also haven't been able to find any lemons to make you some fresh. They must be out of season or something. But MOOOOOOOOOM I really want it. What about that weird plastic lemon that is in the fridge, couldn't you make some with that? Well I suppose I could. I don't want to make it with the tap water though. W have a lot planned today, and I can't have you running off to the bathroom every five minutes with the runs. The only bottled water I have is carbonated, but if it will get you to shut up let's give it a try. Oh, now you've gone and put far too much of that lemon juice in the sparkling water. We'll have to fix that by adding some sugar. Unfortunately since this is a rented room, there isn't any sugar here. Oh wait, I think I have some packets in my purse. Ugh, all I have is artificial sweetener. I guess it's better than nothing. Here try this. What do you think? Ugh, MOOOOOOOOOOMMM this is GROOOOOOOSSSSSSSS! Nothing about it tastes natural. MOOOOOOOOMMMMM I don't want lemonade anymore. I want iced tea!!! Well lucky for you they had some down at the market. Let's take a quick trip there.

So yeah, this tastes exactly like the drink this family made, except it has little dark chunks in it. It's apparently part of the limejuice, but it just looks like the drink has gone bad. This also says it has no diet aftertaste. Guess what? They are liars.

Imagine this if you will. It's about 1am and you're about to make a 3+ hour drive from Cleveland to Buffalo. You just got out of a show and you are dying of thirst. The thing is that you're in the ghetto and pretty much everything is closed. You finally find a gas station, but your driver won't stop because of “unsavory characters.” Instead you find a second gas station that looks far worse than the original one to you. You know you have a long drive ahead of you and you don't want to sleep so a large beverage is what is needed. There it is staring you in your big stupid face. Pineapple Passion Fruit pop, with a suggested retail price of 99 cents. Keep in mind you've had a long day and your brain is weak from lack of fluids (that's a thing, right?). To you this is a holy grail. Two of the worlds greatest fruits together for possibly the first time in soda form, in a bottle that is so big it will last you the entire three hours home, and on top of that it's under a dollar. The gods must be smiling down on me. I quickly made my purchase and went back to the car. I didn't even have the door of the car closed behind me when I suddenly realized four things: those fruits probably shouldn't be made into soda, no one in their right mind needs that much fluid, especially when they are driving, nothing that big should be that cheap and that I had made a terrible mistake.

To sum this up, it's now over a month later and I'm sitting here with this bottle and there is only maybe 1/5 of it gone. I didn't get very far into it that night, or in the following weeks, because well it didn't taste very good. It tastes just like it costs: cheap. The flavor isn't pineapple nor passion fruit, but a general tropical citrus flavor. That is if tropical citrus flavor tasted completely artificial and like cheap hard candy. If you're watching someone's kids and you don't care about their health give them this to drink. Their taste buds aren't fully formed so all they will taste is the sugar, and they will probably love it. I can't see any adults liking this, that is unless they accidentally drank a glass of acid in a lab, or blew far too much coke (isn't any far too much?) and can no longer taste anything.

Someone recently pointed out that we hadn't reviewed this. I was pretty shocked to hear this because Ruby Red Squirt is one of my "go-to" sodas and I could have sworn I had already reviewed it. It must have somehow slipped through the cracks, as some of the “mainstream” drinks tend to do as we search the earth for strange and unusual things to try.

Ruby Red Squirt is my favorite "mainstream" grapefruit soda. It has a good sour taste to it, but not so much that it's lip puckering. Also the "ruby red" is a slight berry taste, which is nice. This also has caffeine in it, which is unusual for an "un-cola". I also don't even mind that this has high fructose corn syrup. I'm sure it would be better with cane sugar, but I don't mind too much.

Dear Jason Draper of the Thirsty Dudes,
This is a ginger beer for you. Do you want to know why? It is because it tastes like ginger. You love ginger. I have seen you put it on tacos on multiple occasions. Is it a sickness? Possibly. Is it an obsession? Probably more so. I know you are crazy about the stuff and for that, I'm sorry. I drank this expecting the spice that I feel I deserve.

Jay, we have been friends for a long time. We have lived together, "spent time" with the same girl, and written many songs about barbecues. I know you and I know your taste buds and I know you would have given this at least a four. You love the earthy qualities of ginger and you love the sting. We love the sting. We love our ginger beer hot. This is a medium burn. Less than a Blenheim but more than a ginger ale. Less than a Goya but more than a...water...

In closing, Jay. I am sorry that I drank this and didn't have the hindsight to give it to you. If I find one again, I will buy it for you.

Lovingly,
Mike.

PS: Tacos tonight?

For as long as he could remember the road had called out to George. When he was younger he just loved the idea of cars. As he grew older he devoured the works of Kerouac and Ginsberg. Their words romanticized the road trip in a way that he had never imagined. When he was 16 he worked his little butt off and bought a junker car. He spent the next two years fixing up that car while he finished high school. The travel may have been in his blood, but he was a smart boy and he knew the dream couldn't last forever, well unless he fell into the druggy crowd and died of an overdose. That could seem like forever. The time had finally come and he had just graduated and it was also his 18th birthday coincidentally. He rushed home from the ceremony to print up the directions for his trip. He had decided to keep it old school and he was going to drive historic Rt. 66 all the way out to California, where he would bask in the sun and dip his toes in the tide.

When he got home he hit print, grabbed his backpack and was out the door. It was somewhere around his 7th hour of driving that he noticed something was wrong. He was pretty sure that Alabama was not west of Kentucky. He pulled over and took a better look at his directions; he was an idiot. He was so excited that he didn't really pay attention when he was typing into his computer. He must have hit the “F” key instead of the “R” and auto correct took care of the rest. He wasn't on Rt. 66, and from the looks of the map these directions wouldn't take him anywhere near it. Instead he was on “Fruit 66,” a series of roads that would take him to all of the major fruit farms that the United States has to offer. He decided that he had gone too far to turn back now, so he jut ran with it. He rationalized it by telling himself that it wasn't the destination that was important to this trip, but the ride itself, so it didn't matter where he went. It was also around this time that his old car was thirsty and needed to be filled up. When he pulled into the gas station he was surprised to actually see a Fruit 66 sign. He had assumed it was just a clever name the website had given to the route, apparently it was a real thing. He went in and there was a visitor's center with maps and photos and it looked like he was in for a treat. He also would be passing through South of the Border aka the most racist place in the United States. At the back of the center there was a cooler with cans of Fruit 66 sparkling juice. They were only $1 so he grabbed a couple of cans; one for now and one for the road. As he walked out of the center he cracked open the can and took a big gulp. It was getting hot now that he was getting further south and he was a growing boy, a very thirsty growing boy. As soon as the juice hit his tongue he knew his little snafu was for the better. If this juice was any hint of what this trip was going to expose him to, well then life was good. It was some of the best sparkling juice he ever had. It was basically seltzer water with a whole bunch of fruit juice in it; you know the fruit punch fruits. Normally seltzer water disgusted him, but the juice sweetened it up enough to make it still taste slightly dry, but to mask the seltzer flavor. It was 100% juice in this can and it reminded him of a better version of Juicy Juice. Sweet, fruity and healthy, it was exactly what he needed to lift his spirits and quench his thirst. If this was just the first stop of his adventure he knew he was in for a treat. He could only hope that all of the rest stops along Fruit 66 would also have cans of this juice. Perhaps if the beat poets had taken this route insted of Route 66, they wouldn't have had so many issues and they would have been content. Now onward to the peach orchards of Georgia!

This is a first for Thirsty Dudes. No, we've reviewed Jones soda before. What do you think we are, amateurs? We have reviewed orange cream, strawberry cream, lemon cream, vanilla cream, cherry cream, almond cream, blue cream, red cream, and the traditional cream soda. Until now, we have not reviewed a pineapple cream soda. I didn't even know such a soda existed until I stumbled upon this at my local corner store.

Even though this is a unique soda, it tastes just like it seems it would: A good mix between a cream soda and pina colada. If this was sweetened with HFCS, I probably wouldn't like it as much. The cane sugar makes it much lighter, and thus much more enjoyable.

It's been a long time since I've had a champagne cola. It's been never since I've had a good champagne cola. Oh, you like chewing bubble gum and you like drinking sickeningly average cola simultaneously? Welp, done. This is horrifyingly sweet to boot. I have had everyone in the office, which is four people and someone outside try this and I am just breaking the top of the label. That's not good for business. Good-O has a large array of products, most of which I haven't liked thus far.

If you like things like generic cola and bubble gum ice cream, this is it. You don't need another drink. If you're not nine years old and can distinguish a quality product, you won't want to grab this on your next trip to the store.

Ricky was a boy who knew what he liked, and what he liked was limes. He had him mom buy limes by the bushel. He would put them on and in everything he ate. I'm not kidding the kid put limes on his PB&J. It was completely disgusting, but he loved it. Did I mention that Ricky was Canadian? Well he is, which means he also put limejuice on his poutine. If you ask me I think perhaps Ricky had an early life stroke that affected his sense of taste. I'm no doctor, but I see no other explanation for his love of limes.

Ricky's mom worked in Burlington, Ontario at The Pop Shoppe factory. It was her job to make soda pop day in and day out. For Ricky's birthday she wanted to do something special for him, so she convinced her foreman to make a lime soda and call it Lime Ricky in honor of her son. He was something of a local oddity so why not celebrate his insane taste buds? It was essentially their lemon lime soda, but without the lemon and double the lime. It was a bit more like lime candy than the fruit, but it all fell under the umbrella of Ricky's love. The foreman was actually impressed with the taste of the soda, so he decided to make this limited edition pop part of their regular line. Lime Ricky you are a very special boy and I hope you enjoy your birthday present to the world.

Ginseng and I have not gotten along well in the past. My least favorite drink of all time involved ginseng. But in the name of Thirsty Dudes and root beer, I had to try this. The gold shimmer on the can made me think this was going to be a classy root beer.

Verdict? It's not really classy, but it's pretty good. It is indeed a creamy root beer, but the ginseng gives it a nice bite at the end. It also gives it a slight bitterness, but not in a bad way. The more I drink it, I realize that this is one of the better root beers I've had in a while. I hope I can find more Blue Sky sodas with ginseng in it.

A Eulogy.

Back in the year 2000 I became aware of a glorious place that existed a mere hour and half north of my in the magical land of Toronto. If one were to venture to the corner of Queen and Spadina on any given day (including holidays) one would find the source of much joy in this world. No I'm not talking about the bank, or the McDonalds. I am referring to the small hot dog cart that has sat there for many years. You might say, well that's not anything special. I would reply that this cart has incredible veggie dogs. You may say well okay that's a little special, but so do a lot of other carts in the greater Toronto area. My response would be but do any of those other carts boast to have over 50 condiments? I think not. A group of brave Buffalonians named this cart and it's cook “50 Toppings Guy.” You would be surprised at how many condiments you can actually fit on a hot dog. I've broken 20 on several occasions. The most important of all of the toppings is the often sought after corn relish. It is a true delicacy that the world needs to be educated about. So yes for years my friends and I would eat multiple dogs from this great establishment every time we were in Toronto (which is way more often then you would expect. There were times in the middle of the night when we would be getting hungry so we would just make the drive for hot dogs and nothing else (oh yes the stand is open 24/7). Those were the days when gas was under $1.50/gallon. With every order I placed at that awesomely dirty stand I also got a can of Cplus orange soda. Nothing compliments hot dogs better than a nice orange soda, and it doesn't get much better than Cplus. The secret to this soda is that it actually has orange juice in it, which makes it actually taste like oranges and not some weird mixture that kids are taught orange tastes like. Over the years I must have downed well over a pallet of these cans. You see it's not available in the US so I would get my treats in while I could.

Sadly the dark ages moved in. A large company bought out almost all of the hot dog carts in the city. “50 Toppings Guy' held strong and what followed was the Great Hot Dog War of 2007. (that may actually not be the correct year). A cart right around the corner and the lord and savior of condiments went toe to toe. The competition had the money so they lowered their prices to try and drive “FTG” out of business. He fired back with even cheaper prices. There was a point where you could get a dog for a loonie. It was a good day for consumers, but a dark time for our hero. Eventually condiments started to disappear. He simply couldn't afford to keep them in stock with his lowered prices. After a valiant fight 50 Toppings Guy gave in and sold his cart. A cart still stands at that location, but it's not the same. They did keep the corn relish though, so every time I'm in the land of Toronto I still eat a hot dog in memory of the ghost of a true Canadian hero.

Today I set up my grill for the year and cooked myself a round of veggie dogs. I've been saving this can since November, waiting for the perfect day to crack it open. Today as we mourn the loss of the greatest hot dog slinger to ever exist I urge you to raise a can of Cplus in his memory. You'll never find an orange soda as this, or hot dogs as good as his.

Alright children. It's the last day before summer vacation so we're going to play games all day. Let's start off by playing “Heads Up 7-Up.” You children in the front row are it for the first round. Everyone else put your heads down on your desk with your thumbs up. When the round is over if you're thumb has been pushed down you must try to guess who pushed it down. What's that Marcie? Why is it named after such a mediocre pop? Well it's because the game starts with seven people being it. Oh there are only five people in the front row, so that doesn't make sense. Okay well how about this, if they called it “Head's Up Vernor's Ginger Ale” people would get too excited thinking about that great soda and be distracted from the game. No one loves 7Up, but no one hates it either. It is the pop that is just there. It's not interesting in anyway. It's safe. Regular 7Up might as well be orange juice for all I care. I did once have some made with real sugar though. It was a little bit better. It tasted about the same as regular 7Up, but more old fashioned. It was still just lemon lime pop that I would normally pass over on any given day, but I was at a family picnic and it was all that was left in the cooler, so I drank it. I guess I enjoyed it. I certainly didn't not enjoy it. So yes, I liked it. Marcie now you've gone and got me distracted. Let's just go out into the fields and play Manhunt instead. I've been looking for a way to get fired anyways.

S - Hey man I have an awesome drink for you to try.

L …€“ Oh that's cool. What is it?

S …€“ You don't even know man it's Way 2 Cool.

L …€“ Okay well what is it?

S …€“ No man, the company is called Way 2 Cool. It's ginger ale.

L …€“ Oh I like ginger ale. Let me have a taste…€¦..There is definitely something off about this ginger ale. Are you sure it's not about a decade expired?

S …€“ No man, that's just the barley malt in it.

L …€“ To quote my ex-roommate, “That's the kind of thing you tell a goddamn man!” Seriously malt beverages can be decent, but it's not the kind of thing that you sneak up on someone. If you don't know it's there the drink just tastes like it's gone bad.

S …€“ Dude, malt makes everything better…€¦.like liquor.

L …€“ Okay, you're just an idiot, and this drink isn't very good. It's most certainly isn't “Way 2 Cool.” Actually it's barely passable. I don't even think I could finish this bottle. I like malt when it's mixed with apple or pineapple, but it does not mix well with ginger. If it wasn't for that stupid malt this would have actually probably been a decent ginger ale. It has real ginger in it, plus limejuice and cinnamon. I bet it would have been interesting, and more than likely tasty. Here I sit though trying to make it through this weird malt that is overpowering every other flavor, while somehow slightly tasting like moldy bread. I can't believe that there is no mention of malt on the label besides the ingredients list. It's just going to turn off 99% of the people that would buy this. Also dude, why on Earth does this label say “Free Tibet and Taos?” Isn't that a bit insulting? I mean grouping in human rights activists with a couple of snowboarders that want a town to let them ride there? I'm beginning to think a bunch of suburban hippies started this company, and that makes sense why it tastes like garbage. Those type of hippies ruin everything.

S …€“ But dude! If you drink to the top of the label and put in orange juice it's a straight-edge brass monkey!

L …€“ Oh my god, you are an idiot. Please never give me another drink. Actually, please never speak to me again. I think I became dumber in this brief conversation.

Sometimes there is nothing to do but not go to work and stay home and read a whole mess of comics. Did you know that the Erie County Library has more graphic novels than most comic shops I've been in? True fact. I've delved into their stock a bit here and there but today I went overboard and checked out nearly 30 collections. Hey it's cold and slightly snowing and I just want to kick back and relax. That includes drinking a nice dark soda. I would have preferred to accompany my comics and licorice with a root beer, but the only brown pop I had cold was this cola. Fear not, it paired well. I think a pop company should have recommendations on their sodas like wines do. You know like “Pair this Chardonnay with poultry,” but instead it would be things like “Pair this Mountain Dew rip off with video games” or in the case of this drink “Pair with Batman or Ex Machina.” I'm currently following this fictitious beverage association to a T.

Johnny Ryan has yet to disappoint me. This is a cost that is very obviously sweetened with cane sugar. Out of all of the sodas in the world cola benefits from this particular sweetener the most. It just brings out the flavors in a way that other sweeteners can't. I feel like this should be described the same way as one would a good root beer, so I will do just that. It's dark and full-bodied. My only complaint is that when you get to the point where there is about 1/5 of the bottle left the flavor gets a bit weak. It's strange because usually the end of a drink is stronger due to settling, but not in this case.

Danny's daddy always told him to stay away from certain areas of town. He told them they were dangerous and an unsavory element hung out there. Since as far back as he could remember Danny's ears were filled with warnings of the danger just a few miles away. His imagination made these areas out to be war zones torn apart by drug dealers and road warriors (he was a huge early Mel Gibson fan). His nights were filled with nightmares of being stuck in these areas and having to fight his way out after saving the president (he also love Escape From New York). There was absolutely no way that he would ever set foot in those neighborhoods. He liked being alive and not strung out, and he wanted to keep it that way.

When Danny was 16 he got his license and his daddy let him take the car out for a ride to celebrate. He left home, and got on the highway to go pick up his cousin so they could go do a few laps at the mall and score some Orange Julius and soft pretzels. It was going to be a good night. He got a few miles from home and without warning the car ran out of gas. He was luckily able to coast over to the side of the road, right before an exit. “Oh no” thought Danny. This was the exit that led to one of the bad neighborhoods that his father spoke of. He had no choice but to walk off the exit and find a gas station or a phone. Seeing as he was only 16 and his parents weren't insane, he did not have a cell phone. He shoved his hands in his pockets put his head down and began to walk. As got off the exit onto the main road he was surprised to not hear any screams or to see any buildings burning. Actually it didn't look that much different than where he lived. Luckily there was a small mart a block away. Out side the door Danny paused, drew in a deep breath and pushed open the door. He was instantly greeted by the shop keep who also informed him that there was not a pay phone, but that he was welcomed to use the store phone to call for assistance. Danny made his call to his deeply concerned daddy, and then continued to make some small talk with the cashier. He was a nice funny man, who even offered Danny a soda. It was like nothing Danny had ever seen before. He was shocked to discover it was from Lebanon. For all he knew there was nothing but bombed out buildings there and poor people. It was also kiwi flavored, which Danny had never heard of in a soda. He expected it to just taste overly sweet and “green.” He twisted off the gap and took a sip. It did taste a little sweeter than how he normally liked his soda, but he had to admit it really did taste like kiwi, which was a huge surprise. It did taste a little candy like, but in a way that wasn't gross at all. It was also a shocker to find out that this was a pop that actually had fruit juice in it. The soda was delicious and before he knew it the bottle was gone and his daddy was pulling into the parking lot. He thanked the cashier and left, quickly turning around to buy a sixer of this wonderful soda and gave his thanks again. As he climbed into his dad's car he thought of several things: A. This neighborhood really was kind of nice. B. He dad was a racist. C. His dad was really a jerk for letting him borrow the car with no gas in it, and without telling him the fuel gauge didn't work. What a prick.

I am about to embark on an epic journey across the entire country. After 10 months living in Buffalo, I've decided to pack up and move back to Portland, OR. I would like to say it's because of the crappy season the Bills had, or that I need to take one for the team and review all the Hot Lips soda flavors and the only way to do that would be to move back out west. In reality, I just miss Portland. Plus my best friend (the one who helped name this very website you are reading) lives there and I miss her dearly.

I decided to review this soda as my last drink in Buffalo. I love all three ingredients and after the stellar reviews we've been giving Joia, I was pretty sure this was going to be a homerun. The pineapple/coconut mixture is the most prominent, but sadly the nutmeg is nowhere to be found. I would have settled for a subtle nutmeg aftertaste, but it is literally on the back of a milk carton. Just like the last Joia soda I had, the last ingredient was the one I was most excited for. But both times, I was let down.

I, like Jason, was in a band. We were in different bands although we did sit around and sing songs about barbecues when we lived together. We both played bass and weren't about to form a Ned's Atomic Dustbin or Freebass cover band. Anyhow, when I was in said band, we would always have Swedish Fish at the merch table. We went through many more boxes of candy than we did shirts, buttons, or CDs. People love candy. Fact. They love it.

Taking that into consideration, Jarritos was nice enough to make a drink that tastes pretty darn close to Swedish Fish. I guess Swedish Fish taste like fruit punch. That's a thought I never had. I always thought that they tasted like themselves and everything else tasted like them. No, my mind has done a 180 and I can put a name to a face and call that face "fruit punch."

This is a deliciously sweet and fruity pop. I can't believe that we haven't done it before. I've seen it at a couple places but just assumed it was already reviewed. I don't really like fruit pop but this might be my exception to the rule. It doesn't have a lingering flavor and it's nicely sweetened. Success!

Since juniper trees fall in the same category as pines I was expecting this to taste like a very dry version of spruce beer. Luckily for me it did not taste that piney at all. In fact on first sip it tastes like very lightly sweetened seltzer water. For the record I despise seltzer water, but Dry always adds just enough cane sugar so that it just falls into the “this is interesting and I think I like it” category. After I took another sip I got the faintest mix of pine and berry, but it's a flavor that is very subtle and you have to look for it. The more I drank the stronger the flavors became, but they never got anywhere past the very mild marker. This is a very plain, and obviously very dry soda. It actually makes me think of a super extra dry flavored ginger ale. It's extremely refreshing in the way that cucumber sodas are. One would think that this would be a winter beverage due to the type of tree and the label, but I guarantee that drinking one of these on a blistering hot day would be a great way to beat the heat.