Canada Dry - 10 Reviews

The way that some people talk about Tiki parties makes me think that there are some weird undertones at said parties. You know the kind that might involve a bowl of keys and swapping of some sort. Now I'm 99.9% sure that's not the case, but man do people get excited to dress up like they are in Hawaii and drink tropical tasting alcoholic concoctions. I personally have no place at these gatherings and will continue to keep my distance. They can continue to do what they do an if I ever get the urge to drink something that might remind me of palm trees and a warm ocean breeze I'll grab a bottle of Tiky pineapple. Actually, wait…€¦no this is just your standard pineapple pop and it's only the name that puts me in that state of mind. There are many other more deserving beverages to send my mind to paradise. Give me a glass of guava juice and I'm all set.

This is pretty much the same as their US pineapple soda except they use real sugar and it's made in Guatemala. Oh, and don't forget it has a much cooler bottle. It's made with artificial pineapple flavor that does well enough to imitate the real thing. It tastes closer to fruit than just sugar water.

Get out your grass skirts, your Hawaiian shirts and your rum if you so choose people. This winter isn't going to be going anywhere for quite some time, and anything that helps you keep sane I'm okay with. I will continue to hide under a large pile of blankets in read because your fun is not my fun.

Option A:

Step One: Go out and buy yourself one of those fancy machines that allow you to carbonate anything. As a matter of fact, you should already have one in your home because how fun would it be to make random carbonated things? Actually, why don't I have one of those in my home? I feel like I have somehow failed at life because of this fact. Perhaps it's because I would inevitably carbonate things that should never have tiny bubbles in them. No matter. Get one of those machines, that is your mission.

Step Two: Brew yourself some low-grade green tea. Don't go getting all fancy, get some bags of Lipton or something. This isn't a pinky out kind of tea that we're going for. While your at it chop up a little ginger and boil it with the tea bags. Make asure not to use too much because we just want a hint of the flavor.

Step Three: Add a cubic buttload of corn syrup to sweeten up this mess we're creating.

Step Four: Use the machine previously mentioned in step one to add bubbles to your concoction.


Option B:

Step One: Get a bottle of Canada Dry ginger ale.

Step Two: Brew some low-grade green tea, skip the sugar and ginger this time.

Step Three: Somehow make a concentrate of the tea.

Step Four: Mix your green tea concentrate into your ginger ale.



Either of those options would give you something close to this soda. Option B is probably closer to procedure you're looking for. This really tastes like a cheap green tea that has some light ginger ale undertones. I mean that in a good way though. If this had less sugar in it (58g) I would be all over this stuff. It tastes shockingly great.

Why is it that if there is a mix of lemon and lime in soda it at least has a quasi real lime taste to it, yet when said flavor is reduced to solely lime what is left taste remarkably like a green Freeze Pop? It's a mystery for the ages.

Canada Dry has found somewhat of a middle ground. When you first take a sip you get that uber sweet Freeze Pop taste, but without all of the harshness that is normally associated with them in their unfrozen state. The aftertaste fades into a somewhat believable lime flavor.

It's an interesting and enjoyable flavor, but only in small amounts. Half of this 20oz bottle was too much for me. I'm sure kids and sugar fiends alike would down this by the gallon, but I'll stick to stealing sips from someone else.

I cannot express my excitement when I came across this in a gas station in Richmond, VA. Actually that is a lie, I can very much express it by saying that I was slightly more than mildly interested. You see, I saw Canada Dry and my mind instantly went to thoughts of ginger ale. When I read pineapple, I assumed this was a pineapple ginger ale. As you can probably guess, this was no such thing. It is simply a pineapple soda. How great would pineapple ginger ale be though? I think I might just dump some pineapple juice in a bottle of regular Canada Dry and see how it turns out.

If there ever was a standard for pineapple pop, I assume this would be it. It has a general sparkling sugar water flavor with a mild taste of candied pineapple to it. I've had other sodas this flavor that the pineapple flavor is much stronger, and I have to admit, I prefer them. This is perfectly fine though, although while I was drinking it I proclaimed that I always feel trashy drinking pop from a plastic bottle. That's on me though.

Canada Dry, makers of the top-secret model of a ginger ale, now makes regular pop. That's pretty great, right? Sure. They're going against the "big guys" and making pop. Do they do it well? Meh. Yeah, you heard me. I gave it a "shaky hand" review. Black cherry is a rough pop and it is a lot harder to have a great black cherry than it is, say, a cola. This has a bit of a numbing feeling behind it like you would get from a cough drop. Is it bad? No, not really, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Is that harsh? Possibly. Probably. Actually. It's sweet and tastes like an average pop. Nothing mind blowing here. Just a black cherry pop to sit around on the shelf until you meet a person that has either never had black cherry pop or someone who forgot what it tasted like. You're alright to let this one get dusty. Don't worry. Someone will drink it.

The beverage world is clamoring trying to make a healthier soda for the consumers who think that they are too good for diet drinks, who are sexist and think that diet drinks are only for girls, and more than likely those who just think diet drinks taste gross. I myself fall in the last category. I just can't get down with normal zero calorie sweeteners. Sometime I find a stevia sweetened drink refreshing, but even that gets old fast. Dr Pepper Snapple has found a middle ground. They use three sweeteners: aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and high fructose corn syrup that result in a drink with only 10 calories and only 2g of sugar that doesn't have a very strong diet taste to it. I don't understand how they worked it out that HFCS is the second ingredient and kept the sugar amount so low. I can only assume that there are especially low amounts of the other ingredients as well, but it still has a strong flavor. It doesn't just taste like soda water.

This tastes surprising like the real deal Canada Dry. It's by no means a top of the line ginger ale, but it still somewhat tastes like real ginger, which they brag about on the label. You could hold this in your mouth all day long and it wouldn't taste diet one bit. The thing is that once you swallow, you get a bit of the diet in the aftertaste as you take a breath. It's a huge step up from normal diet drinks, but the world has a long way to go before they develop a diet soda that I would drink on the regular.

I will be the first to admit that I am a complete snob when it comes to ginger ale/beer. When done properly it can be one of the finest beverages to ever grace your mouth. When done improperly it's just a bubbly sea of mediocrity (yet I've never tasted one that I would call bad). Due to this snobbery I tend to stay away from the “big names” of soda for this flavor. I get real annoyed, real fast when a ginger drink doesn't even have any real ginger in it. Luckily Canada Dry still uses ginger in their mix, so I decided to take it for a little test ride. Sure I've had it before, but it's been over five years, and in actuality it has probably been closer to ten. Seriously, since I had a real ginger beer I hardly ever go back to the light stuff, well except on flight. I always drink ginger ale and apple juice on planes for some reason.

With the exception of their choice of sweetener, Canada Dry makes a ginger ale the way it should be made. It's bubbly and crisp. You can taste the ginger in it, but it's not enough to have any sort of burn. This is a dry ginger ale after all. (For those of you not in the know, pale or dry in reference to a ginger drink means that it doesn't have any kick.) This is of higher quality than most big name sodas. I appreciate that they took a little bit of time with this one instead of just cranking out generic soda.

Frankenstorm. Is that what they're calling it? Frankenstorm? All of the Thirsty Dudes are from Buffalo and we know a thing or two about storms. "The October Storm" is a storm that locals refer to as "The October Storm" but in actuality happened like six or seven years ago. We still call it that. I know there was "The Blizzard Of '77" but that has a year attached to it. "The October Storm" hit like nothing anyone has ever seen with warm, then melt, then flash freeze and then it just rained branches and snow simultaneously.

Canada felt a little bit, too, I bet, being so close an I know that some people were stuck in their homes. One thing that can survive without a fridge is Canada Dry. I don't know why, but it's always carbonated. Industry secrets. I guess if I was hunkered down in some iced over bomb shelter Canada Dry as the refreshment wouldn't be too bad. One step better would be this cranberry variety. It's a nice blend of the classic taste and a new, fruity twist. It's not too sweet so when you're in your temporary concrete, windowless retreat, you aren't bugging out with too much sugar. I'm not sure why, but I'm thinking that the shelter is set up like one of those church rec rooms with all old, used furniture, dark, wood paneling, and just decks of pinochle cards and not a "regular" deck of cards at all. That decor mixed with cranberry Canada Dry is defiantly better than some have it, but it's only half ideal. It makes you wish you took that winter vacation to the Florida Keys like you were planning. Hindsight is twenty twenty my friend.

I just spent four days traveling across Canada searching bodegas high and low for new drinks. It wasn't until days later in a pizza shop in Philadelphia that I came across some bottles of Canadian Dry Vanilla Cream. I had never heard of such a flavor existing, and I would never have expected top find it in as sea of cheesecakes and peanut chews. Myself and everyone I was with, were super pumped for a vanilla ginger ale. Think about that for a second. How incredibly awesome of a soda would that be? Unfortunately Canadian Dry didn't have the vision to make such a drink. This is nothing more than a cream soda. It's on of the best HFCS sweetened cream sodas I've ever tasted, but it's still just a cream soda and the lack of ginger is a disappointment.

It has quite a strong vanilla smell that reminds me of vanilla extract. The flavor is about the same, but it is pretty thick and syrupy. If this was sweetened with cane sugar it would probably be through the roof good. Dear Canada, America has stolen your company and used inferior sweeteners. You should stand up for yourself.

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.