Faygo - 20 Reviews

If you like pina-col…€¦..wait no, that's not right. There is any colada anywhere to be found in this soda. I kind of doubt that there is any actual pina in here as well. Actually, I'm fairly positive that no pineapples were harmed in the making of this pop. It's just your standard generic pineapple soda. Sure it tastes closer to oranges and cherries than their generic sodas do, but it's still a fake flavor.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that this may be the worst pineapple soda I have ever tasted. It's more plain sugar water than fake pineapple flavor. This is the only soda by the Motor City company that has been less than average. I didn't even make it to the top of the label, before I decided to call it quits. Good for me watching my sugar intake (at least minimally) but bad for Faygo. You can now return to singing your song about potential infidelity.

I think it's safe to say that Faygo is the leader of the mid-level pop game. They have been around for over a hundred years, and have the widest selection of flavors that I have ever come across when it comes to the drinks with the bubbles. Most of those flavors are pretty standard, but they do try some untraditional flavors as well, all of which range from decent to pretty darn good. While I have yet to taste one of their sodas that completely blew my socks off, I've also never tried one that I flat out didn't like and that is what I think they are going for: middle of the road soda that will appeal to the greatest number of people with the lowest price point. I can't fault them for that, as I'm sure that business model has brought them quite a lot of money and made many people happy along the way.

With this flavor the Michigan company has strayed a bit from the norm. Fruit flavors in soda are mostly reserved for grape, orange, cherry and pineapple rears it's head more than you'd expect. Berry sodas are not very common, and when you find them more than likely they are more sugar than fruit. While there may not be any fruit juice in this, and it is fairly sweet, it doesn't taste like generic sweet bubbles. I'm actually not completely disgusted by this and I have already drank more than I had anticipated (I'm trying to cut down a lot of sugar form my diet, and drinks like this make that hard to do). I want to compare this to freeze pops or something like that, but it has no harshness and I think the flavor isn't quite the same. I guess the closest I can think of is it tastes like a Slurpee flavor that I had once, but since I can't remember its name that bit on info is pointless.

This definitely falls under the category of a flavor of soda that kids would love and adults more than likely have little to no use for. It's not that they don't like it, but they want to pretend to be mature and mature people apparently only drink dry sodas and coffee.

Detroit is one hell of a town, and by that I mean it's kind of hell. It's a burnt out city (not unlike Buffalo), but it doesn't have the nature side to it that my hometown does. It's just endless neighborhoods that look like they should appear at the end of some apocalypse movie. I'm not one to generally feel unsafe in my surroundings, but I'm always looking for an escape route in any given situation in that city. On top of that it has the most torn up highway that I have ever experienced, but I guess that's most of Michigan and not just Detroit-centric.

A shining light through the dreariness that is the Motor City is that it is the home to Faygo. Now I know this company gets a lot of bad press outside of Michigan, because of the culture that has co-opted it, but let me tell you there are certainly some gems in their lineup ad Faygo Gold is one of them.

The company has a long running ginger ale in their repertoire, and it is not that bad. It's a general ginger ale like you would find in any generic brand. This though, this is something different. They don't even call it ginger ale. Instead it is “bubbly sweet ginger soda,” and I can think of no better description. It's not exactly a ginger ale, it has more of an actually ginger taste to it. It's also not a ginger beer because it's not intense. It has a subtle burn that it greatly appreciated, but it also has a very specific sweetness, that just does it for me. This is way sweeter than I normally like my soda, but something about the little bit of burn and the amount of sugar works perfectly. Faygo has done well in giving hope to the citizens of Detroit. Now we just need Robocop to clean up the city so civilization can begin anew.

This doesn't suck. It's just candy but it's good. You sniff it and it's watermelon and then at the tail end, it's pineapple. It's probably just half pineapple and half watermelon since I think they make both flavors. It's pretty sweet and is probably instant diabetes if you drink the whole thing but if you share this with some of your friends, you'll be fine.

Someone at the Faygo plant probably wanted to see what it was like so in the company break room and used the seemingly endless fountain drink machine to make it. Rumor has it that if you take a tour of the Faygo plant you can see but not touch the fountain drink machine. It's something like eighty flavors, most of which don't see the light of day: pickle, asparagus, triple cola, chocolate cake, steak and potatoes, and motor oil. It's Detroit. Motor oil runs in their blood. You have to work there to drink out of the fountain machine. If you apply and manage to make it to the interview process, you can fill one eight ounce cup. Other than that, no one can use the machine. Not even family, unless Faygo hires them. They can look but they can't touch it. Faygo will fire you if you try and smuggle out a flask of anything that isn't their regular line.

Detroit, what?! Danny Brown, you are a lucky guy to be from a place that makes this. Yes, I'm talking to you, Danny Brown. I saw you when you played Buffalo and you turned me around. I like you, man. I watched your Nardwuar interview and you were totally likable. You get to get candy apple whenever you want now because of this drink. Sure, you're on the streets touring and you can't drink it every day but if you ever cross paths with ICP, I'm sure they've got some that you can borrow.

Danny, man to man, not all Faygo is bad and this is as artificial as they come. I'll admit it. This tastes like a melted candy apple. Although that might not exist, it's imaginable and not far from that. It's way too big for me and I've shared this with five other people and they all agree; this isn't too bad at all.

Danny, keep it up. Seriously, you do good work. Good collaborations and good solo stuff. I await your new record and XXX was good.

I have been duped. I walked into my local convenience store today and saw this 2 liter of Faygo in the cooler. While there were lots of flavors to choose from that we haven't reviewed yet, this one caught my eye because it has holiday packaging so I assumed it was a limited edition flavor. Limited edition flavors are what we love to find because: a. they are usually a weird flavor a company is trying out and b. they aren't around for a long time so it's best to review them ASAP.

When I saw this I immediately thought of Pepsi Spice. Sadly they stopped making Pepsi Spice before we started Thirsty Dudes, but it was basically Pepsi with nutmeg in it. They didn't have any small bottles of this St. Nick's Cola. I really didn't want a whole 2 liter, but I needed to try it in hopes it was like Pepsi Spice.

Boy was I disappointed when I tried it. It tastes exactly like the normal Faygo Cola. After a quick search and reading the bottle, it turns out Faygo makes "St. Nick" versions of some of their sodas and money from the sales goes to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. On one hand I'm sad this didn't taste like Pepsi Spice, but on the other I'm glad it's going to a good cause.

Mike scored some free tickets for us to go see Insane Clown Posse tonight. Now we both think that they resemble nothing close to good musically, but the whole culture is ridiculous and interesting. Mike compared us to Jane Goodall. We were going to interact with the "apes" in their natural habitat. All I can say is holy was that worth going to. As soon as we walked up to the club the ground was littered with empty Faygo bottles. We tried our hardest not to laugh and upset the natives. We got there right before ICP went on and took our place in the balcony. The show was complete insanity. The music was bad, but I didn't realize how much they ripped off 90's radio hip-hop beats, so that made it tolerable. The show was more than I ever could have expected. There were two huge tubs full of two-liters of Faygo (which creepy clowns kept coming out to refill) and Icp kept grabbing them to pour on the audience. Violent J had his move down. He held the mic with one hand, rapping, and with the other he would open the bottle of pop and shake it up spraying it on the crowd. He had it worked out that his thumb covered the hole, so after a few shakes he let go and the thing shot off like a goddamn rocket. Even in the balcony Mike and I got hit by flying Faygo. I can't imagine cleaning up the club after that. There was Faygo everywhere. They had to have gone through at least 200 two-liters of it. I'm not even exaggerating. I remember reading that Faygo doesn't work with them at all, so they are paying for all that soda, and that's ridiculous. On top of that there were streamers, confetti and feathers (who's going chicken huntin'?) everywhere. One great thing is that with all the "meth mouth" that was in the audience you would expect it to smell terrible at the show. Instead of horrible breath and body odor the entire place reeked of root beer. How great is that?

Twice during the set there were "Faygo Breaks." During this time an army of clowns came out and just poured buckets of Faygo into the audience and tossed out two liters like they were nothing. There were accompanied by an insane strobe light, carnival music and the creepiest chant of "Get some Faygo" that I have ever heard.

I grabbed a stray bottle of diet root beer as it flew by, took a swig and passed it to Mike. He did the same and passed it to the gentleman next to him in the 5XL hockey jersey who had more face paint on than anyone ever should. The dude pounded the rest of the bottle smiled and just said "FAM-A-LY" (yes they pronounce it "A" and not "I"). I can't make this stuff up. The root beer itself was better than I expected. It had a general generic root beer flavor and it didn't taste overly diet.

On our way out we grabbed a 1/4 full bottle of cola and got a video of some down Juggalos chugging it and pouring it on each other. This is a night that we shall not forget, especially since we're legally changing our names to Mikey 2 Dope and Violent J Draper.

Thirsty Dudes. ICP. FAM-A-LY.

Next Sunday Mike and I will be going to see Insane Clown Posse. Mike was given tickets for some unknown reason, so we're going as scientists to watch the Juggalos in their native habitat. We certainly would never have spent money to go to see them, but when it's free why not? Hopefully we'll get to witness the rare mating ritual of a "down Juggalette" eating a hot dog, whilst her face make up drips all over it. Okay, now that I have made myself vom, let's talk about this drink. In order to mentally prepare myself for the voyage ahead I decided to drink some Moon Mist. Actually back to ICP. Do they have a specific flavor of Faygo that they spray everyone with, or are they non-discriminatory about it? I would guess they would use Red Pop for the most visible coverage. Oh well.

So yeah, Moon Mist. It tastes like crab juice...err Mountain Dew, as is to be expected. The twist is that it has slightly more lemon-lime flavor to it than it's major corporation big brother. Not being a fan of original Mountain Dew this didn't do much for me, but if that's your cup of tea this would be a nice alternative to mix things up a bit.

As you most likely know the “band” Insane Clown Posse has a love for Faygo. They and their Juggalo fans spray it all over their shows. It's a pretty safe bet that sine the company began in 1907 sales have never been higher. Something that you might not know is that the Faygo company wants absolutely nothing to do with ICP. They consider themselves a family product and do not wish to be associated with the violence and obscenity that is prevalent in the clown's music. Proposals from the group for the company to produce limited edition sodas (and rumored energy drinks) have all been turned down. That is your history lesson for the day, now on to the important part: the flavor. This is exactly what you think of when you think of grape soda. It doesn't really taste like grapes, but it tastes like everything you associate with grape flavor. Specifically it keeps making me think of grape Bubbalicious gum that I used to chew when I was a kid. Now that was good gum. Normally I would choose a soda that was juice based over a “candy” soda like this one, but I can't argue that it isn't delicious. It's probably the best fake grape soda I've ever tried. I'm sure that has to do with the cane sugar. It's not often that you come across one sweetened that way.

Kel loves orange soda. I don't really know why he chose to mention it so much. Orange, to me, is never fantastic. It's just "good" all the time. It's better in certain scenarios, like BBQ's and picnics, but for the most part, it's not something to love. Kel, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying you should update your "love list" of pop. I know you've got one. You seem like the type of guy that has an ongoing list of things he loves and more frequently than you would imagine he updates it, reorders it, and tweaks it so he knows just what he wants out of life. The more you think about it, the better of an idea it seems. It's like a wish board that inspires you to go for what you want in life.

This pop shouldn't be on the list. It's good. Nicely sweet, nicely flavored, but it's just an orange pop. Cane sugar or not, sweeteners can't bring this drink out of the rut that it is destined to be in.

If his list is anything like mine, there are things like a Lamborghini Countach, tacos, and a vintage stainless steel Rolex Datejust on it. He and I may be completely different, though. I've never met the dude. Kel, if you're listening, you are more than welcome to do a guest review and clear up with the general public exactly what is on your wish list.

I've been blindfolded in a basement for three days. It's not a nice basement either. It's one of those dirt floor basements from the days of old and someone got the floor wet. Perhaps it rained and the foundation leaked and it mudded up the floors. Ugh, why am I here? Why am I doing this? Is pledging to this fraternity that great? What?! What's happening? Why are we in this van? Someone take this blindfold off me! I'm so hungry. I could eat a whole horse. I feel like horsemeat would make good tacos. Listen to me...I've got cabin fever. I'm filled with crazy talk. Horsemeat. Man, what's wrong with me.

Finally, we're out of the van. It was hot and they had the heat turned up all the way. What's that smell? I love it and it's so familiar. Oh, my blindfold is off and what is that?!?!?! The holy grail! Burger King! I'm going to get a dozen double Whoppers. What? Really? We can get whatever we want and as much as we want? Heavens to Betsy! I am going to be a little responsible and get a double Whopper, large french-fry, and regular hamburger, chicken tenders, and a cheeseburger. What? We can't get a drink? Oh, you brought drinks? That's cool. Thanks a lot, brother. I'll take the root beer. Oh, the cane root beer. Nice. I like it. It's a pretty standard root beer taste. A little bit of vanilla and perhaps a little bit of licorice. I like it. Oh, you've got another one for me? Awesome. Oh, a three liter? Really? I can't drink this whole...I have to? It will make me sick. I just ate everything I bought and now you want me to drink three liters of root beer? I can't do it. I have to?! Fine, I'll do it, for brotherhood. No, not the New Order record, although in retrospect, I would have rather have that than the inevitable barf that will happen and here it comes....

A couple weeks ago was the annual Gathering of the Juggalos. Sadly I did not attend (nor have I ever), but I can still enjoy the festival from the comfort of my home thanks to blogs, digital cameras, and Youtube. My favorite article thus far is Buzz Feed's 89 Things I Learned at the Gathering of the Juggalos.

Every year, as I mull over the thousand's of photos of ICP fans camping in the middle of the woods, I always learn something. This year I learned that ICP prefers to use 2 liters of diet Faygo to drench the crowd during their set. Their reasoning apparently is because it's less sticky than the high fructose corn syrup bottles and they are also physically lighter so they are able to throw them much farther into the crowd. I can't really attest to either of those, but I'll take their word on it because they definitely have more experience with Faygo than I do.

The one thing I can comment on is the taste. This is a pretty standard cream soda, there's nothing special about it. It has a nice vanilla flavor, but the fake sugar aftertaste cuts right though it. While it's not the worst diet pop I've ever had, I've had much better. Maybe I should go to the mall and spray the rest of this on some juggalos. They'd probably give me a high five and start chanting "fam-il-y! fam-il-y! fam-il-y!"

A couple weeks ago I tried to sneak into an Insane Clown Posse show here in Buffalo. You are probably asking yourself "Why?" Well, I thought it would be an incredible people watching experience. Sadly I couldn't get in, but a few friends and I hung out in the lobby/bar area of the show. Let me tell you it was quite a show in itself; From the 60 different shirt designs they were selling to the guy dressed in a full jester costume. Incredible!

The best part was once the show started, they played it on the big screen in the bar area. I was surprised how minimal their stage set up was. The only things on stage were three big barrels full of 2 liter bottles of, you guessed it, Faygo. In the 10 minutes we watched the show before we were kicked out for not having a ticket, they must have sprayed the crowd with over 60 liters of pop.

I'm sure among all those liters there was a few bottles of cherry cola. Do juggalos drink the Faygo as it's sprayed onto them? That's something I've always wondered. Anyways, this tastes like your run-of-the-mill cherry cola. There is a good mix of cherry and cola, but it's nothing special. I'm sure it's really good at smearing face paint when it's shot out of a
Supersoaker though. It probably doesn't taste as good mixed with the face paint though.

I don't know what I expected. "Rock & Rye" doesn't describe anything to me, but it's something and I had to drink it. Editor Dan went to Detroit for a photo excursion and generously brought us back a plethora of drinks, this being one of them. "It's original" they say. "It's with cane sugar" they exclaim. You know what I say? It's not great. It's cream soda as a base, and then something...something bitter, something...cherry?

Not for me. I am sure that some people like it, and more power to them, but if I want a bitter, I'll drink a bitter. This probably has a niche market that loves it and drinks cases of it a day and weighs 353 pounds and eats double Whoppers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when they should only have a regular, mom and pop Whopper for lunch. Not for me.

As a child I spent a lot of time out at my grandparents house out in the country. They lived in this awesome old house with a barn and a chicken coop (minus the chickens, which had been replaced by old bikes and lawnmowers). Whenever I was out there I always felt like a character from an old coming of age book. I'd spend my time on a tire swing, shooting my bow and arrows and making lead soldiers out in the barn workshop. . It was a nice break from video games and television. It's what I would have always wanted early childhood to be like

In the back room of their house there was a secondary refrigerator that was always stocked with beer and pop. Keep in mid this was the mid-eighties so the soda that was contained in the fridge generally came in those tall glass bottles. There was always Pepsi, 7Up and a wide variety of Faygo purchased from Pixley's market. The Pixley's lived in front of the market and they had a pet monkey for a short time. I never saw it though because when my grandfather went to visit it once it grappled onto his face and bit his ear. I have to admit that in hindsight that is hysterical, but at the time I wanted nothing to do with that monkey.

I've gotten off tangent. Back to the Fridge-O-Soda. My favorite was the Faygo Frosh. I don't even remember what it tasted like, but I loved it at the time. It may have been grapefruit flavored. That would make sense. When I ran out of Frosh I would turn to my old standby, Red Pop. Since this is the cane sugar version of this drink I am assuming that it is the same formula at from my childhood. I mean why would they change it? I used to love this stuff, but now it's just kind of ehhh. It's supposed to be strawberry flavored, but it just tastes like some sort of red candy. There's no distinguishable fruit flavor involved. I was hoping that I would still love this, but you can't win them all. Even though it's not spectacular in flavor it does have an awesome design on the bottle. So classy.

I really don't understand why Faygo hasn't embraced Insane Clown Posse yet. Sure clowns can be scary and they don't know how magnets work and want to live on a place called "Juggalo Island". Despite all those (and may more) negative traits, they have bought millions of dollars of Faygo over the past 10 years. One would presume that Faygo doesn't want to associate with them because they have an image to uphold. I wouldn't want to associate myself with a music group that promotes sketchy stuff either.

But what image does Faygo have to uphold? It is a ghetto pop! The only place i've ever seen it for sale is those corner stores that have expired Spaghetti-O's, socks, and Rap Snacks. It's the pop you buy because it's cheaper than Pepsi. If Faygo started putting ICP on bottles tomorrow, I highly doubt some middle age mom is going to stop buying it from the corner store for her snot-nosed kids. It's still going to be the cheapest pop you can buy. This cola is still going to be a 3rd rate cola. It tastes really syrupy and bland. If anything, it will probably increase their sales because even more juggalos will buy it. It would be one of the best decisions they ever made to embrace the MCL (much clown love) and make a line of ICP flavors.

My friend Biff, who is a fellow Juggalo historian, I and decided to get together for a viewing of Stranglemania. For those who don't know, Stranglemania is Insane Clown Posse commentating on old Japanese wrestling death matches. What better drink to consume during the viewing than Faygo. Sadly, Biff asked me not to spray his room with Faygo.

This is a flavor I've been looking forward to trying for a while. I love grapefruit soda, but have never had a grapefruit/lime mixed soda. I must say, it's quite nice. It has the tart flavor of the grapefruit with a nice lime aftertaste. It's a nice twist on a classic grapefruit pop.

This is ginger ale. It certainly is. There's no doubt about that. Nope. No question in my head that this is ginger ale. Faygo is no dumb dummy. If you ask them to make ginger ale, that's what they'll do. I reckon, though, that this ginger ale is pretty equal to other company's ginger ale. Go into your local grocery store and grab their knock-off brand of ginger ale and you'll see what I'm getting at. This isn't bad, but it's nothing special. I feel like a job well done is a job done well. This seems like it's the bare necessity of what makes a ginger ale good. It's probably easy to make, easy to keep consistent, and possibly/probably cheaper. I know someone is looking for a generic drink for things like mixers and parties where it's not the star player.

Faygo, I'm not dissing you. I am not in the position to dis, or give props, but I did rate your root beer pretty highly. I have nothing against you or the city of Detroit. Keep up the good work. Just step up your ginger ale game. Second to that would be to make your cane sugar versions easily accessible.

In the movie Pretty In Pink, Duckie eventually gets the girl. You didn't think he would. Face it. What did he have to offer? Sure, he was a bit charismatic, but that's about it. He wasn't much to look at, and at best he was a dweeb. He knew music. That was another thing. That whole sing-along in the record store was absurd and if I were a girl, I would have written him off for a lifetime. Molly Ringwald, though, she's a forgiving and understanding girl.

This root beer is like Duckie in that I thought it was going to suck, but was actually pretty good. It has a pretty good, honest rooty root beer taste. No, I'm not saying "rooty root" to be cute. If it's cute, I apologize. I just did my best at describing it. I think it's pretty on par to root beer barrels, which I like.

Dearest Duckie/Jon Cryer,
I'm sorry that your show got canceled. It wasn't your fault. I didn't have a taste for it, but you brought laughter to the hearts of millions night after night (due to syndication) and you did a good job. Now twice. Congratulations on spreading happiness through multiple decades.

Juggalos of the world rejoice, it's our first review of Faygo! Even though this is labeled as a creme cola, it just tastes like cream soda to me. Not just any cream soda though, this is very close to soda mousse. For those who have never ventured into Canada before, soda mousse is a delicious red cream soda. Unlike traditional cream soda, it doesn't have a strong vanilla taste. Given the red color, my brain wants to associate it with a berry flavor, but there is none there. It's a delicious cream soda, and it's not just for fans of ICP.