Rieme - 2 Reviews

To break up a 20 hour drive from the UK to Italy, we stopped in a town right outside of Dijon, France. I was one hungry little boy since the only vegetarian food I was able to find (that wasn't candy or chips) since we crossed into France was baguettes at a gas station. For the record they were warm and cost 60 cents each, in short they were wonderful, but I was starving. We finally got to our stop and hit up a grocery store. Let me tell you non-meat eaters/pseudo vegans of the world, when you can't read labels France is no place for our kind. Everything was meats and cheeses. I ended up getting a couple more baguettes and a handful of avocados for my day's meals. It some that may seem ridiculous, but it's actually what I eat a lot at home, so I was comfortable with my situation. While in the store I also picked up this bottle of soda on the cheap and I was very excited about it.

With this fancy bottle I really thought I was in for something special. Then I remembered that things just look fancier in Europe than they do back home in the US. It wasn't bad at all; it just didn't have that special pizzazz that I was hoping for. According to my traveling companions it tasted like a generic cola that they have back in Wales. I wish I remember what it was called, but the name escapes me. The thing is that even though it may be budget cola to them, it's made with beet sugar so it already has a leg up in my world. One would think that such a sweetener would give the cola an unusual flavor, but it tastes just like it was sweetened with cane sugar.

Had this been the first cola I had in France i probably would have enjoyed it immensely, but I had drunk a Coke earlier in our travels, and that blew the American version out of the water. A fountain Coke in Italy is better than most artisan sodas in the US. We're doing something wrong people.

Before even opening this beverage I had an appreciation for it; mainly for it's use of a "Grolsch" top. I don't know if that's the official name, but that's what I've heard it referred to. I know that's the name of a beer company that uses the same design, so maybe it's just slang. Besides being visually appealing and fun to open they also wield a secret purpose. As someone who plays guitar (well bass, it's still a guitar) the annoyance of your strap coming unattached from your instrument while you play can be annoying and embarrassing. Sure you can go buy fancy strap locks, but who really wants to have to screw something into their instrument. The secret these bottles hold is that you can pop off the little rubber washer and put that over your strap after it's on your guitar and that strap won't be going anywhere. It's cheaper. It's easier. For that any company that uses this design gets a nod from me.

Flavor-wise this is also really great. A nice sparkling blood orange flavored lemonade. It's more blood orange than lemonade, which I enjoy. It also has the slight bitterness of an Italian soda, but it's from France. This could cause an international incident. They chose to sweeten this with beet sugar, which is interesting and it worked well for them. This is a fancy adult soda that I feel like I should be sipping on the patio of some cafe or another. Thumbs up all around.