Waialua Soda Works - 3 Reviews

I had a less than stellar experience with this companies mango soda, but I decided to give them another chance. It's locally made in Hawaii, and the label design is pretty great. We were driving around late last night with the windows down and the music up. Seeing as we have yet to have anything close to a warm night in Buffalo, it was pretty spectacular. The combination of the vegetation, ocean and the lack of industry makes the air smell amazing around here.

I twisted off the cap on the soda took a sniff, and it smelled like strong vanilla. Things were looking up. First sip, not so bad. The second sip is where things started to fall apart. I don't know what it is with this company, but both flavors I've tried have this weird undertone flavor. The main taste is a fairly decent vanilla, but then that other strange flavor creeps in and holds the soda hostage. I don't know what sort of ransom he's looking for but I think we should pay it. If it wasn't for that flavor terrorist this could be a great soda.

Today a bunch of us met up at a friend's house to get some plans made for a trip to Hawaii we're taking next month. We were surprisingly productive and got a nice little outline of an itinerary put together. We are insanely cheesy, so we ordered Hawaiian pizza and had some of this soda. It's actually made right on the island of Hawaii that we're going to be visiting. Now that's pretty rad. I was wondering if I would be able to find any new drinks for Thirsty Dudes on that trip. I didn't realize this was from Kauai until I read the bottle today. I'm sure I'm going to be able to grab some other rad flavors there.

Let's start with the scent of this. It smells like a melted freezie pop. I feel like I use that analogy a lot on here, but it's something I can't escape. The flavor is similar to the smell, but it's not harsh at all. I can't say that for freezie pops. When those things warm up they are like sulfuric acid on your throat. This has a general sweet tropical flavor to it. There's a little mango in there, but I had expected more from it. I still enjoyed it and it went well with my pizza. What doesn't go well with pizza though?

I was expecting for more of a pineapple flavor with this soda. Sadly, it's a very mild flavor. It doesn't taste bad, and it's definitely sweet enough. If this had a stronger pineapple flavor I'm sure I would love this, but it tastes too bland for me.