Crystal Beach - 2 Reviews

This ain't your grandma's loganberry. This, my friends, is the first carbonated loganberry drink. It was hard to avoid loganberry as a kid growing up in Western New York. It seemed like every corner store and restaurant had one of those continuously flowing glass loganberry dispensers next to the soda fountains. I know I would drink a tall glass of the insanely sugary drink easily as a kid, but I wouldn't even dare to do so now. I recently came across some in a fountain and found the flavor nostalgic, but the drink to be too thick with sweetener.

When I heard the news of a sparkling loganberry drink hitting the shelves at Tops this past weekend, I was expecting it to be a loganberry soda. To my surprise when I picked up the 4-pack, I noticed they used pure cane sugar as a sweetener instead of high fructose corn syrup that is usually in loganberry. I wanted to drink a bottle on the way home but I resisted so we could all try it together when we recorded a podcast with Buffalo Eats later that evening.

Was it worth the wait? Most definitely! While this is a sparkling drink, it's very lightly carbonated which is really nice. The cane sugar also makes it very light and lets the loganberry flavor shine through. All my life I've been drinking loganberry that was drowning in corn syrup, so it's nice to finally be able to taste loganberry for what it is. The light and fruity taste reminds me a lot of Izze drinks, or HotLips soda.

I think this drink has a little something for everyone. If you grew up on loganberry, you need to try this. If you've never liked loganberry because it was too sweet, pick up a bottle and see if you like this because it's much different that any loganberry you've ever tasted.

When I was a young kid one of my favorite summer activities was to go to amusement parks. That really shouldn't be a shock because what kid doesn't love rides, games and awesome junk food? There were three different parks within an hour from Buffalo; Darien Lake (later became a six flags), Fantasy Island (always seemed smaller and kind of run down) and my favorite, Crystal Beach.

Crystal Beach was a twenty-minute ride across the border into Canada right on Lake Erie. I think it was always my favorite because it had everything that normal amusement parks had, plus it had it's own awesome beach with a rad pier. It also had one of the greatest roller coasters I have ever ridden, The Comet. You could ride it forwards or backwards. It was sheer magic to a little kid.

The other great thing to come from Crystal Beach is the regional drink Loganberry. It is a very thick juice that is a mixture of blackberries and red raspberries. It's so thick that it's almost like an uncarbonated soda. As a kid I absolutely loved the stuff. It was typically sold in glasses that were dispensed from those giant clear machines that constantly mixed the drinks. If I had any idea what they were called I would post a picture.

As an adult it's a bit thick to drink on any sort of regularity. Drinking it every once and a while definitely brings back fond memories. Like the time I won a giant stuffed Nerd (you know the guys on the candy box). Unfortunately the park closed down in 1989. I can't believe it was that long ago. Now it is just condos. I still go to that beach sometimes. The dilapidated boardwalk is sitting there in pieces waiting for kids to jump off the end into the deep water. I think I need to do that soon.