Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

Look at that little lemon guy on the label. There's something I just don't trust about that fella. He's hiding something behind that smile and sunglasses. I mean he's under an umbrella and I think he's slyly trying to tell us he's a shady guy. You know what I was right. He was hiding something and that secret is that this is carbonated. Nowhere on the label, except in the ingredients list, does it give any indication that what you're about to imbibe is a sparkling lemonade. I expected this to be a dull “classic” lemonade with far too many added ingredients. The fact is if the bubbles weren't present this would be a fairly piss poor lemonade. The bubbles transform it into an interesting lemon soda. Make no mistake it tastes like soda and not just sparkling lemonade, but it is still pleasant. It's sweet (they use cane sugar, which is always a shocker in plastic bottles) and it has a lemon flavor that tastes quasi accurate. This could have gone horribly wrong put the pieces fell into place well enough. That little guy is a trickster, but at least his trick led to a more enjoyable beverage.

I'm beat, dude. Worked until 2, home at 2:30, asleep by quarter to 3, up at 6:30. I need a pick-me-up. I've been disappointed by Dunkin' Donuts inability to make a consistent drink. So what do I choose? I guess this Mountain Dew Kickstart from a bodega I rarely go to but needed to take a walk outside.

How is it? It's fine. I don't know to what caliber this is of a juice and an energy drink but it's got caffeine in it so I guess it will eventually do something. It's not bad. It's pretty sweet and very fruity but I think it tastes better than your run-of-the-mill energy drink. I don't know if I specifically taste blueberry or pomegranate but I'm not complaining. With a drink like this, I don't hold them to their word like I would a "real" juice. Sorry. I'm not trying to be offensive. It's like it's a sparkling juice first and everything else just peeks their little heads in and out to say hello.

I don't know if it's "helping" because I'm fading fast but I've made it to 3:30 and wasn't late for work today. Somewhere there is an accomplishment but I'm too tired to see it. Maybe...if I just close my eyes...for just a second.....

There has been a lot of big moves happening in the beverage world this year. Ecto Cooler is back. Pepsi released its delicious 1893 line, and cold pressed juices are everywhere. To me the most important thing that has happened in the world of drinks is that Cawston Press is officially available in the States and that should be causing gigantic waves, but it's going mostly unknown. Until now I have only ever had Cawston products while in the UK and they are no joke. They produce sparkling beverages that are based on the most wonderful apple juice. I believe all of their flavors start with that same base and then more is added to create the desired flavor and so far they have all been flawless.

This past weekend I completely lost my mind around midnight on Thursday and decided randomly to fly to Atlanta the following afternoon in order to go see The Cure. I ended up with ridiculous seats and a set list that I thought only existed in my dreams. The show was the happiest I have been in a long time. The following day I hung out with some friends down there, ate some amazing food, and went to the Coca Cola museum. It was a wonderful day. As I was getting a ride to the airport to fly home this can was pressed in my hand by my friend, and fellow soda enthusiast, Dakota. Now I had two ridiculously wonderful days and this soda was the perfect cherry on top of a great trip.

As I stated, it has a sparkling apple juice base, but the addition of the lemon juice skyrocketed it to a whole new realm. This is the greatest sparkling lemonade I have ever tasted. It's like someone made perfect lemonade and then poured some perfect apple juice into it and them soaked some elderflower in it. It's a slightly appley lemonade with a light floral taste to it. This very easily could have been too tart, but the apple mellows it out and makes it perfect. Do yourself a favor and if you run into any Cawston Press sodas in your travels pick some up. You won't be even remotely disappointed.

I'd like to say that it's hard to mess up cream soda, but sadly that is not the case. It seems like it should be such a simple soda to make but I feel that a lot of the time it just falls short. When I was in high school I used to bring “40's” of IBC cream soda to parties, because I thought I was hysterical, but more importantly it was just a great cream soda and it became my ideal for the flavor. Throughout the years my tastes have refined quite a lot, but I still compare every cream soda to IBC in my head.

Twigs keeps the IBC dream alive in my mind and in my taste buds. This is sweet with a nice vanilla flavor that isn't too out of control. As I sip this on this warm summer night I feel like I should be 16 sitting around a fire in the fields somewhere while my classmates are getting drunk on whatever booze that could steal/convince someone to buy them. I thought they were dumb then, and I think they are dumb now, but it's all part of the teenage experience and it makes me smile.

Anytime there is a soda that is flavored by a berry that isn't one of the big 4 (straw, blue, black, rasp) I will happily drink it. “Rare' berries are almost always tasty, and so are the sodas that are based off of them. This is a diet drink that is sweetened with cane sugar, agave and stevia., but I will say that if it were solely sweetened with cane sugar it would be ridiculously good (as long as Jones didn't go overboard with the sugar, like they seem to like to do). As it is it is still quite an enjoyable beverage, stevia and all. It has a vague off-diet taste, but the flavor of the huckleberry is nice enough to distract your taste buds. It helps that it's a blend of sweeteners and not only stevia. Jones is doing pretty well for itself.

So tangerines are superior oranges, correct? A little sweeter, with a stronger flavor and they are easier to peel. How about we just accept them as the standard from here on out? A good orange is fantastic, but I feel like I have more bad oranges than good ones, and I've never had an unpleasant tangerine.

I was hoping that the improvement that is tangerines would translate to this soda, but unfortunately this is mostly just generic soda flavor with a sweet hint of a slightly different orange. It's not bad, but it is completely forgettable, which is not something we look for here at Thirsty Dudes. This is certainly not the gourmet soda that it claims to be, but at least it has cane sugar and isn't super thick and syrupy.

Someone make me a proper tangerine soda. I need to taste the superiority…€¦wow that sounded unintentionally fascist.

I'm not sure if they were meant to be released together, or if it's just because they have the same parent company but I keep seeing Mountain Dew Black Label and Pepsi 1893 displayed together. I was shocked by how much I am a fan of the 1893. It's a throwback to the way cola was originally made, and there is something about it that is just classy. It's like they took one of the baseline companies for all soda and made it seem like it was upscale. Even though they had already gone back to an original recipe with Dew Shine, I was hoping that Black Label would be another old time soda. The can didn't have a fancy look to it, but it was more visually appealing than Mountain Dew's normal output.

Now this is much better than a classic Mountain Dew, but this is not the high end soda that it is posing as. Words/phrases like “crafted” and “black label” are a buzz these days and lead a person to believe that this is something that was prepared with more care and in smaller batches. The truth is that this is just soda created with slightly better ingredients than the company would normally use. Sure there is sugar instead of HFCS and there is grape juice involved, but this really just falls somewhere extremely close to their Dark Berry and Pitch Black flavors. It's like someone took their flagship flavor and added berry and grape juice to it.

I really wanted this to be better than it is, but to be fair it is one of the better Mountain Dew flavors. It's an improvement, but they still have a ways to go to create something (besides Voltage) that I would go out of my way to purchase for pleasure and not review.

I can't believe that the big day is finally here. All of our closest friends are here; Dr. Frankenstein, his wife Elizabeth…€¦well that's it. Everyone else wants us dead. They are all we need though. Oh there is the caterer with the grape soda. It's weird that it is the only thing my bride to be requested. Oh no, my lovely is coming out, I'm not supposed to see her before the ceremony, I need to hide! Ahhh! Oh crap. I scared the caterer and he has spilled the soda everywhere. Oh no, it's all over my bride. Hey wait, it has stained the white streaks in her hair purple. That looks kind of cool and modern. Hmm, I'll play it off like I didn't see it and pretend I think she dyed her hair. “Honey! You look beautiful. I love what you've done to your hair, very chic. Are you wearing grape perfume? It smells wonderful . it reminds me of this grape soda I had once. It fell somewhere between a generic grape soda and a sparkling grape juice. It really was the best of both worlds. I bet you would have loved it honey. Now, let's get married!” Phew, I narrowly escaped catastrophe there.

I feel like out of all of the soda flavors out there root beer is the one that can have the most nuances. Even though all of the varieties fall under a specific umbrella the differences between them can be vast. Baumeister falls on the good side of those differences and produces a dark, crisp root beer that is heavy on the wintergreen. To me that makes this stand out amongst a sea of what I like to call “store brand root beer” flavored drinks. As a general rule, the earthier a root beer tastes, the more I'll like it. This doesn't really taste that way at all, but something about it is really hitting all of the right buttons right now and I love it. It's definitely very sweet, but it's in a good way, and not a root beer barrel way. Does anyone actually like those candies for more than like 30 seconds?

Mike and I have been big supporters of College Club Soda. They are a small soda company that is located in Rochester, NY, which is about an hour away from us. They have been very kind to us in the past, including let us run the machines and bottle some pop ourselves. Surprise we didn't kill ourselves or blow up the factory. When they “upped” their game with Fiz and started using cane sugar, excitement was abound on our end. The birch beer and root beer were great, and I had the highest hopes for the cola. I thought I had nothing to fear, until I cracked this bottle open and I was face to face with what is possibly the weakest cola I have ever tasted. It just tasted like a good cola was watered down. I thought that perhaps the batch was off, but a friend confirmed that they had tried it before and that's just how it is. It's disappointing, but hopefully they will tinker with their recipe and all will be well in Western NY's soda world.

While I was drinking this I realized that I had no idea why horseshoes were considered lucky. I assumed it would just be some random tradition that got passed on, with no real meaning. I soon learned the wonderful truth; horseshoes were once used to ward off goblins, or so the story goes. Apparently in Northern Europe and the British Isles goblins ran rampant, but they were afraid of the metal weapons people used against them. Surely it must have been the use of iron that frightened them and not the sharpness of the weapons that could have removed their heads. People started hanging iron horseshoes above their doors to ward off the goblins, since it was iron and resembled the Celtic moon.

So…€¦that was a way more exciting story that I expected. I unfortunately have no iron horseshoes laying around the house so it looks like I am susceptible to a goblin attack. I can only hope that before they tear me asunder that I have time to offer them a soda. I think a couple of sips from this bottle could be just what they need to calm them down. I want to say that this is an average cola that is a little heavy on the caramel side of things, but when I think about it it's must better than store brand, and it also tastes different from Coke or Pepsi. It's undeniably a cola, but with a little twist of its own. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it tastes a little classier than our run of the mill soda, and I enjoy it. I can only hope that the goblins enjoy it as well and maybe then they can fill me in on their side of the story.

Roc City (Rochester) makes this and it's good stuff. Cane sugar and a decent root beer. I don't mean "decent" as in it just passes satisfactory, it's good. I drank the whole thing. No sharzies and I share everything. This was all mine and I drank the whole thing. No. I do not want a medal for drinking a whole bottle of pop like everyone else. I'm just illustrating the point that it was so good that I didn't give any to the drain.

It did taste like root beer and did not linger too long. It was a pretty good model of what a root beer should taste like. I bet those Roc City tough guys are pretty proud of themselves for making a very fine root beer.

I spent several days in Germany and all I wanted was a Fritz Kola. Unfortunately everywhere we played was out of it and I was unable to enjoy its deliciousness. When we played Zoro in Leipzig I ordered one and when I was told they were out I sadly just said give me whatever's non-alcoholic and this bottle was placed in my hand. I had no idea what it was just performed the old Euro lighter as a bottle open trick and took a swig. It was fruity and delicious, and I suppose it was good enough to make me forget about the Fritz for the time being.

The next day, when I wasn't shouting over some Chinese punk band that was playing a squat with a shirt that said “Kiss me I'm punk, I asked what it was and was told that it's a carbonated raspberry/red currant lemonade. I don't think lemonade means the same there as here, but it was a great raspberry/grape soda that wasn't overly sweet. I may not have gotten my fix, but I did discover a new treat that I will get again the next time I make it to Europe.

As I stated in my review of it, to me Club Mate is a staple German soda. It's carbonated yerba mate, and it's done right. It doesn't taste weird or off. It's probably because they use sugar and not an abundance of it.

I anticipated this being the original mixed with cola, but all I taste is the cola. I don't notice the mate at all. When I mentioned it to someone local they didn't even realize that it even had mate in it at all. It's quite a nice cola, so I have no complaints on that end, but I did want some mate. I guess it's just in there for the caffeine. Perhaps if I could read German it would all be explained to me by the label, but as I am a dumb American and cannot I will remain in the dark, and just enjoy it as the stand out cola that it is.

To me lemon is one of the most boring flavors on this planet. A lot of the time it tastes like cleaner, but even when they don't it is rare that it makes me want to acknowledge any sort of greatness. Lemon in water is not very appetizing to me. I don't know how that even got started, but haven't people seen the reports about how dirty they are? Grozzz. The general exception to the forgetableness of lemons is when you get a great lemonade on a nice hot day. That can really hit the spot.

I have never once had a lemon soda that made me want to stand up and force others to drink it because it was delicious. My pattern has not changed with this soda. I will happily admit that it's on the better side of lemon drinks, and may be the best lemon soda I've ever tasted, but that doesn't get it very far. It tastes like it's 75% generic soda and 25% really nice lemonade. It's not the best, but I wasn't expecting the best, and It's much better than I anticipated. So well done Caruso's…€¦.I guess.

Unfortunately I think this company is running on nostalgia and not much more. I for one was more excited than I should have been when I heard that new York Seltzer would be hitting the shelves again after a long absence. The thing is that when I used to drink it, I didn't have much of a relationship with soda outside of the big names and store brand. This seemed special at the time, but now it just tastes average. This is like someone took a survey of what a hundred people thought root beer tasted like and used the results to make this soda. It definitely has a root beer flavor, but it comes off as generic. This is a lighter soda version of root beer barrel candies.

I didn't mean to come off so negative with this review. There is nothing bad about it, and I would happily drink it again. It's just a little too on the nose, when I had expected so much more. Nostalgia will be the death of us.

My last two reviews have been for Pepsi, that new/old/throwback stuff. This stuff came out before, though, right? This is more of a redo than something new or even throwback. It's just like they came in one day and decide that they are going to fulfill all of the comment cards and letters that have been asking for it back. I like it, though. I like cola and vanilla. Some might call that vanilla cola but you can also call it cola and vanilla.

This is good. I don't normally drink "regular" cola but this is decent. Corn syrup and all. I like cherry cola, too. It reminds me of a simpler time where I would go to punk shows and walk and get a taco and cherry Pepsi but this time with the soothing, calming flavor of vanilla to round it out.

2016 is shaping out to be the year of Pepsi for me. You're doing alright so far. If I stay away from the typical garbage, we might have a pretty good year together.

This is the model that all other cola should be based. It tastes like a Mexi-cola. I still think that cane sugar Coke is better but this is better than Pepsi and maybe better than corn syrup Coke. Hard to tell. This would be an interesting blind taste test. Pepsi, Pepsi 1893, Coke and Mexican Coke all together. I don't know if I could "pass" the test. I think it might humiliate me.

So how is it? Great. I really liked it. It didn't linger and had that lemon (?) taste that at least I think Pepsi has. It's in a tall, thin can so you think that it's better for you than a regular sized can but it's not. It's the same. You're the same person if you drink this or a regular can. It's good. If I had more, I would drink more. It worries me that it's not going to stay here for long.

I'm pretty sure that generic diet orange soda might be the world's worst pop. Regular orange soda has its place in the world and that place is at barbeques and accompanying hot (veggie) dogs in every capacity. Its diet counterpart belongs nowhere except down the drain. I wonder if there is a single person out there who actually enjoys it. If you find one I'd like to hook them up to a polygraph, because I'm pretty sure there are a no good dirty liar.

POP Water has attempted to make a low calorie orange soda that is actually drinkable. They have succeeded to some extent. This doesn't have an overbearing diet taste to it, but there is still enough of it to make me feel like I'm not truly enjoying it. The orange flavor is decent enough. It doesn't contain any juice, but it does have extracts of natural orange. It tastes like a light orange soda until you swallow and then you get the stevia/erythritol in the aftertaste mucking everything up. I've said it before and I'll say it again. They should have just kept their limited amount of real sugar and left it at that. Any drink I've ever had with a zero calorie sweeter would have been better without it.

Our boy Marvo from The Impulsive Buy found something that we needed and it was this soda. I was at the store and thought I'd grace the shelves with my presence as I tend to do every time I got to a store and found it. I didn't know that it was going to be there. I thought Jay and I were going to have to take a twenty minute pilgrimage to Canada and buy it there but nope. We did not. I found it five minutes from my house which is convenience because it is absolutely incredible.

The cola tastes like Pepsi but it has cane sugar and yes, there is a noticeable difference. The ginger, oh the ginger. The ginger is sharp and hot. Dare I say too strong for some people which is right where Jay and I like it. We like our ginger to be dangerous and alienating. We like our ginger like a masochistic. This is right there. This is great because it tastes the way that it should. Nothing is held back and everything shines.

Find it. Drink it. Pepsi? I've probably said some terrible things about you in the past that I will not apologize for but this? You deserve a pat on the back because you nailed it. I can't wait to get more.