Rocket Fizz - 14 Reviews

Everyone is familiar with how the Wizard of Oz grants the travelers wishes at the end of the book/film. You know courage, heart, brain, and to go home. What never got discussed was what Toto wanted. If a lion, a sack of straw and a pile of metal get wishes, why wouldn't a pooch get one? At least he has a functioning respiratory system, that's more than you can say about some of the other guys. What do I know though? Perhaps off camera the Wizard gave him some Milkbones and it just didn't make for good entertainment. On the other hand maybe the dog had different designs. There is a chance that he wanted to stay in Oz because it was more exciting than a dumb farm in the dustbowl. Perhaps his wish was for that guy to hang himself in the background of a shot of the film. That is one dark dog. There is also a chance that El Barko wanted some cherry cola. Oddly that is the least likely of all of these scenarios, but if that's what he wanted and this bottle is what he was granted, he came out a winner in my book. This is neither the best cola nor the best cherry beverage I have ever drank, but together they work together very well. The cherry is actually stronger than the cola, which is something I don't know if I've come across before, but it works. It makes the whole thing taste bold and something of its own. The use of real cane sugar also helps to win me over. The whole thing just blends together in a way that is pleasant to my taste buds.

I doubt Toto really wanted cherry cola, or really wanted much at all, but I don't see what else The Wizard of Oz has to do with this soda. The label image is from an old children's record, so maybe it's just a play on nostalgia. Who knows? Who cares? It tastes great.

Before Shepard Fairey hit the streets with his Obey signs/graffiti those signs belonged to one of the greatest movies this world has ever known; They Live. It is John Carpenter's tale of a civilization in which the ruling class is actually aliens in disguise, and they use subliminal messages everywhere to control the populace. Not only it's it ridiculously entertaining, but it also may contain the longest fight scene of all times. The film stars former professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as a drifter who, with the help of a pair of sunglasses, discovers the true nature of the ruling class.

The most memorable line from the movie is “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.” Now you know the origin story of this soda. Someone at Rocket Fizz has great taste in movies, and somehow their legal team cleared the product and now we have it to enjoy. You know what? This might be the only bubblegum tasting soda that I have ever actually enjoyed, and that includes people's precious champagne colas, which are just gross. The flavor of this pop doesn't punch you in the face, like other sodas of this flavor, or say Mr. Piper might if you declined to wear the special sunglasses. Instead it mainly has a general soda flavor with a light, but nice bubblegum flavor. It actually just tastes like you're drinking a flavorless soda while chewing a big hunk of gum. I don't know if that sounds appealing, but if you keep looking at all those signs around you, I'm sure their hidden messages will get you drinking this by the case in no time. They live. We sleep.

Beach Slang are a punk/indie band from Philadelphia, PA. Jason recently went on tour with them and at their show at Sister in Albuquerque James, JP, Ed and Ruben did a guest review for Rocket Fizz's Peanut Butter Soda. Their first full length will be out on Polyvinyl this fall.

I don't want this to sound negative or inappropriate, but I wanted this drink to make me choke. After drinking this I wanted it to do the same thing. I wanted each sip to be punishing but deserving of another go. Once again, it's not bad that it didn't but a man has his standards.

This was sweeter than it was asphyxiating. The trade-off left me with a little more syrupy, candy-esque cinnamon. It was good but everyone agreed that it was just too sweet. If you could make cinnamon apples and just ate the cinnamon candy shell, that's what this would be.

Look, I don't want this to seem like I'm into choking because I'm not. I'm fixated on the punishment that I wanted from a drink. That might be just as concerting.

What is there to be surprised about? You like green apples and you like jalapenos. Together how could it be bad? Sure, it's strange. You get green apple, which is sour and sweet, and you've got jalapeno, which is spicy hot. Where it gets strange is that the tastes are close but not totally accurate.

The green apple doesn't take like a green apple or even what candy green apple tastes like. It tastes like a green apple Airhead where it's delicious but almost a green apple flavored soft plastic. The jalapeno is not jalapeno at all as much as it is the burn from a ginger beer. It's spicy so in the sense that peppers are hot, this is hot, but you know what? Lemons and bananas are the same color but taste different. A red car and a red apple are the same color but taste different. It seems a bit misleading but I will accept the argument of "hot is hot" and I can throw down my gloves and accept a truce.

This is good. If you had a ginger beer but replaced the ginger with a green apple Jolly Rancher, you'd be on the right track. It's got a nice burn after a childish, green apple flavor. I bet kids would like this more than adults for that reason. A spicy pop is great for adults but the candiness of it knocks it down to the kid-zone. Regardless of age, if you see this try it because it's totally different than any pop you've ever tried. Sure I broke it down pretty simply so you know what to expect but still, you aren't going to see it coming.

Join me on a rocket ride to Russia! Oh wait this soda is actually made in California. Well that makes things a lot easier. Join me on a regular airplane ride to the west coast so we can stop off in Camarillo for some tasty soda pops.

The apple of the eye of nearly every bar patron who chooses not to imbibe alcohol is a little lady by the name of Shirley Temple. She is generally composed of a lemon-lime soda and grenadine (aka cherry syrup). I can't even tell you the quantity of these bar tenders have prepared for me over the years. The only pre-bottled version I have ever seen before is made by Saranac and it is way, way syrupy. Rocket Fizz didn't make that mistake. Instead of sweetening their soda with HFCS they used straight up sugar, which was a wise decision. It's not nearly as syrupy, which makes it way more enjoyable. It's a light and flavorful cherry-citrus soda. It actually has a vague cherry Twizzler taste to it, which is strange because the Rocket Fizz licorice soda was a big disappointment.

Bartenders everywhere are raising their glasses in salute to this soda for being as good, if not better, than any version they could have concocted.

Honey, I'm sorry that I'm too sick to go to the fair tonight. I don't know where this headache and dizziness came from. I know how badly you wanted to ride the merry-go-round and the Ferris Wheel. We can go tomorrow but for now I've got to rest. I did get you something just in case a scenario just like this would occur. I bought you some cotton candy pop. I saw it and had to get it for you because I know you love it so much. What's not to love, though? It's so much fun to eat. It's so big and then you put it in your mouth and it almost disappears.

Here you go buddy. What do you think? It certainly smells good. It's sweet? How sweet? Too sweet? How is the flavor? May I have a sip, buddy? Thanks. Ooofff. You're right. It is sweet. Uhhh. The flavor isn't bad. It's certainly cotton candy-esque. This is great if you are in a city that...say...forbids carnivals, lawn fetes, or fairs. You have a couple ounces of summer fun right there.

Buddy, tomorrow we will go and pet all the llamas, drink all the sweet tea, play all the "I Got It", and eat some hot dogs. I promise. For now, let daddy just sit here and listen to the soothing sounds of Sade.

I was finally asked to a sleepover at The Sandlot Crew's tree house last night. To put in lightly, it was AMAZING! I had so much fun! We didn't have parents bugging us, we ate junk food, and Squints told us the story of The Beast. I'll admit, it made me a little scared to go back to the sandlot today. I was supposed to be there a half hour ago.

Anyways, probably the coolest thing was when Ham offered me my first s'more. I had no idea what he was talking about and I thought he was offering me more of nothing. Chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers were meant to be eaten together. It was a heavenly treat. When I got home this morning I told my mom that I loved s'mores now. With the biggest smile on her face, she went to the fridge and brought me this bottle of pop back. I had no idea they made this!! The people at Rocket Fizz must be rocket scientists because this tastes exactly like the s'mores I had last night. It's like chocolate and marshmallow in liquid form.

Don't tell the other guys, but I think I like this s'mores soda more than the actually food. It's less messy and tastes more consistently awesome. Okay I gotta go, if I don't get to the baseball field soon I'll be stuck batting last again.

I have a problem. When all of the natural disasters culminate and the world is in shambles I know I will somehow end up on a tropical island somewhere. I also know that all there will be to eat is bananas. This will result in me starving to death because bananas are completely revolting. From the flavor to the texture it is the prime example of fruit gone bad. Over the years I've gone back and given banana another try again and again and each time I walk away hating it more. All of that being said I love banana nut bread. I don't understand why, but I think it's incredible. Something in the other ingredients neutralizes the banana flavor and it's delicious. It was because of this that I chose this soda out of the box when we were doing the Thirsty Dudes drink draft (yes that really happens).

This smells intense. It smells like banana candy with a weird harsh undertone. I've never let a bad smell turn me off of a drink, so down the hatch it went. At first it tasted like banana flavored Runts. Then the taste of the previously mentioned weird harsh smell came into play. I instantly was able to place the smell. It was the scent of slightly burnt dessert bread. The taste matched up. My overall review of this soda is that it tastes like someone made a loaf of banana bread, but didn't have actual bananas or sugar, so they ground up a bunch of banana nerds. Then they got all caught up looking for a save point in the video game they were playing and the loaf got slightly burnt.

Now someone make sure there is other fruit present on that island I will inevitably end up on so I don't starve from being stubborn.

In order to cut my chocolate intake a bit, I decided on a root beer float. I undoubtedly made the right decision. This pop was spectacular. I don't know where the "float" came from, but the root beer was pretty great. If I had to stretch it, I might saw that the root beer was smoother than normal. If they called it "root beer" I would have been satisfied. "Float" doesn't take away from the drink, it just builds up some expectations. The root beer was that good that I don't care if they called it "crap soup". Go ahead. I dare you. Put out a root beer called "crap soup" and dare me not to drink it.

I thought I knew what Mud Pie was but to make sure, I had to Wiki it. It was just what I thought it was. Chocolate with crispy chocolate. One place said that it had whipped cream in it, so I thought it would be like a chocolate cream pop. My mom said that she used to make it by putting chocolate pudding in a piecrust. All of these options sounded great and I had to get this pop in me.

First sip was a bit awkward because it tastes like there is a coffee taste to the pop, and two other people agreed. The chocolate is a good chocolate taste, and that in itself, although not technically "mud pie", would have been good. This tasted like a chocolate, coffee drink. It was good, but I wanted a bit more chocolate, no coffee, and maybe some cream. I wouldn't have been mad if there was cream in there. Much like in real life, if there is whipped cream on a dessert; I'm not going to get mad at you.

How many times have you spent your lunch hour alone in an near abandoned city mall, eating a bag of black licorice jelly beans, slowly burning up your taste buds? If you say more than nonce, then I have the perfect product for you. Rocket Fizz black licorice pop. Now, you no longer have to look like that strange kid in school that eats black jellybeans. You never understood them and they never understood you anyhow. If you like the taste of black licorice, then you know the way to succeed, otherwise, you know the way to suck eggs. Now, whenever your desire for more than ten but less than twenty ounces of pure, unfiltered, ungelatinous, pleasure arises, you know where to go.

For those of you that think that only crazy people enjoy the taste of black licorice, Dillinger Escape Plan wrote a song called Black Bubblegum and no research and full assumption points to the truth that a product such as that would taste like black licorice. Skinny Puppy's Too Dark Park was written not only about crazy Canadian animal rights, but titled after the place with Ogre and cEvin Key used to go to avoid adolescent persecution and eat jellybeans which were “too dark” for the rest of the kids.

How does it taste? Well friends, I'll tell you. The smell is as familiar as the darkest Halloween night and the taste is much like that, but lighter. More of an early morning, November 1st taste. Now that you know it exists, I would expect it to fly off the shelves. It's the perfect drink from at any time from last fall to early spring. The perfect time to quench your darkest, most depressed thirst.

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We originally reviewed this for a Halloween drink article we did for Auxiliary Magazine. To read the full article and to check out the awesome magazine go to
auxiliarymagazine.com.

A lot of people fear Kim Jong-Il. This probably has something to do with the fact that he keeps his country under wraps, commits horrible human rights violations, and leaves the people who live there living in fear. I once watched a documentary about the Pyongyang mass games in North Korea. Basically, they put on this huge display of athletes, dancers, and gymnasts to celebrate Kim Jong-Il's birthday. They spent months and months, day and night, training for this. In the end, he didn't even show up. He wasn't sick or had something else to do, he just didn't feel like going. What a jerk!

I don't know about other people, but I stopped thinking Kim Jong-Il was a "threat" when I found this blog: http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com . This blog is why I love the internet. How can you live in fear of a guy who looks at stuff all the time? What I would love to see is him look at a bottle of this orange cream soda. I wonder if he'd be offended or flattered. It does say it has a "terrorizing taste".

As far as taste goes, he should be really flattered. This is one of the best orange cream soda's I've ever had. It has a really strong orange flavor with a nice creamy aftertaste. It's made with cane sugar and real vanilla. I was expecting it to be a generic soda inside of a cool bottle. The people at Rocket Fizz probably made sure it tasted good in case he got mad about the label. I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to be on Kim Jong-Il's enemy list.

I am a licorice addict (except black licorice, it's some of the worst crap ever) . Seriously it's sad. If I open a bag it has to be taken away from me or I will consume it all in one sitting without even thinking about it, and I'm talking those huge bags of Twizzlers. Recently I've moved onto bigger and better things with Australian licorice. Now that is some good stuff. When I opened our package from Rocket Fizz and saw this bottle of red licorice soda I will admit I sort of lost my mind (I threw that black licorice one in Mike's pile, he can drink that swill and lie to you and say it was great).

So yes, I am an addict. I love licorice more than most foods. I had incredible expectations for this drink. Sadly Rocket Fizz did not follow through, and I mean very sadly. I thought I had found my new favorite pop. It smells almost right. By that I mean it smells like red licorice, but not as strong as Twizzlers. I was still extremely excited. I took a sip and noticed that while it's in your mouth it doesn't really taste like much. I took another sip and it has a very light "red pop" flavor. It's when you swallow that the actual flavor hits you. It's vaguely licorice tasting, but it's more of the cheap knock of brand licorice that you would find at a discount store.

Did I expect too much? Probably. Could Rocket Fizz have made a better soda? Definitely. It's by no means terrible. It's a decent fruity soda, but it didn't deliver what I wanted and that is saddening. I just really wish it was a lot stronger tasting.

Oh and to those of you who say that it's not real licorice unless it's black licorice, I will never understand your taste buds. I'd rather eat dirt. That's right dirt with worms in it!