Oggu - 4 Reviews

Dear Europe, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your "soda pops." I know a lot of Americans probably wouldn't like them, but to me that are what I want most of the time when I am hankering for a soda. While the American version of soda is thick, syrupy and overly sweet, you take things ta-other way. Yours are light and nice and bubbly. You understand that drinks don't need to drenched in sweetener to be enjoyable. Most of the time your sodas are closer to sparkling juice than American soda.

This is the lightest orange soda I've ever tasted. It also has actual orange juice in it, which is a major plus. It's not insanely orange juice tasting like Orangina, but it's in that vein. In a blind taste test I could tell you this was a European soda. It tastes somehow fresh. This has been the worst explanation of a soda ever, but that's what you get. Oggu has done it right, yet again.

We were privileged to be given an advance taste of this drink. Apparently Europe has not allowed companies to have drinks on the market with stevia in them yet so they sent us a bottle of it without the label. This is the same Oggu 100% Organic Cola we have already reviewed, but sweetened with stevia. I loved the original so I was excited to try this low calorie version.

My thoughts are as follows: it's good, but not as good as the original version. It has the same complexity as the one sweetened with cane sugar, which is great. The stevia is throwing me off though. It's not as bad as most diet drinks, but I've definitely had ones that mask the stevia taste better. If Oggu is trying to be a competitor to drinks like diet coke and diet Pepsi, they will win hands down! But, this isn't as good as the cane sugar version of their delicious cola.

You know, this is a good cola. It's good because I've spent the last twenty years drinking "common" colas. The Netherlands have stepped it up a notch and have released this 100% organic cola and although other companies have done it, this tastes different. Coloring is done by organic caramel and there is natural citrus for bonus flavoring. Who doesn't want anything bonus in life? I know who does and thinks you do; the Dutch. Them and their wooden shoes, which according to a recent episode of Globetrekkers, they still make and wear. No, not everyone, but some. The citrus adds a nice touch and you can tell in every sip that it's there. It's welcome, too.

One thing is that they have gone to the nines with greenness and organics and have used about as little plastic on the bottle as possible, leaving in your hand, a dangerous and almost inevitable spilling container if you're not careful. It really likes to give, like those new water bottles, which, in itself, even the best water bottle is terrible for the environment since you can get water everywhere. So, if you want a great, natural tasting cola that, for some reason, they call "sparkling cola" when it is just pop, and you enjoy change in your classics, and have great control of your hands, this is the drink for you.

Every time I read Oggu I instantly think of the commercials for Boku juice from the 90's with Richard Lewis in them. Those commercials were ridiculous and terrible. He seriously says Boku eight thousand times in each commercial and it's a ridiculous word to be said once, let alone more than twenty times in a minute. Now that I think about it he really didn't do much other than those commercials and terrible stand up. Oh the 90's when the bar was set so low for comedians.

This is a soda, not a juice like Boku. It is also not sub par like Richard Lewis. It is one of the better lemon & lime sodas I've had. It has actual juice in it and it's also not nearly as sweet as most of it's counterparts. That is a great thing about European sodas; they don't feel the need to over-sweeten them. Which I definitely appreciate. This drink is actually good enough that it doesn't need a stand up comic, humorous or not, to sell it. It's flavor sells itself.

Now I just have to remember what show made fun of those commercials. I think it may have been Wayne's World. I'm actually pretty sure of it. If you can confirm that, please do.