Sparkling - 501 Reviews

Blueberry sparkling water; that is what this is. Yep. It's sparkling water, like you would get in a seltzer. You could call it seltzer water but you can also call it sparkling water. The blueberry? Faint. Present. Underwhelming. The whole thing? Fine, totally fine. The flavor is doesn't keep up with the sharpness of the water so you lose a little flavor. You'll always lose flavor. You'll have that when dealing with essence.

How exactly does one get an essence of something, specifically fruit in this situation? The way I see it either it's with magic, or a lot of beakers and Bunsen burners are involved. I'm not sure which route Cascade Ice chose to go, but the results are right her in this bottle. This is nothing but water, carbonation, and organic essences from fruit oils and extracts. It doesn't taste like an entire grapefruit was scaled down to fit in this bottle, but the flavor of it is there lightly. The majority of the flavor in this bottle is just bubbly water and there is a hint of grapefruit flavor. I personally like more flavor in my drinks, but as I get older I see the appeal of lighter drinks more and more. Guys, I think I'm finally growing up.

Vanilla? Inherently smooth. Like a fine cream soda, this drink really doesn't have any other job aside from being smooth. There are no ingredients getting in the way, like every corgi in the history of time that is in the kitchen when you're making dinner. They are always in the way. Not here, though, this is just vanilla and seltzer water. It has a pretty strong vanilla taste so you don't get any of that bitter seltzer taste that many people hate.

Polar is doing something right here. Sure, it's not their cinnamon but it's something. It's almost time for their cinnamon one. What a glorious day that will be. A cream soda-esque seltzer is great and I would probably buy this again, but let's get real for a second. Cinnamon trumps vanilla.

This…€¦smells…€¦weird. It's like unbaked bread and vitamins had a baby that a liquid. Sometimes working your way past a smell can lead to great enjoyment for your other senses though. I woke up this moment feeling like doo-doo for some unknown reason. I was just worn out and achy. One would think I had a hangover, but that certainly wasn't the case. I did some things around the house and still felt like garbage, so I decided to take a nap. Of course it was this time that my sleep paralysis decided to come out for the first time in months (For those of you who don't know it's when you're sleep rhythms mess up and you get stuck between slumber and waking. You are aware of our surroundings and know that you're asleep, but can't move or fully wake up. It's the worst). When I finally convinced my brain to wake up 100% I felt even worse. I was just in a haze. That's when I remembered this was in the fridge. I started drinking it and within 10 minutes I was feeling noticeably better. Not only was my predicament improving but I was also really enjoying the taste, minus the weird smell.

This is carbonated lemonade, if lemonade has made with lemongrass as well as regular old lemons. Now I don't know if there is actually any lemon juice in here, but it certainly tastes like it is. There is also a nice ginger flavor to it, but without any hint of a burn. Around the edges there is some hints of the vitamins and other such things that help with recovery, but they are mainly just hanging around in the background. One thing I need to point out is that this is ridiculously carbonated. If you're entering into a belching competition, it would be wise to slam a can of this right before you go on. Then you'll be burping like an angel. Seriously though, look past the strange scent of this beverage and you may find yourself with a new little friend.

Yes we live in Buffalo, NY. No, that is not a part of New York City. In fact we live the furthest you can be from NYC and still live in New York State. Whenever I travel people always assume I live near the city, and tell me how awesome it must be to be able to go there all the time. I'm sorry to tell you folks, but if you live in the North Eastern US, you probably live closer to “the city” than I do. It's actually about six and a half hours away from us. The only times I have been there outside of touring was once right after high school and once again about five years ago. I actually can't stand the place, but that is neither here nor there. My point was to point out that NY is a huge state with many cities and towns, many of which I haven't even visited. I was reminded that by this beverage. Saratoga Springs, where this is made is near Albany and it's famous for its mineral water springs. It was a hot spot back in the day for the rich and famous. I am neither of those things, and even though it's out of vogue, I have still yet to visit this location to experience its naturally carbonated mineral water.

I doubt the water in this bottle is in the state it is found in nature. I mean I'm sure they added some bubbles, but it is spring water that is carbonated. It also has a nice mind berry taste to it. My ladyfriend says that it's sweeter than she wants it to be, and I told her she was crazy, because there is no sweetener in it, just water, carbon dioxide and natural flavor. Luckily this doesn't have that dry/bitter seltzer water taste, and I actually enjoyed it a great deal. Sometimes you just need bubbles to tickle your throat and not have any sugar to go along with that. These are the times for Saratoga.

Perhaps this company chose its name because they felt a certain kinship with the Marquis de Sade. The term sadism was derived from the Marquis name, and if you don't know it's when you receive pleasure from causing others pain. Now this drink doesn't exactly dole out pain, but there is something about its initial taste that is uncomfortable. The thing is that it is similar to the Super Berry version in that although it is uncomfortable, you learn to enjoy it. Thus the drinker becomes the masochist. I blame the combination of the lemon juice and the erythritol for the oddness of the beverage. It's bitter, dry and naturally diet tasting. It's like you're getting the taste of the erythritol/stevia, but not the sweetness. The mango ginger flavor should combat that, but the flavor that is there doesn't really taste of mango or ginger. Nothing about this drink tastes right, but for some reason the more I drink, the more I enjoy it. With each sip I feel like I'm punishing myself, but I can't stop, and I want more. I no longer even know how I feel about myself. This is a strange world that I live in.

- Phil? Hey! Phil? Phil Connors? I thought that was you!

- Hi, how you doing? Thanks for watching.

- Hey, now don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heck-fire remember you.

- Not a chance.

- Ned! Ryerson! Needlenose Ned. Ned the Head. Come on, buddy. Case Western High. Ned Ryerson, I did the whistling belly button trick at the high school talent show. Bing! Ned Ryerson, I got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate. Bing again! Ned Ryerson, I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times till you told me not to anymore. Well?

- Ned Ryerson?

- BING!

- So, did you turn pro with that belly button thing or what?

- No Phil, I sell drinks.

- What a shock.

- Do you have anything to drink? Cause if you do you could always use a little more. Am I right or am I right or am I right? Right? See after graduation I fell into the whole beverage world. My family owns a cherry farm, and it just made sense to sell cherry juice. I mean why do you think I say “Bing” all the time? I'm trying to get people to subconsciously think of cherries! Anyways I've worked out a new drink that is a combination of our famous cherries and raspberries that I get from Bill Klepler from back in high school. I know what you're thinking, cherry-raspberry juice is nothing new, but what if I were to tell you that I carbonated it and added B-Vitamins, caffeine and ginseng to turn it into a safe, healthy energy drink. I think it will be all the rage with the kids. I added some sucralose to keep the sugar content down, but let me tell you Phil, this tastes like nothing but pure juice with some bubbles in it! It's fantastic, and you'd be doing yourself a great disservice by not giving it a try.

- Ned, I would love to stand here and talk with you, but I'm not going to. See you.

- Hey, that's all right, I'll walk with you. You know whenever I see an opportunity now I charge it like a bull. Ned the Bull, that's me now. You know, I have friends who live and die by the actuarial tables and I say “Hey, it's all one big crap shoot anywho.Tell me, have you ever heard of our Bing Black? Because I think that really could be the ticket for you. God! It is so good to see you! What are you doing for dinner?

- Something else. It's been great seeing you, Needlehead. Take care.

- Watch out for that first step. It's a doozy!

Steve, I need to make a change in my life. I need to calm down with the burgers and go organic. We have been eating like garbage for decades so we need a change. What've you got there? If it's organic, I'll slam it. That's going to be my new mantra going forward. I'll eat anything organic. That's healthy, right? I mean, it's organic.

What is this? Is this organic? You know my new rule. Is this grapefruit beer? Marquis? What's that? You're saying this isn't it? I'm looking at the ingredients and this isn't alcoholic but man it tastes like it is. It's a little bitter and tastes really diet. It certainly is "Citrus" but that's a bit of a vague flavor, don't you think?

You know what? You can have organic hamburgers, right? Alright, hand me one of those. Maybe I don't need to go so "cold turkey" on everything. I might go half junk food and half organic. That will naturally put me right in the middle, right? Cool. Give me that burger, dude.

While Sunny D is fine for children to drink, I fully believe that it is completely unacceptable for adults to consume it. I didn't even realize I had that stance until I found this can of Sunny D X and realized that we had never reviewed the original. You know what, I'm fine with that.

I dreaded drinking this. It is the Dread Pirate Roberts of sparkling beverages. I expected it to be as thick as the original but with bubbles. I don't even know how you can carbonate something so thick, and I guess I never will as this is just slightly thicker than a normal pop. Actually everything I anticipated about this beverage was out the window” it wasn't thick, it isn't really an energy drink (it does have B vitamins in it though), and it didn't taste like the sludge I remember this company putting out.

Take a classic lemon lime soda and add a little bit more lime to it. Okay, now put in a little grapefruit for good measure. Actually you might as well throw in some orange and tangerine as well. Somehow the lemon and lime stay at the top and the rest of the fruits mingle in the background. They are just extras in this made for TV movie. Now add some bubbles and the result is shockingly pretty decent. For some reason it almost has a malt taste to it, which I don't understand, but I don't hate. Actually I kind of enjoy it way more than I feel comfortable admitting. I mean I'm still not going to go back and try the fake juice original version, but this is something I would possibly drink again. It's too bad the can looks so budget though. It looks like a beverage you would find at the Dollar Store.

With a name like Sprizz-O for a beverage that boasts to be “Juice & Seltzer Water” I would expect simplicity. In my head its creation would go something along the lines of putting juice in a glass and adding just a spritz of seltzer water to give it some carbonation. That it's that's all that would go into it, and you know what it would be great. Sure in this instance it would be sour because of the grapefruit juice and a tad bitter because of the seltzer water, but it would be pure and simple. It would be something to embrace. Unfortunately, most of the world would not share in my jubilation for such a beverage, and Sprizz-O knows it. As a result they included sugar into the mix to tame the sour/bitter taste that nature had intended.

I can't blame them. They are a business and I'm sure they will sell way more bottles this way instead of the way I envisioned. To be fair they also only added minimal sugar (9g), and you still get most of the sourness from the grapefruit. They added just enough to take a bit of the edge off. It's not ideal for one such as me, but it's close enough that I can't complain. So ignore everything I wrote previously. This is a great sparkling beverage that more people should replace their normal soda intake with.

It should be a crime against nature. It should be an ultimate evil. Artificial sugar combining with lemonade should be akin to the raising of the antichrist, but for some reason I don't mind it. Does that mean I've gone to the dark side? Do I need to start having rituals with some sort of sacrifice? Do I need to shave my head and grow a goatee? You know what? Why not?

This is a sparkling lemon drink that is in fact sweetened with sucralose, but it doesn't taste like poison and I don't feel like all humanity should be slaughtered because real sugar wasn't used in making lemonade. I still feel dirty that I enjoy this, but I'm not going to deny myself. Sure it tastes diet, but the lemon does a good job covering it up.

This is better than I ever could have imagined it to be, but at the same time it's not something I would crave. I would happily drink it if it were presented to me, but I wouldn't chug-a-lug all day long on the stuff, which is probably for the best.

I know what snow looks like. I don't remember what the rapper Snow looks like. That's not to say that (almost) local celebrity Snow isn't memorable, it's just that it's not in the forefront of my memory. Sure, he's from Toronto and Jay and I used to take monthly trips up there but our paths never met up. I wonder what would have happened if they did. If we went for a dance party and ran into Snow while eating hot dogs on the corner of Queen and Spadina, who knows what would have ensued. I'm going say that it's been a long time since Toronto has given Snow the "star treatment" so it might be like backstage passes to a reggae show or something nice but local. I bet he could get us free drinks but since we don't drink, he would, naturally, get us drinks that are in his nomenclature so we would only be drinking Sparkling Sno.

Now I'm sure he's a good guy but I wonder how Jay and I would deal with the fact that the drink he just gave us is pretty gross. "Look Snow, it's been a really good time and you're a cooler dude than I thought you were going to be, but we've got to be honest since you're being so cool with us. This drink...do we look like we're on a diet? We're not exactly chiseled but this...this is diet. It doesn't particularly taste like pomegranate but might, if we're pushing it, might have had a hint of raspberry in it. We understand that you probably don't want us around anymore. It's not that we don't appreciate your generosity. We really do. We just have to be honest with our faithful fans."

That could go one of two ways. Number one is that Snow would say, "Tank you for da honesty but I've gotta tell ya ta leave." or he could say, "Me boys. Tanks for da honesty. Ya can come into da private VIP section. I was just testin' yas. Help yourselves to anyting ya want. It's on me." Man I hope it would be the latter.

Things have just gone too far. I don't know who originally started associating zero calorie sparkling beverages with ice and all things frozen, but as good of a marketing plan that was other companies have beaten it to death. Yes they tend to taste crisp and cool, so the original idea makes sense. The thing is that ice is not the first thing that a brain would think of hen drinking these types of beverages without the names being forced upon them. I don't hate these drinks by any means, but for the love of all that is good in the world, please come up with your own ideas and stop copying another companies marketing scheme.

Cumberland Farms happily sent us these samples, so I feel a bit bad for ragging on them, but it drives me crazy. Luckily their beverages aren't that bad. Like all good beverages of this ilk this is crisp and refreshing. They chose to sweeten it with sucralose instead of the stevia blends that a lot of the other companies are using these days. That concerned me at first, but luckily the flavor didn't suffer for that decision. This is clearly a diet drink, but it doesn't have that terrible 80's diet taste that most sucralose drinks force upon the imbiber.

My brain automatically associates the strawberry kiwi flavor with diet beverages. My mom and sister always drank gross zero calorie drinks with that flavor, and I always wanted a real sugar version, because it sounded like a wonderful combination. Once I finally tasted a fully sweetened beverage of that sought after flavor it was far too sweet and seemed to be for children. So diet it remains in my mind. I can't really say that this tastes like those two fruits, but it does taste exactly how I would expect it to, as its predecessors have.

A thing that I should have mentioned earlier is that unlike its contemporaries, Cumberland Farms combined the classic zero calorie sparkling beverage with a Vitamin Water style beverage. They enhanced their recipe with vitamins and antioxidants. So to sum things up, they somehow created a sucralose sweetened drink that doesn't taste like complete poison. They also had the sense to use some fruit juice in it and not artificial flavors. On top of all that they added a bunch of ingredients to make sure people get essential vitamins that might be lacking in their diet. It's certainly not my favorite drink out there, but it's doing okay for itself.

There are so many companies out there nowadays putting out zero calories flavored sparkling waters. Want to know a secret? Most of them blow. Their flavors are weak and they are so overly diet that I can't handle it. Sparkling Ice stands out in this crowd, and by stands out I mean they make a palatable drink that is fairly average in the overall scheme of things, but supreme in its specific category.

Even though it's just supposed to be sparkling water they are not afraid to make their flavors bold. In fact they actually add a splash of real juice for their flavoring instead of artificial garbage that tastes more like chemicals than anything else. This has a strong peach taste to it, and yes there is a bit of nectarine in there as well, which in reality is just a smooth skinned peach.

This is one of the few drinks that are sweetened using sucralose that I can actually stomach. They have found a way for the peach flavor to hide the sucralose poison. I would like to know exactly how they do it, but a good magician never reveals their secrets, so I'm sure mums the word.

Something about this seems like I shouldn't be drinking it. It's too sharp and I feel like it got a small composition of poison. It's probably one of the worst Cascade Ice drinks I've had and only slightly tastes like both peach and mango. I guess "some" is better than a lot of drinks but I cannot escape the fact that danger runs through my gullet with every sip. In small sips, it tastes very sweet, very diet and you don't get the uber-sharp, cutting sensation. Take a gulp and you wish you had written a will. With every gulp I winced some I just got a mystery shot in the arm from a sneaky doctor that just likes "practicing" on unsuspecting patients. I don't like him, I don't like shots, and I don't particularly enjoy this drink.

We've come a long way, coconut. From the days of only eating them by way of Mounds candy bars through the coconut shavings on ice cream and now coconut flour and coconut cream pie; Quite a versatile man. Now sure, in liquid form you're better cold but this drink was room temperature and it was pretty great.

It was a little sweet but don't let the "0 Calories" tag discourage you because this is fantastic and doesn't taste diet at all. It also does not taste like coconut water or a coconut milk. It's more a water with coconut flavoring than a coconut base. It tastes like a liquid, fizzy version of a candied coconut. This makes me want to buy a giant bag of dried, candied coconut and just house the whole thing. No sharing. No way. No how. All mine. I'll eat coconut and drink this sparkling coconut water and no one bother me.

If you like pina coladas and songs about proposed infidelity then this is for you. Okay, maybe not the infidelity part, but like millions of people across this great land I can't think of this particular flavor and not get that dumb song stuck in my head. It's supposed to be playful and fun, but in reality it's about two people who believe they are in a loveless relationship that set out to cheat on their partners only to end up together again. The action may not have taken place, but they were both ready willing and able to have relations with whomever was waiting for them. That is dark folks.

Luckily this drink will lighten your spirits. Cascade Ice is the only company I know who has made sucralose palatable. Sure, they haven't done away with the diet flavor completely, but it's masked nicely. This is a mostly pineapple soda, with a little coconut here and there. If the flavors were reversed I probably wouldn't want anything to do with this, but it all falls in line nicely. This is a great option for those of you watching your calorie intake. As far as I know the company also doesn't condone going behind your partners back for some extra loving. That's a plus as well.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Could one of you please clue me in as to when I started to actually enjoy the coconut flavor? I'm going to say for at least 30 years of my life it was the bane of my existence. Many a bake good were ruined with the shavings of this food stuff. Any beverage that it was associated with that I tried tasted like sun tan lotion to me. I simply hated it with every fiber of my being. Now here I am sipping on a sucralose sweetened coconut mango sparkling water, and flat out enjoying it. I don't know what has happened. Is there a tear in the fabric of the universe and I'm getting a glimpse of some opposite dimension? If me enjoying coconuts were the only thing this dimensional rift caused it would be the worst story line ever and would be too dumb for even a SyFy original movie.

I still hate toasted coconut, so not that much has changed, but I am enjoying this. There is mostly mango flavoring this thing (well mango and artificial sweetener), but there are nice little coconut tinges around the edges.

Actually let's ignore the whole coconut thing. The real question is how am I enjoying something that is sweetened with sucralose this much? I mean I wouldn't rush out to buy more, but I would happily drink it if someone handed me a bottle. It still tastes diet, but not in the classic gross way. That is the true accomplishment of this beverage. Stand proud Cascade Ice, you have made a breakthrough on two fronts.

I've finally made it to the end of my journey. I send two and a half weeks in Europe, where I drank 45 beverages that I wrote review notes for. I didn't expect it to take me three weeks to actually get around to writing all of said reviews, but here I am writing the last one of the bunch. I started this by writing about a bottle of Feel Good, so it seems only fitting that my last review would be for the same company.

One thing I have learned from my adventure is that people in the United Kingdom love their lemonade. On top of that they like adding bubbles to their bitter-sweet treat. Feel Good decided to take their beverage in a little bit of a different direction than the classic version by not adding sugar to it. Instead they have embraced the natural sweetness of apple juice and added that to the mix.

There is also a little bit of lime juice in here. You would think that the lemon and lime combo would make it taste like 7Up of Sprite, but this is far from those forgettable sodas. You see this actually tastes like real fruit and not generic fake flavoring. It's like neighborhood kids made some lemonade to sell at the corner, but the plumber was over so their water was shut off and they used their mother's bubbly water as a substitute. Those dumb kids also thought that the lime was a lemon that wasn't quite ripe so it got thrown into the pile. It's great. Their mistake is your gain as the lime gives it just the right twist.

Europe, you were good to me and I can't wait to return and drink far too many of your beverages in such a short span of time.

Feeling good is something I think everyone can get behind. I mean unless you're a masochist, no one is sitting around thinking of things they can ingest in order to make themselves feel terrible. Who out there has said something along the line of “Oh man I can't wait to get home and eat that deep fried pizza that has been dipped in hot chocolate and covered in powdered sugar. It's going to make me feel like such garbage, it's going to be great!”

This company makes beverages that you can feel good about drinking. There is no added sugar, or artificial garbage to make you feel run down and gross. They are simply juice and sparkling water. This one in particular is mango, orange, passionfruit, apple and lemon juice all melded together into a perfectly unique flavor. It has just the perfect amount of carbonation and it's lightly sweetened due to the natural sugar in the fruit. I could drink this constantly and not feel a bit of regret. It's near perfect. American companies take note. If you don't want to see that dystopian future that is in all those movies, start making juices like this. It could in fact save mankind.