Soda Pop - 1421 Reviews

For awhile we avoided trying Fentimans sodas because they say "Less than 0.5% alcohol by volume." The last time I was on tour in the UK the guitarist in my band drank a ton of this and raved about it. I was so bummed about the alcohol, and that I would just have to let it go. A few months later Martin, a friend of Thirsty Dudes, sent us this link, which shows that our fears were ill founded. Who would have guessed that there was more alcohol in everyday sodas? More importantly who cares? This was the green light we needed and we picked up some Fentimans for the site.
Imagine your typical suburban soccer mom, who guzzles down gallons of Pepsi a day. She hops in her minivan, drops the kids off at the fields for practice and makes her way to the local grocery store to pick up the weeks groceries. She's cruising the aisles, humming to herself. She picks up some ground chuck for dinner and quickly darts to the soda aisle for her sacred nectar; Pepsi Cola. She fills up the entire bottom of her cart with cases of the stuff. On her way out of the aisle she notices Fentimans. She says why not, she'll try a new cola. She cashes out, picks up the kids and makes her way home. She of course makes the little tikes bring in the bags as she puts it all away. Then she starts dinner. While that beef is sizzling, she grabs a Fentimans, opens it up, takes a sip and immediately spits it all over the counter. The reason is this isn't a modern day soda, but a "cola of yesteryear" as their website states. Their recipe is based on days when sodas were considered elixirs and not soft drinks. It has ginger and a mix of herbal extracts that give it a flavor that I absolutely love. I was definitely thrown off on my first bottle. I expected it to a normal cola with some extra stuff thrown in. I was unsure how I felt about it, so I waited to write my review. I'm glad I did, because I don't think I would have given it as high of a rating had I not. It's such a complex flavor. Instantly there is a hint of what most people would think of as a cola, and then an array of other flavors take over and take you on a roller coaster ride. It reminds me of the Taylor's Tonics line of sodas. There is more to the flavor than you would expect from looking at it. This is not for your typical soda drinker, but if you are someone who likes pop that is out of the ordinary look no further.

My earliest encounter in life with jasmine was on the skin of hippy girls and in the head shops, which they frequented. When I was in high school the hippy girls all either wore patchouli or jasmine oils. As a human being that understands how their sense of smell works, I obviously enjoyed the jasmine over the dirty hobo smell of patchouli.
I've also had two different types of jasmine in foodstuffs. The first is jasmine rice, and the second is the jasmine tea that is served in a lot of Asian restaurants. Both of these have a very specific smell, and a very light taste.
I got this soda as an Xmas gift from my girlfriend's parents. I had expected it to be a very concentrated carbonated version of the jasmine tea I've drank with many a fortune cookie. I cracked open the bottle and I expected to have my nostrils greeted with the sweet scent I am accustomed to. That did not happen. In it's stead was another earthy smell that I would except to encounter in some natural food store. It also did not taste like the jasmine I was use to. Maybe what I had experienced in the past wasn't really jasmine because one of the few ingredients in the soda is pure jasmine extract. This doesn't taste flowery at all at first, but there is a slight floral aftertaste of jasmine, but only if you really concentrate. It almost tastes fruity with a lot of sugar in the mix. It's not what I expected, and I'm a bit let down by that, but I did enjoy it. It's a strange complex flavor, one that I could see myself growing to enjoy a great deal.

Well well well. What do we have here? Is it a good kiwi pop? You betcha. I was surprised. I like the flavor of kiwi, but as a fruit, it's not my favorite. I don't like how soft it is. I want it to be firmer. I can't have everything I want, but I can have an opinion on things. This was very sweet, but who cares. Like I said, I feel that a good kiwi drink is few and far between. This is pure kiwi, too, so your argument of "This company makes a kiwi strawberry drink that is to die for!" is not only lame and melodramatic, it's also now what I'm talking about as it's a mix.

Grab a bottle, have a little kid open it because I think that they would get more enjoyment out of it than you, and drink it. It's good. Really. Also, I just discovered they make an octopus Ramune so now I've got to put that on my list.

This is my second go at a tamarind drink. I have to say I'm not really a fan. After a quick internet search I learned that it's used in the following; pickling, jam, worcestershire sauce, chutney and as a natural laxative. It's pretty all over the map. It's been described as a sweet and sour taste. I think it's a plant that just doesn't know what it wants to do with its life. I can't think of anything to compare it to. Unfortunately this is the first Jarritos drink that I just can't get in to.

A lot of people don't like grapefruit flavored things. I personally love it. Big Ben's kept people other than myself in mind when they created this soda. Adding lemon to grapefruit is something I never considered, but it's a nice match up. The flavor comes on grapefruit and leaves on a lemon note. They don't blend together into one new flavor, but the two in a row are interesting.

This drink had no smell at all. It also tasted like nothing, until a slight bitter seltzer water aftertaste set it. Mike's response was "who cares about this? It tastes like nothing." I certainly don't care.

A part of me wants to hate this out of principle for putting caffeine in root beer. But then, every time I drink it I'm reminded of how good this is. Bawls is known for their energy drinks, so it's no surprise that this is basically a root beer energy drink. As far as energy drinks go, it's really good! It doesn't have that acidic taste that most have. On the root beer side, it's a decent root beer. It's a light root beer taste with a very nice "froth" to it. I also love the bottles Bawls uses. The raised bumps seem weird at first when you're holding the bottle, but I've come to really appreciate them for doing something different. More companies should get creative with bottles like this.

Oh Mexican Pepsi, how I wish your American brother/sister was just like you. While there is nothing special about the taste of this cola, it's classic! And the use of sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup makes it so much better. While it's nice that Pepsi Throwback is fairly easy to find, there's no doubt that this is much better. I have never met anyone who prefers Pepsi with HFCS over real sugar. Plus, drinking Pepsi out of a glass bottle reminds me of my childhood when my grandparents used to buy the tall glass bottles of Pepsi.

I think this company bought up a surplus of purple freezie pops. They then tried to bite them open, but realized it was futile (as we all have) and then used scissors to cut off the ends so they could dump them in a giant vat. Once in the vat, they allowed the freezie pops to melt part way and then removed the ice parts that had become white. They needed this to be concentrated. They then added the only other ingredient, carbonation. Someone had the job of putting it in these plastic bottles, and then it showed up at my house.

I am enjoying this root beer by Thomas Kemper much more than the one with high fructose corn syrup in it. It goes down really smooth and has a very traditional root beer taste. This also has honey in it, but it's not as prominent as it's HFCS counterpart. So my advice to Thomas Kemper: ditch the original line of root beer and just make this version of it. It's so much better.

*Note: Just like the other Thomas Kemper root beer, I'm giving this three bottles even though this one is much better. The reason being is that in the grand scheme of root beer's, there's nothing special about this. It's a very average tasting root beer.

Who knew flowers were delectable? First I find out that hibiscus is tasty, and now thanks to Bottle Green I've learned that elderflowers are gosh darn great. It tastes flowery, but not in the way that say having your older brother hold you down and spraying aunt Matilda's ancient perfume down your throat tastes. This is almost fruity and fairly sweet. If only good ole Matilda used this to cover up her old lady smell, the world would be a better place.

I can't really go more in depth than just saying, "I don't like it". It's got very earthy taste. It's like a woody ginger ale but not like a Vernor's. They say that there is a hint of oak, and I will give that to them. Between the wooden taste and the fire brew, I can't help but make a bad face during every sip. I wanted to like it. I like that this company clearly carefully crafted (4 C's in a row) this ginger ale but to me, it's not terribly refreshing. Small sip to big sip, it's all the same. Bold, overpowering, and not my cup of tea...or ginger ale.

This is a great middle ground for ginger beer. It's very flavorful, which is something that is missing from a lot of ginger beers. It also has enough burn as to not be a ginger ale, but at the same time said burn is not overly horrific. I admit I like a crazy burn, but it's not something I want all the time. Don't get me wrong it still has a burn that would probably make a small child cry, but I can get through a whole bottle without praying for the sweet embrace of death to end the pain in my throat.

This is a pop that I was really excited to get. How could I not be? Leninade? Communist soda? Incredible! RealSoda.com are producing some interesting sodas. Hopefully we'll have some more to review in the near future.
I expected this to be like British sparkling lemonade. Unfortunately, like everything in communist Russia, it lacked boldness in flavor. It doesn't taste like lemonade at all. It's more of a lightly flavored lemon soda. There's nothing bad about the flavor, I just expected it to be stronger.
I'm can imagine cases upon cases of these stocked up in warehouses. The people are lined up waiting for their daily rations of soda. All the while the communist leaders are cursing the propaganda of Ayn Rand while guzzling their sodas.
This is totally worth it for the bottle alone. I will leave you with one of the many quotes from it. "Beware the repressed communist party animal who is really a proletarian in denial masquerading as a bourgeois cold war monger."

The first two flavors of Kutztown that we tried weren't that stellar. In fact they were on the badder side of the spectrum. At least they got birch beer right.
I always split up birch beer into two categories, and this falls under the "county fair" umbrella. It's super sugary and tastes like it should be a fountain soda. I feel like I should be drinking it in accompaniment with some fried dough on a hot summer night. Kids who are waiting in line to ride the camel or the elephant are just dying to get their hands on some of this sugary goodness. The carny that is goading you into trying to win an enormous stuffed animal for your girlfriend has an extra large cup of this hidden underneath the counter. He takes sips in-between spitting out the extra saliva from his Skoal Bandits. Sure it may rot out what little teeth he has left, but what does he care? He's living the dream, the carny dream. I like it, but I've never met a birch beer I didn't like.

This has to be one of the most complex root beers I've ever tasted. At first it tastes like any other root beer, but then a wave of flavors hit you. Some of the ingredients include: bourbon vanilla extract, anise, sarsaparilla, licorice root, birch oil, and wintergreen oil. There is a slight hint of the anise, but I wish it were more prominent. Natural Brew really knows how to make an interesting soda.

Remember when you were 9 and you used to play hockey in the driveway with all your friends? Man, that was awesome. You know what was better? When your friend's mom brought out freezie-pops and you took a break and ate a couple of them. Everyone wanted red and pink, some people wanted purple and orange, some were indifferent to blue and no one wanted green. Why? It was because they used to make you cough. Why? I don't know. Additives? I don't know.

This tastes like it, without the coughing, but with the feeling of "I guess if this is the only one left I'll have it." It smells like cleaning solution and tastes like some sort of dental numbing medicine as if the dentist would give this to you to numb your mouth when you were getting your teeth pulled out or cavities from drinking too much pop. See you soon, Doc.

What accompanies Boyz 'N The Hood more than pizza and Very Cherry Jelly Belly pop? Ummm, nothing? Yep-ahhh. Good ol' Larry Fishburn as the lovable Furious Styles accompanying me on a voyage through childhood in South Central LA while I accompany him with some cherry flavored pop. What a team? I can picture it now...Ice Cube, Cuba, and I sitting around the domino table with some bones and a cold 4 pack (they don't come in 6 packs) of Jelly Belly Very Cherry pop. Throwing bones. Dominoes!

Initially, the taste was sweet and cherry-esque, but it quickly and powerfully, much like the power of a strong black woman like Angela Basset, tasted just like cherry Jelly Belly candies. You know how I usually get mad when something tastes like candy, but with Jelly Belly pop, I might be upset if it didn't.

This was pretty good and the perfect accoutrement to classic cinema and garbage pizza.

I've been highly irritable the past two days. I blame it on the fact that it's the middle of a bitter cold winter, and nature tried to trick me with two days of hoodie weather before throwing me back into the frozen tundra. From the annoying activist hippy in the grocery store talking way louder than she needed to so everyone could hear how she was smarter than them because she ate so healthy (even though she looked sickly and wrecked) to friends not being able to hang out, I just haven't been in a good mood. All I wanted was to kick back and relax with a nice soda pop. When I opened the fridge all that was there was fruity pops. My annoyance level began to rise. Suddenly I remembered I had this gem stashed away in my back hall. Luckily the hall is unheated so the bottle was nice and cold.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love Sioux City. Their drinks may not be incredibly fancy, but they know how to make darn good soda. It's nice and creamy with just the right amount of vanilla. I drank it down and let the relaxation overtake me. I wish I were drinking it while sitting around a campfire with some cowboys. I need more cowboys in my life and less hippies.

Thomas Kemper really likes to put honey in their sodas apparently. I woke up with a sore throat today and bought this at a cafe in hopes it had real ginger in it. Sadly, it does not. As far as ginger ale's go, this is very mild. The honey gives it a nice sweet after taste. If you're looking for a decent alternative to ginger ale with HFCS, then this is a good stop. As for me, I'm still looking.