Portugal - 9 Reviews

Apple juice. It's apple juice. It's good, too. It's good apple juice. What I'm drinking is good apple juice. No sugar. All apples. Just apple juice.

Pears are a weird fruit. I have nothing against them per say, but I also never go out of my way in even the most miniscule way to consume them. To me they seem like some low grade relative to the apple, which is a mighty fruit. Why choose a pear when you can have an apple? I mean have you ever been in a situation where there was a pear but not an apple? I don't think I ever have. To choose a pear over an apple would be akin to eating a Mama Celeste microwave pizza instead of grabbing a pie from the local shop down the street, even though both would be free to you. No one, save a lunatic would ever do it. At the same time, if that fresh baked pizza weren't an option, I would still happily eat the microwaveable one.

Okay pear bashing time is over; onto this juice. The carton says that at a minimum there is 50% juice content in here. I'm going to guess that the rest of that content is sugar, because it dominates most of the flavor. The added sweetener in here mostly covers the taste of the pear. As I said I'm not a huge pear guy, but if that is what I am promised that is what I want delivered. I'm sure there are people out there who love pears, and they would be sorely disappointed in this nectar. There is a bit of a pear taste to it, but it could be much, much stronger without offending any living soul on this planet, or any deceased soul for that matter.

Peaches may be the only fruit whose juice comes straight from nature in syrup form. There is no need to boil it down to its essence, as it's thick and stick all on it's own. We're not talking maple syrup thickness, but it is way thicker than any other fruit I've experienced. It is due to this that peach nectar is a task to drink. It's delicious, and I love it, but unlike other juices it's not gone within two seconds of being placed before me. It's a sipping juice that you should enjoy over a period of time, not in a brief moment.

Compal's peach nectar is pretty standard. There is added sugar, which seems unnecessary, but it doesn't detract from the flavor too much. I can only assume that for the sake of profits all of the peaches that were juiced to make this were not 100% ripe, so the added sugar was needed to give the illusion that they were. It tastes like the real fruit (albeit a ad sweeter) and that is all you can hope to ask for these days. If you don't have the luxury of living near a peach orchard you should drink up and enjoy the peasants life you live.

"It tastes like drinking an orange." Jerome said. "That's because it's just a juiced orange." Paul said. "You could just call it orange juice." he added. "You know what? I will. Now and forever, this shall be called orange juice!" exclaimed Jerome.

Mango nectar. Should that be it? Should that be the entire review? Do you like mangos? Then why do you have a carton of mango juice? Look at the ingredients. The number one ingredient is mango. Did you think that it was going to taste like strawberries? Come on, dude. It's going to taste like mango. I don't know how I got to review it because Jay is the mangoman and he must have forgotten how to read when I got to pull this out of the collective pile. Hey Jay! This was wonderful. It tasted like genuine mango juice. Wonderfully sweetened mango juice. Jay, you missed out. You drank the passion fruit one and you liked it, but I drank the mango one and it was good. It wasn't pulpy but it was thicker than a regular juice.

There is so much flavor in each withered ball of produce that we call passion fruit. Such a hefty price for something so tiny seems ridiculous and unworthy, until you break that skin open and taste the flesh of the fruit within. The juice it contains is so strong that it is likened to a concentrate. While I don't recommend drinking a glass of Hawaiian Punch concentrate I do endorse eating as many of these little guys as you can get your hands on.

The intensity of the juice is where the “problem” exists. You see, it is great for flavoring other drinks. A passion fruit bubble tea is a beverage that is surely fit for royalty, but when you drink it in juice form it is almost too much. This may be the only juice that I would prefer to have slightly watered down, than in it's natural state. Compal doesn't dilute it quite enough to get it to where I would ideally want it, but they still make one heck of a juice. It's quite strong, and very sweet (I question the added sugar)

If you've never tasted a passion fruit before you are doing yourself a great disservice. Try it in any form. I have never had anything that was flavored with it that I have disliked.

Your fruit, while technically proficient, lacks passion and in a world like ours, that simply won't due. Stop being so wishy washy and step up to the adults table and get yourself some passion fruit. It's the fruit of your dreams. It's sweet and tropical, just like those previously mentioned dreams of yours.

This can may contain only 6% juice, but it still is up to par with almost any sparkling fruit juice I've ever tasted. It tastes just like passion fruit. Slightly overly sweetened passion fruit, but passion fruit nonetheless. You could squeeze about 150 pieces of fruit (they are little, and you don't get much out of them) and mix in some sugar and carbonation and you would be close to this drink. You'd only be missing one little thing, and it's the only thing in this drink that is even remotely off putting; you need to add a little sucralose. Ugh. I don't know why they put it in here. It takes a drink that easily would have gotten full marks and drops it down one notch. It doesn't have a super diet taste, but you can definitely tell that there is something a little off. It's still a monumental beverage, but we're always reaching for the stars here at Thirsty Dudes

I recently wrote in a review that pineapple pop always tastes like a candied version of what someone thinks the fruit tastes like, and that person is always off. Sumol decided to call my bluff. While this doesn't taste exactly like carbonated pineapple juice it does fall more on the actual juice side of thing than that previously mentioned candy flavor. There is 8% juice in here, and to be honest it could use a higher percentage, but it's still one of the best pineapple sodas I've ever tasted. It's carbonated, but the bubbles aren't shoved down your throat. It's the kind of soda that one would enjoy on a warm sunny day. Oh look, that's exactly what it's like outside today. Well chosen me.

Our friend Eric from GourmetRootBeer.com took a trip to Portugal recently and brought us back this bottle of Sumol. There was also a can of the pineapple version that was lost to airport security. Damn the man! While I do love pineapple drinks, the one that made it back with him is nothing to scoff at. Eric described it as being similar to Orangina. I can see where he's coming from, but it is a bit different. When each of us took a sip we all thought it initially tasted like grapefruit Squirt. The more we drank the more the orange flavor set in. I'm still uncertain as to exactly what it tastes like, but I'm 95% certain that I think it's a lemon lime soda that has orange switched out for the lime. You can taste that actual orange juice is involved in the creation of this soda. That on it's own makes this better than the majority of other orange sodas out there. Now that we've finished the bottle I want to pull some sort of elaborate prank on the members of airport security that confiscated the can of the pineapple Sumol. I'm thinking something involving marbles, caterpillars and a whole lot of honey.