Q - 3 Reviews

For you drinkers out there in the world, this is a classy way to use soda as a mixer. No longer will you have to bust out plastic bottle and aluminum cans of syrup heavy soda to mix with your liquors. Now you have a nice glass bottle of higher quality soda (or sparkling beverage for you fancy types) to mix with your adult beverages. To me everything about this bottle screams mixer, and it looks like it's not meant to be drunk on its own. Oh but it is.

This is a mixture of the extracts of Valencia and Pera oranges, tangerines, key limes as well as pumpkins and carrots (hey why not?). It's on the dryer side of things and isn't very sweet (14g of sugar per serving). The flavor is lighter than you would expect from a soda, and it has a citrus taste that is heavy on the orange. I personally can't taste the pumpkin or carrot, but I will assume that it would taste differently if they were excluded.

This is nice because it is dry and light. It's the kind of beverage that I could sip all night at a party and not feel terrible, emotionally and physically, for doing so. In fact I did just that Friday night. This is about as classy as I get folks. It's the antithesis of brands like Faygo. Those companies have their places and so does Q.

Mario had finally found his calling in life. For 24 years he was led to believe that cola should taste a certain way, the way of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Sure they had their subtle differences, but for all purposes they were basically the same. The thing was Mario was okay with it. Sure he preferred Coke over Pepsi, but he had no problem drinking either if they were offered to him. He never really went out of his way to buy cola, because let's face it it's not root beer or ginger beer and those are his loves.

This morning Mario went to his local health food store to buy some vegetarian jerky (now there was a substance he was addicted to). He went to the cooler to grab a drink to wash down his salty, chewy treats, and that is when this little gem caught his eye. To be fair the store needed restocking and it was either this, coconut water or the dreaded kombucha. He made his purchases and headed out to his `88 Dodge Aries. He sat on the hood and tore into his bag of jerky until the saltiness overtook him and he needed to open the soda. Suddenly a whole new world opened up before Mario. Everything he knew about cola was wrong, starting with the fact that it should be spelled kola. He realized that kola was meant to be complex like a fine root beer. It was supposed to taste like waves of herbs and spices such as cinnamon, cloves, coriander and nutmeg. The taste of your everyday cola was meant to only be a base flavor that these spices would enhance. This soda wasn't overly syrupy sweet. In fact this kola is almost slightly bitter. Mario felt like he had been cheated his whole life and that he should have been drinking this his whole life. He knew then that it was his job in life to spread the word of the true kola. He would flyer supermarkets, create guerrilla campaigns where he would sabotage the enemy. He would take the soda world by storm and turn them on their ear…€¦..but first he was going to go back in the store and buy a couple more bottles, because it seriously was really good.

Awhile back Derek and I went to DC to be judges in the Glass Packaging Institute's yearly awards. It was ridiculously fun, and it made us seem like professionals and not the idiotic storytellers that we truly are. A smaller 8oz bottle of Q Ginger was in the running, and I loved the design. It was simple, yet striking. It had an embossed Q in the glass on the bottom of the bottle, and that is amazing. Above all of that I wanted desperately to try it, but we couldn't open the bottles. I had seem regular Q around, but this was the first time I had hear of Q Ginger. Disappointed that I couldn't drink it I continued on with my judging.

I recently found this huge bottle of it at a local health food store. Even though it was slightly expensive, I had to pick it up. I mean I do have a responsibility to the site, don't I?

The bottle touts that the bubbly fluid contained within is "A Superior Ginger Ale." That is quite a claim, but I was up for the taste challenge. Last night I had some friends over and I figured what better time to drink a fancy bottle of ginger ale then during a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. As soon as I started pouring glasses, a strong ginger scent greeted my nostrils. I couldn't wait until I got back out to the "gaming area" so I tasted it right there away from prying eyes. This is indeed a superior ginger ale. First off it's made with actual ginger extract. That already gives it an edge that most companies don't have. It also gives it a little kick and burn, but not as strong as a heavy ginger beer. It's just enough to let you know that you're drinking the real deal. Now any company can use real ginger. What separates Q from the rest is that they use agave as a sweetener. I love agave, and I wished more companies used it. It makes drinks just sweet enough. A lot of times when you drink things that use it, you forget that they are even sweetened, because you're not in fear of losing your teeth.

The combination of the ginger and agave are what make this one of, if not the, best ginger ales I've ever had. It's very crisp and clean, the way I like my non-brown sodas. It's worth the extra money to purchase a beverage of such a high quality.