Levi Roots - 2 Reviews

After I drank the Levi Roots' Mango N Pineapple soda I had some reservations about giving a different flavor a try. There are some pluses to the soda, I mean it does contain some actual juice, but then again there are artificial sweeteners that just ruin it all.

This appears to be the same soda, except with the apple juice mixed out for grapefruit. I'll tell you that the grapefruit is the real game changer. It really cuts through the flavor and helps mask most of the artificial sweetener flavor. With some sips you get more of a pineapple taste, but one thing that is constant is that the orange flavor is always just mellowing out in the background. It is the roots rock rhythm of this soda.

With the use of real sugar this could have been fantastic, but as much as you try to cover it up the taste of sucralose/acesulfame is going to be there in the undertaste. Did I make that word up? I'm going to start using it, because I like it and I think it should be a real word, if it isn't already.

I know very little of Jamaica. I mean so little that it's a little embarrassing. When you compartmentalize an entire country into reggae music and spicy foods you feel a bit like a small minded. Then someone like Levi Roots comes around who's entire world seems to be comprised of those exact two things, and you start to think, …€˜Man, was I right?” Then you feel even worse, so you just sit back and drink your soda and try to shut off your brain.

Roots was raised in Jamaica where his grandmother taught him how to cook and the surrounding culture taught him about music. I'm not well versed in reggae music, so I don't know how good his contributions to it are, but they sound fine enough to me. I would be more than happy to try his cooking, but his soda just doesn't do anything for me.

This is just an overly sweet soda. If it were a more common flavor it would pass as generic store brand. Since it is mango and pineapple it stands out a bit more. 5% of the total is made up of pineapple, mango and apple juice. While it's a low percentage it's still more than most companies, so this should be better than it is. Unfortunately, the added artificial sweeteners ruin it for me. Perhaps if there was a higher percentage of juice it would mask the flavor of the sucralose, but the flavor is on the weak side and that fake grossness just cuts right through.