Fentimans - 10 Reviews

The British have a very different take on sodas and I love it. Growing up in the US you are fed your cola, root beers, lemon limes, orange sodas and the like. In England it's all ginger beer, dandelion and burdock, elderflower and other deliciousness that is strange to my American tongue. Okay, maybe they aren't all strange, but they are way different than what I grew up with and it's a difference that I can appreciate. I'm not sure if all Fentimans sodas are classic British flavors, but if they are myself, as a young boy would think they were from another world.

If you think about it, a straight lime soda isn't very common in the US. Sure we are up to the gills in lemon lime (and it can all be flushed away with the mass quantity of pet fish that have died), but just lime are hard to come by. Now take that and then throw some jasmine in it and you have stepped aboard Mr Toad's Wild Soda Ride. It's floral, it's very much lime and it's fairly bitter. It has a tonic water sort of taste to it, which leads me to believe that this would make a great mixer for liquor. When I mentioned that I bet this would go great with gin (which I have never tasted) I was told that both of them are made with juniper berries. Look at me being smart for once in my life.

While I do love this, I can only drink it in small amounts, which when you think about it is how you should probably always enjoy soda pop. This 16.9oz bottle with probably also last me five or six sittings, so I win again and again. I'm pretty sure 99 out of 100 children would hate this, but what do they know. This is a soda for adults, whether they want to mix it with alcohol or not.

This here was the pinnacle of the beverage experience in Iceland, and it is made by a company from the UK, whose other flavors are readily available back home. Not only was it the best thing I drank on this trip (well actually the tap water might have been, it was the cleanest and crispest I have ever tasted), it is definitely now my favorite flavor in the Fentiman's line. It is light, floral, and wonderful. It is closer to a seltzer than a soda, and that will get no complaints from me. Actually my only complaints are that it wasn't served to me in a bathtub sized container that I could sip on for hours and since that didn't happen, that I can't find it back home. This is a flavor that Americans are not used to, and that I do not know if many would enjoy. It's not loaded with garbage sweeteners and as I said it does have a slightly floral taste. I could see a stereotypical version of my countryman saying that they “don't want to drink a garden.” Well, they would be wrong, because this is one of the best things I have drunk in a long time.

Sit down children and let me tell you a tale of the Cherry Tree. Deep in the forests of England there is a tree that is very rare indeed. It may look like any other fruit bearing tree, and to be fair that is what it is. The only difference is that the cherries this specific and wondrous variety brings forth tastes of cherry cola. Scientists the world 'round have tried to figure out what causes that flavor, and more importantly why it can only grow in that one place. All of their efforts have just left them scratching their collective noggins.

The Fentimans company has bought all of the land these trees grow on and have begun to use them to create a new soda in their line. The result is the best cherry cola I have ever tasted. It also helps that ginger root extract is the second ingredient, above even sugar. Don't worry though it doesn't have a ginger burn to it. It just rounds out the flavor a little. A lot of their other sodas taste fermented, which is a little off putting to me. With this one the magic cherry, cola and ginger flavors blend together in a way that overpowers that pesky fermentation. Thumbs up all around.

Remember that thing about your grandma that I wrote last week about her being awesome? Everything I said still stands. The baking, the cooking, everything. I love my grandma, but I would not lick her. I mean, if I had to, I would. She's my grandma. I would lick her to save my life or her life. There are other reason I would but they would all be very strange situations if I had to lick her to accomplish any sort of end goal.

This drink is strange. It's like your grandma, who still wears the same perfume she did 70 years ago as a young lady, had a glass of lemonade and did her makeup and was having a rather smell morning and had to apply extra and didn't bother covering the glass with a doily or something and all the perfume and stuff got inside and infused the lemonade with "old lady smell." It's not terrible. It's not something I would drink again because it really tastes like if I filtered lemonade through an old woman's hair.

Well that wasn't a good way to sell a product.

Steak and dandelion sandwiches are something to be had. They have those little weeds, grilled and marinated and placed among a bed of delicious steak.

I don't know what Burdock is, but this drink tastes like someone put those fantastically delicious anise candies in a Dr. Pepper. It has a light taste with a heavy aftertaste. Heavy good like Heavy D and the Boys and to a lesser, but funnier extent, the Fat Boys. You know what? No. Fat Boys beats Heavy D and all of their boys. Go watch Krush Groove and tell me otherwise. Sbarro never looked so good.

I almost didn't buy this drink because the first ingredient is "beer 70%". I have never drunk a drop of beer in my life. The smell of it disgusts me, plus I don't drink alcoholic beverages. But after consulting with my fellow Thirsty Dudes, I was reassured that this is completely safe to drink since like other Fentiman's drinks it had less than .05% alcohol.

After doing some research, I found out that shandy is traditionally a beer mixed with citrus-flavored soda, carbonated lemonade, ginger beer, ginger ale, or cider. This has lemon juice in it so I'm assuming it's the carbonated lemonade variety, minus the alcohol of course. Upon opening it, it definitely had a beer like smell to it. Not as strong as normal beer though.

The taste? Gross, plain and simple. It's like malted lemonade. I don't understand why anyone would drink this. Hopefully one of my housemates wants the rest of this bottle because I won't be drinking any more of it.

As Mike pointed out when we drank this, this tastes a bit like a mix between lemonade and a ginger ale. It's like a bizarro version of a "Brass Monkey," except instead of drinking half of a 40oz someone drank half of a bottle of ginger ale, and then they replaced the orange juice with lemonade. Not exactly worthy of a Beastie Boys song, but you do what you can. My only problem with this is that they used fermented ginger root. It gives it that apple cider about to turn. I can do without my drinks tasting vaguely alcoholic. It's not too bad, but the thought is in my head and that's enough to slightly turn me off. I could definitely see how other people would really enjoy this. I know I really wish I did more.

I'm not too sure about this one. It has a strong mandarin orange flavor. It also has a flavor similar to when you have a jug of apple cider for just a little too long, and it's on the verge of becoming alcoholic. That's not something I look for in a drink.

After my first couple of sips I started to wonder if this was supposed to be a mixer because it is called a jigger, and as far as I knew that was a unit of measurement for bartenders. I went to the Fentimans site to do some research. Once there I was informed "Jigger is an old English term for good measure, which we use when we combine the juice of three mandarins and the zest of Seville orange in every bottle. " So it's not specifically a mixer, but it certainly is strange.

The more I drink it the more confused I become by it. Some sips I think it's great, and some turn me off. I will be revisiting this again on my own time, but I still don't know if I really like it.

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.

Let me be the first to say that I'm sorry Fentiman's. We are straightedge dudes and we do not partake in anything alcoholic. When we saw "0.5%" alcohol, we just chalked you up as a company we would never be able to partake in. Then, when we recently found out that Sprite or 7Up has more alcohol content in it, we decided that we couldn't avoid you any more. So, we're sorry and we can't wait to tear into some quad-packs of your delicious pop.
REVIEW!

Good. I liked it. I know Jay will like it. It's got capsicum in it which is the key to a good ginger beer, in my opinion. The Goya Ginger Beer had it in it and scored them a 5 out of 5. This is a wonderfully burning drink that I can see buying and rebuying again. I was thrilled what my friend Robbie brought it over. It had a nice burn and we all agreed. It left you with a subtle "hotness" and a nice sweetness. I easily could have drunk another one if I didn't have any self control for my body or teeth.

I know Fentiman's is becoming more and more available throughout this area and if we have it, you shouldn't have any problem finding it. We had it at our major grocery store but you might be able to find it at your local beer merchant if they know what's good for them.