Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

I have never been to Brooklyn. It's true. I have been to New York City a handful of times and have only really done Manhattan. I know that I would like the taste of Brooklyn to wash that clichè from my mouth because something about a city made to be an advertisement just doesn't suit me. So, since I've never been there, here is my "dream Brooklyn". Let me know if I'm close.

I'm walking down the street. I've got a bitchin' pair of Wayfarers on. Probably tortoise shell if I know myself well enough. Everywhere is the sound of the Beastie Boys, only up to Ill Communication, of course. Everyone is riding fixed gear bikes, has an ironic beard or mustache, and is eating pizza. Yes, some of it's vegan. Everything is brick. No aluminum or vinyl siding in the entire borough. Paired with the pizza is Old Brooklyn soda. It's only fair. It's not a dictatorship over there. Sure, Power Pop Pop Pop has a bit of weight even though he's all the way in Newbridge, NJ, but Brooklyn is not his home.

Am I far from the truth? Possibly. Possibly not. Were the Ghostbusters from Brooklyn? That's just more of a question for myself.

As for this pop, it was good. It wasn't syrupy at all and that's all thanks to the cane sugar. The sweetness isn't too much and the actual flavor is the aftertaste, which is nice for a change. Oh, you like black cherry pop? You'll love this. Oh, you've never had black cherry pop? You could love this. You don't like black cherry pop, Jay? That's why I'm reviewing this.

Nothing says "party" like cake and pop. It's true. Pizza might help. Pointed hats, too. I feel that the basis, the core, of a party is cake and pop. If you don't provide these things you are either:

1. Old


2. A lame adult

That's about it. I hope that you, my faithful Thirsty Dudes and Dames fit into neither category.

So today I had a get together at my house and, as one would assume, had ice cream and plenty of beverages. I got this new stock from College Club when Jay and I went there about a month ago and I decided that it was time to bring it to the masses. People all seemed to want the cream soda and the cola champagne. I happily opened both of them and let them have at it. I've had the cream soda before and loved it. The cola champagne was a new addition and I was excited to try it.

I. Did. Not. Like. It. You know who would like it? Nay, love it? 8-years-old kids. An 8 years old boy would love this because it is wildly sweet and it tastes like bubble gum. A couple people liked it and one person said that it was better than the cream soda, but they are simply wrong and I did not let them get away with such blasphemy.

They can't all be winners and it's pop like this that can be a fun experiment and if it sells, it sells, but it won't be sold to me again any time soon.

My roommate went to New Jersey last weekend with one of his bands. They went to a Hispanic market and he apparently spent way too much money on drinks and snacks. This has been sitting in our fridge since then (hence it's half gone in the picture), so I decided to have a glass and write a little review.

First off this has a perfumey aroma like lychee, which was completely unexpected. When I read fruit flavored I generally think of a fruit punch. Apparently the fine people of Columbia think differently. To me it tastes like bubble gum flavored pop with a little bit of lychee thrown into the mix. The thought of that is completely repulsive to be, but in practice it's actually kind of good. There's a bit of a red cream soda flavor mixed in there as well. With each sip I become more acclimated and I like it a little more. This is strange and nothing what I expected. I will say that this is a seven-year-old's dream come true. Some fat little kid out there would down this entire two-liter bottle in less than five minutes. That kids parents are doing a terrible job with raising that kid.

This is a limited edition flavor of Mountain Dew that they just recently brought back. I remember it being around a few years ago, but I never got around to trying it. When I first saw the name Pitch Black, I was hoping this was going to be a blackberry soda. Sadly its not, but black grape is equally intriguing.

The black color of the soda is actually a very dark purple. I've never heard of a black grape so I'm assuming they just decided to market it this way because it's a lot catchier than Pitch Purple. The taste is decent, but not amazing. The grape flavor is really tart which is nice, but then the usual heavy Mountain Dew taste sets in. Overall, this isn't the best limited edition flavor they've concocted, but it's not horrible.

I challenge anyone to read the name of this soda aloud and not think of Billy Ocean. It is a scientific impossibility. Even those humans who have never heard Mr. Ocean will automatically get "Caribbean Queen" stuck in their head. I think Journey should hire that wonder to do a parody for promotion of this soda. It would go something like this:

"Caribbean Creme
Now we're tasting vanilla cream
And our hearts they drink as one
With some coconut for fun."

Okay that was terrible. How am I ever to support myself as a jingle writer like I've always dreamed? Looks like I'll have to stick to screen printing.

Now back to the soda. This is one of the strongest vanilla flavors I've ever had in a soda. It's all due to some pure Java vanilla bean extract. It's pretty intense. The coconut is more subdued. I don't really like coconut, so I feared it would overpower the rest of the drink. It's really not bad. There is a hint of it, but it doesn't leave the gross coconut aftertaste. That's what I really hate about that specific fruit. Overall this is very tropical tasting and I believe it should be enjoyed on the beach.

Now I need to find a company that a parody of "Get Out of my Dreams" will work for.

This has a real sharp smell and it beckons your call, like a siren to the black abyss. I steer my mouth/ship towards the bottle/sharp rocks. Here's where I can no longer make similes between enchanted sea women and pop because this took a turn. If I may make one last Greek mythology reference, if I was a boat, I would have avoided the sirens call, not waiting for it like Bernard Sumner and friends wanted me to do, because this was one of the smoothest drinks I've ever had. It's a birch beer that goes down smooth like a cream soda. It's really strange.

It is not bad. Let it be known, but I wanted a gnarly bite, like I normally get with my birch beers. It's like those fireworks that you like but don't last long enough for you to be fully satisfied with. There is a quick giant explosion and then a quick disintegration. Sure, I could make a Cure reference, but that's too many English new wave bands in one review for even me.

That last statement isn't true. There are never enough obscure references in our reviews. If anything, there isn't enough "review" in our reviews. Guess what, it's not going to change.

With a name like "Buckin' Root Beer", I was fully expecting this to have a lot of bite. I like that in a root beer. The more bite, the better. Or maybe the folks at Jackson Hole want me to drink this on the back of a bull at a rodeo? I have a feeling that isn't the case, as I'd probably wear more of the bottle than what I could manage to drink.

I've been saving this root beer for a week now. Was it worth the wait? Very much so! This is a really heavy root beer, but it also has lots of flavors. As I suspected, this has a good amount of bite to it, with a really nice anise taste. It just gets better and better with every sip, unlike some sodas which lose flavor as the bottle goes down. The bottle says that this is batch brewed, and I must say that this is a great batch!

So that last stress reducer drink didn't quite do the job. I realized the only thing that was going to make me feel better was sitting down with a little Twin Peaks and cracking open an ice cold root beer. A lot of people have been recommending Tower to us, so this seemed like as good a time and any to give it a go.

On first sip I knew this was something good. It had a taste that just let you know that it was brewed and not just flavor syrup. I tasted hints of various herbs. This is not a creamy root beer by any means. As I let each sip sit on my tongue I discovered more and more flavors. Then about halfway down something happened. The root beer started to taste smoky. I don't know how or why it happened, but I had my ladyfriend try it and she noticed it as well. It was interesting to say the least. It took me by shock at first. It was like someone put a couple of drops of liquid smoke in my bottle when I wasn't looking. After I got used to it I really enjoyed it. It made me feel like I was at a bonfire sipping on some quality soda. I imagine this is how root beer tasted to cowboys when they sat around their fires at night on the prairie. Eventually too much smoke would get in their eyes and someone would say, "white rabbit" to set the world right. A white rabbit in a black lodge with Cooper.

Apparently it's ginger day on Thirsty Dudes. Our past three reviews have all been about ginger based drinks. This resulted in me having celebratory veggie dogs. In my infinite wisdom I decided to put some pickled ginger on the dogs. Amazing idea. It gave them a nice little kick. To wash down this wonderful concoction I decided to break open this bottle of Brainalizer. I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like, just that it was a "carbonated herbal beverage." As it turns out it tastes like raspberry or cherry ginger ale, but instead of ginger it was made with other roots and herbs. It's way better than I expected. Since honey is used as the sweetener, it's not overly sugary like most sodas. It also has a slight burn to it, which I always enjoy.

The website on the bottle wasn't up anymore, so I did some research on the internets. It turns out that this was originally a part of the Skeleteens line. That makes sense after reading the ingredients (American and Siberian Ginseng, Gotu Kola, Goldenseal, Dill Weed, Echinacea, Ginko Biloba, Dandelion, African Capsicum). I'm pretty sure this was an early version of an energy drink. Like myself (ginger on hotdogs) it seems that the folks at Skeleteens were visionaries. I applaud them for their work.

I have had some stomach thing. I am not a doctor so I cannot tell you what it is, but after every time I eat, I feel like garbage. I can't eat as much and I need to sit and be quiet or else... I don't know, I feel more sick.

Since only the rich can afford health insurance compounded with the fact that I won't take medicine, I had to take matters into my own hands.

Scouring through my stock, I remembered that I had a hot ginger ale. As we all know, the hotter the ginger ale is, the more natural and good for you it is. I threw this cat in the fridge for a bit, took it out, cracked it open, and took a sip. Hello cured stomach ailments, here we come. Then we had a little bit of a problem. You see, when I read, "hot" I expect HOT. This was more of a sting.

Now, "hot" is a relative term. I am quite accustomed to hot flavors, so although this may be on the lower levels of the ginger beer ladder, it could be too much for, say, a wimp.

Flavor-wise, it's not bad. It has a genuine, earthy ginger flavor that doesn't linger on your tongue. All of the flavors of actual ginger are apparent and the sweetness isn't overpowering.

The Thirsty Dudes crew had to go to Canada to get this Australian treat, even though it says on the bottle that it's available in the US. It was good, but I don't think it's worth a special trip anywhere to try and find.

After the debacle with my last drink I decided I needed something with a redeeming ginger quality. Grown-Up Soda it is! I know Mike isn't a big fan of this product line, but I have enjoyed every flavor that I've tried. I enjoy that they are not as sweet as normal sodas and have a dry taste to them.

This is a ginger ale made with real ginger root extract, not all of that artificial garbage that is in a lot of ginger ales these days. The difference in taste is very apparent. It doesn't have much of a burn, but after you swallow there is a lingering tingle in the back of your throat.

This has potential to get young kids to drink a lot less sugar. Kids are dumb and are easily tricked. Every kid is especially dumb because they want to be adults. Adults know that being a kid is much more enjoyable. So here's how things should go down. Have an adult that the kid looks up to drink these in front of said child. Don't give the kid a drink yet though. Without a doubt the kid will ask what it is. The response should be "This is a soda for adults. Kids aren't allowed to have it. It's a shame because it's really good. Why don't you have one of those Pepsi's over there? I mean it's not as good, but you know it's something." The kid will then beg and plead to have some of this soda that is for grown ups only. Eventually the adult should act like they are reluctantly giving in and giving the kid some. If the kid says that don't like it the adult should say something along the lines of "See I told you. You aren't old enough to enjoy it yet." The kid will invariably go back for more. Then they will want it all the time instead of the carbonated sugar garbage they were drinking. These are the ideas you have when you are a scientist like myself.

Dear friends from the "Great White North,"
My intentions are not to offend you, but what do you really know about rodeos? I understand that a good portion of your police force rides horses, but I don't think the words "rodeo" and "Canada" have ever appeared in the same train of thought before. Hockey, now that's something that makes me think about Canada. You were in the right to use that on your cans of cola. The site of maple leaves and a buckin' bronco together just doesn't sit well with me. It's like when someone who obviously has never looked at any print design in his or her life decides to make a flyer for a show. Not only is each band's name in a different wacky font, but so are all the crucial info for the show. Oh and it's all typed over a way pixilated picture of train tracks, or something just as tacky. Maybe that's going a bit overboard. Your general layout isn't bad, I just can't get over that rodeo thing.....Oh wait never mind. I just took a sip and it made me forget about any flaws to the packaging. This is one hell of a root beer. This is in fact a root beer that cowboys would drink...if it were in a glass bottle. A cowboy would loose all of his cred if he were seen drinking out of a can. Did they have cans in the wild west? I think not! Seriously though, this is top notch. It has chicory root, vanilla, coriander and clove in it. I can get into any root beer where all of the spices and ingredients are all boiled down into wonderful syrup. It gives it such a rugged flavor, as if it should be drank out on the prairie while riding your dusty horse down the trail.

I am serious about the glass bottles though. If Vintage Soda packaged their pop in glass bottles I would give them five bottles all around. They make a serious soda.

I saw this bottle in my mom's fridge and realized that we hadn't reviewed it yet. Even though I hate diet soda, I decided to give it a try in the name of Thirsty Dudes.

Battery acid. That's what it tastes like. It burns all the way down. No matter how much I try, I can't get used to the diet soda taste. I only had a couple sips and my stomach feels horrible.

Last night I went up to Canada to see Laura Stevenson and the Cans play. They were fairly incredible, which is to be expected. In-between bands I walked to a convenient store to see if there was anything unknown to the Thirsty Dudes in their coolers. Vitamin Water. Snapple. Coke. Pepsi. Jones. All of the usual suspects were there. As I was about to give up and head back to the show I noticed this little fellow on the bottom shelf. Canada Dry is a fairly standard "safe" ginger ale. No burn. Not even a real ginger flavor. It is still enjoyable for what it is though. Now they have gotten the crazy idea to mix in white tea and raspberry into the mix. Yes sir I will put my toonie down on the counter and take a bottle.

As soon as this passed my lips my mouth was invaded with an intense flavor, or flavors to be more specific. All three of them (tea, ginger ale and raspberry) hit you in their own way. At first it's just a highly carbonated white tea. Then a small hint of raspberry sneaks in to the mix. Finally as you swallow and take a breath the ginger ale flavor sits on your tongue for a bit. This drink has surpassed my expectations. Canada you've done it again. This is just another reason to lure me up north. First it was beavers and moose, then delicious veggie food and now drinks.

I went for a nice long bike ride today. When I got home I got a call from some friends inviting me over for an impromptu barbeque. Seeing as it was my first BBQ of the year I decided I needed to accompany it with some orange soda. I don't know when I started associating grilling with orange pop, but I feel like it had to have been in the last 10 years. I don't remember ever drinking it when I was a kid. It doesn't really matter because it accompanies it perfectly.

I stuffed myself with veggie dogs, fruit salad and asparagus then washed it all down with a. cold bottle of Olde Brooklyn. As far as orange sodas go it was fairly standard. Nothing stood out bad or great about it. The same company that makes Sioux City also makes this soda, so I always expect greatness from it. The three flavors I've had so far have been fairly average. There's nothing bad about that. They are doing exactly what they are supposed to do, just not going above and beyond.

I just went to the toity and the smell of my pee took me by surprise. You win this round asparagus.

I don't know how you got diabetes. Your doctor wouldn't give me your chart due to something called "doctor/patient confidentiality" which I find bogus. I do know that you and your little body don't handle sugar too well. For this reason, I have purchased you, my friend, a six-pack of Zevia Mountain Zevia. I know, I know. It's just like the U2 song "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" except instead of "Sunday" it's Zevia and you also have to replace "Bloody" with "Mountain" but aside from that; carbon copy.

Go ahead take a sip. Take a big, bigger sip. Didn't you say that Mountain Dew was your favorite? Doesn't thing remind you of all night LAN parties where you and your 7 closest friends would bring a TV, Xbox, and controller to someone's house, set them all up in the living room, and play Halo all night? A little bit? Yeah, well it's not the same thing, so why would you expect it to taste the same? It's sweetened with Stevia so it's not going to make you need that pen that you carry with the frighteningly large needle. It's a flash of that Mountain Dew grossness; I mean flavor, and then the cool aftertaste of the Stevia. It's not horrible, right? It's better than, say, regular Mountain Dew? Well look, this is the best you're going to do unless you want to lose a leg because of your dedication to "Doing the Dew" so deal with it. It's the thought that counts and I think you're being a jerk.

Zero calories. No sugar. All-natural soda. All of these statements are true about Zevia sodas. In my opinion Zevia is the in process of single-handedly overthrowing the world of diet soda. They were the first company I knew of to use stevia as a sweetener. If this were a movie there would be a pivotal scene where the ambassador of Zevia would give a speech to the towns people to get them riled up. Of course he would be on a horse. He would tell the people that they have been fooled for all these years. Diet soda does not need to taste like butt, artificial butt at that. It can taste decent, and it can do so naturally. At the end of the speech everyone would cheer and then they would run into an epic battle where they would slaughter the armies of aspartame sucralose. When the smoke clears and the battle is finally over Zevia would be crowned king of the realm of diet soda.

In all seriousness this is one of the best diet sodas I've ever had. I have diabetic friends who swear by it, and I should have not taken so long to try it. It doesn't taste 100% like a "regular" soda, but it has the least diet taste of any that I've ever tried. I could go for a little stronger grapefruit flavor, but it's okay where it is now. Even though I haven't had it in over 15 years something about this instantly made me think of Faygo Frosh. I couldn't remember the name of it I just remembered it as the white Faygo that was always at my grandparent's house. It's apparently still in production. I had no idea.

Hey bartender, serve me up a nice cold sarsaparilla. What, you don't have any? What kind of western bar is this? Okay, then fix me up something olde timey. Don't go slippin' no alcohol in there either. No I don't want a Shirley Temple! What do I look like a child to you? A non-alcoholic rickey you say? What on Earth is that? Oh a grown up version of a Shirley Temple. I guess I could try one of those. Let me get this right. This is half a lime squeezed into a glass of carbonated water? There normally is some sort of alcohol added, but you can replace that with any juice? Sir you have sold me on this drink. I will take one with raspberry juice. I do find it odd that of all the juices in the world you have some of the raspberry variety behind that rickety old bar.

This is outstanding. It definitely has an olde time feel to it. On my first couple of sips I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it reminded me of, but when it hit me there was no denying that it tasted like a fancier Shirley Temple. I believe I may be a fan for life.

If I were a vampire, by Mike Literman:

If I were a vampire, I would go a different route. I would make up an excuse to get blood from the local blood bank. I might even get a job there so that I can get free samples. "Woops, I spilled it." would be my excuse when I drank other people's blood. Way smarter than killing people left and right. I might be able to escape the cops a few times, but eventually it would catch up with me and they'd humiliate me at my place of employment.

I would probably go the "Groundhog Day" approach, too. Since I'm going to live forever I am going to learn a skill like guitar, painting, languages and build up the worlds most killer repertoire of skills. See, then I would be irresistible to women for a better reason than killer hair, which I would have, and chiseled abs, which I would also have.

I would have to keep my secret a secret and never commit to a long-term relationship with anyone. I can't marry anyone since in twenty years, they're going to look twenty years older and I am going to look the same. That's suspicious, isn't it? So none of that for me.

I don't know what else there is. I feel it would be a lonely life as a vampire unless I felt like making friends with other vampires. I guess they could be cool. I wouldn't partake in any of their killing sprees since I am a man of honor and respect versus an animal, like those turds.

One thing I wouldn't do is drink this drink. I really wanted it to be good, but it wasn't. You have no idea what we had to go through to get this. It's hella-expensive and only available in a 4-pack from Hot Topic or probably on HBO's site. It has all the makings of a great pop if you don't know how to read ingredients; natural flavors and cane sugar, but read a little bit further and you get sucralose which is way too apparent. I don't know why they ruined this with garbage if they were still going to charge $4 a bottle for it, which is still half what I paid for it. Jerks. It really doesn't taste much like anything. It is a little orange, but mostly tart and sugary, regardless of the bottle saying "slightly tart, lightly sweet". That couldn't be more wrong. If they made blood orange Smarties and you crushed them up into diet pop, you would have this drink.

I don't believe in or care about vampires. I don't ever want to hear anything about the Twilight saga, True Blood, Vampire Diaries or even Dracula 2000. That shouldn't surprise you, but I'm letting you know, just in case. I did need this drink because I have had good experience with blood orange drinks before but that sliding scale is tipping towards few and far between. I really wish that I liked this drink, but it looks like this gimmick beverage has failed me.

I'm not sure if it's actually the container that is the difference, but I've found that most soda in cans is not as good as bottled varieties. This is especially true of root beer. I have never had a canned root beer that was anything more than acceptable. Given this, I didn't think this root beer was going to be anything to write home about.

Upon first sipping this, I was surprised how good it was. The actual color of it was clear, which is uncommon with root beers. Since this is an organic drink, they probably decided to not add unnecessary coloring to it. Plus, most people who drink out of a can don't check what color a drink is, only obsessive drink reviewers such as myself. We should really come up with a term for drinks that are clear when they normally aren't. I'll have to think this over more. Any suggestions?

Anyways, this root beer is great. It's really smooth with a very light root beer taste. While I'm a big fan of heavy and complex root beers, a light but flavorful root beer is nice from time to time. The root beer taste was very close to root beer barrel candy, which I've stated many times that I love. Maybe that's the taste they were going for and was the reason they put the root beer barrels on the can's artwork.