United Kingdom - 46 Reviews

For a company that makes such wonderful sparkling juices, their still line leaves a lot to be desired. They have everything headed in the right direction; they use real juice and don't add sugar, but somewhere along the line the train jumps the track.

This bottle contains apple, orange, lemon, mango and passionfruit juice, which in any world should lead to a wonderful tropical fruit punch, but instead what we walk away with is a weak orange mango. It tastes like someone dumped a shot of mango juice into a pitcher of watered down orange juice.

There was so much potential here that has gone to waste. I mean this is still a decent juice, but I hold this company is high standards, due to their other products. At least they are honest with the name of the flavor.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let it be known that I hold grudges. I don't care if you've become a pillar of the community and do all the work in the world to bettering life for the poor and needy, if you treated me like crap at one point I will hold that against you until the day I die. Sure there's the whole forgive and forget thing, but sometimes people are too forgiving and horrible things are welcomed into a community. I'm trying to get better at this, and let the small stuff go, and only hold on to my big grudges, such as you hooked up with an ex while we were still dating and oh you have Nazi tendencies. The small stuff though, the small stuff I'm going to try and let slide. In fact I'll start right here with this drink.

It's right there on the label. “Pineapple & Passionfruit.” That's all I want, a strong taste of both of those wonderful fruits. Instead what I am greeted with is something less than that. Sure it has percentages of both those juices, but it also has orange juice in it in equal amount as the pineapple and double the quantity of the passionfruit juice. Dear readers, this should clearly be called “Orange, Pineapple & Passionfruit,” if the company wants to be accurate, which I hold my suspicions about.

Even though it's the lowest in percentage of content, passionfruit is the strongest flavor in here, with the pineapple riding a little lower, but taking the lead in the aftertaste. The problem is that the orange juice is in there mucking things up a bit and making them taste light and a bit watered down. This is not the end of the world, and I'm going to let it go. Sure this could have been a much better drink without the OJ, but I understand price points, and this is a perfectly acceptable beverage with it included. I would just prefer more honestly from the companies out there.

I know very little of Jamaica. I mean so little that it's a little embarrassing. When you compartmentalize an entire country into reggae music and spicy foods you feel a bit like a small minded. Then someone like Levi Roots comes around who's entire world seems to be comprised of those exact two things, and you start to think, …€˜Man, was I right?” Then you feel even worse, so you just sit back and drink your soda and try to shut off your brain.

Roots was raised in Jamaica where his grandmother taught him how to cook and the surrounding culture taught him about music. I'm not well versed in reggae music, so I don't know how good his contributions to it are, but they sound fine enough to me. I would be more than happy to try his cooking, but his soda just doesn't do anything for me.

This is just an overly sweet soda. If it were a more common flavor it would pass as generic store brand. Since it is mango and pineapple it stands out a bit more. 5% of the total is made up of pineapple, mango and apple juice. While it's a low percentage it's still more than most companies, so this should be better than it is. Unfortunately, the added artificial sweeteners ruin it for me. Perhaps if there was a higher percentage of juice it would mask the flavor of the sucralose, but the flavor is on the weak side and that fake grossness just cuts right through.

Man, cordials are just not my thing. I understand them, and in theory I like that I could make either still or carbonated versions of the beverage, but for the life of me I just can't get it right. You could give me a hundred attempts to recreate the companies “real” version and I would never be able to get duplicate it to my liking. Does everyone have this problem? Am I cursed in the drink mix world? Perhaps I'm just too damn picky. Whatever the reasons I tend to stay away from them.

I bet that if I purchased a ready to drink version of this beverage I would certainly love it. Making it myself I still enjoyed it, but it left something to be desired. The rose flavoring isn't very floral, which is a good thing. You still get a rose flavor out of it, but the sugar covers it up a bit so it's not screaming in your face. The raspberry on the other hand is nice and strong. This is composed of 55% raspberry juice (30% pressed, 25% from concentrate). Anything with that much raspberry is bound to be great. Unfortunately, the opposite of the rose happens with it and the added sugar makes it a tad too sweet at the recommended proportions. I tried watering it down a bit more, which fixed the sweetness problem, but weakened the flavor of the rose to a level that it might as well not have been there at all.

I apparently need more than a little suggested direction. I need the finished product plopped down right in front of me. Hell, I've never even been able to make Kool Aid correctly.

Welcome my friends to the botanical gardens, where we celebrate all things plant. Did you ever in your life think that you would see a banana tree growing in these climates? Of course you didn't silly boy, yet here it is at the botanical gardens. Everything you could possibly want to see that is a plant can be found here on the premises. No matter what the weather, what the season, you can pretend you are in the tropics or just upstate New York for a few moments as you gaze upon the plants.

We also have a little cafeteria area what serves only foodstuffs that we produce from plants on the premises. Okay that part is a lie, but we only have vegetarian foods available here. We also have a line of nice botanical sodas. Here try this Orchard Cola on for size. I guarantee it will not be what you expect, but it is nice in it's own little way. You see this botanical soda is not your father's cola, no sir. This is something new and unusual. Those of you expecting the briskness of a Coca Cola will be surprised by a mouthful of fruity soda with a cola aftertaste.

I understand at first that it is a bit off putting, but I assure you that the more you drink, the more you will enjoy it. I myself was not a fan at first. I actually proclaimed that it tasted like wine and cola mixed after imbibing my first sip. After I made it about a third of the way through the bottle I changed my tune though. I slowly became acclimated and started to truly enjoy it.

This is apple juice, carbonated water, plus botanical and malt extracts. It's a strange combination of ingredients that sort of go well together. I must confess that I do not love this drink, but I do think it is worth trying. Once you get used to the flavor it tastes like a fancy apple cola that is a bit heavy on the apple side of things. It doesn't taste floral like some would expect. The apple juice takes care of the botanical side of things.

Go ahead treat yourself to something that you will more than likely not experience in your life. Take your taste buds on an adventure. You may not fully appreciate where it takes you, but just enjoy the journey.

The United Kingdom doesn't even know how good they have it. The non-existence of high fructose corn syrup in their sodas is a treat that I could only dream of. This can of cola has 39p printed right on the can. That's a can of soda for 39 cents in the American world. We'd be lucky to find a generic brand at that price in a convenience store. In the UK you can pay that much for a product from a Scottish company that pre-dates Coca Cola. On top of that it is made with real sugar. It's just obscene in the best way possible.

I do admit that there is nothing spectacular about the soda. I mean from the taste of it it's clear why the company hasn't done many sales outside of the UK, and Coke is a worldwide phenomenon, but it's a perfectly decent cola. If this were an American cola I would probably lump it in with store brands, as it doesn't have the right bite to it, but the use of sugar makes it so much more enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure this was just overstock left over from Halloween, and that this is their normal cola in a seasonal can. I still enjoy the idea of a creepy cola though. Made by ghouls just for you.

“What are those?” “Oh well it's cranberry juice…€¦Cran-Apple.”

Whenever I see a cranberry and apple juice all I can think of is that scene from American Psycho. I'm sure that's probably not the kind of correlation a juice company wants with their products, but it's what in my mind. Cran-Apple = a possibly murderous psychopath in my world. Well at least it's a delicious drink.

This is the opposite of other juices of this flavor that I have had in the past. In this the apple is the shining flavor. It's very strong and up front, as opposed to the cranberry that normally runs the roost. In here the cranberry isn't as formidable and bitter as I would like it to be. It's still a great drink, but it just doesn't have the intensity that I had anticipated. It doesn't taste watered down, but it's smoother than one would expect. Normally that is a good attribute, but in cran-apple it leaves something to be desired, while being perfectly serviceable.

The K-9s hatred of the postman is a well documented thing, but what many people don't know is that there was a time in Great Britain's history when man's best friend had a bigger enemy.

The year was 1942, and I know what you're thinking, but the previously mentioned enemy was not Hitler. I mean I'm sure the pups didn't much care for him, but he was not the target of their contempt. You see it was an unusually hot and sunny summer that year and lemonade stands were all the rage. Run by kids and adults a like, pop up shops were all over the united kingdoms. People needed a way to beat the heat and keep their mind off of the ongoing war between the axis and allies. For a few weeks that summer life seemed like it was going to be okay and the problems of the outside world seemed but a dream. Then trouble started brewing. The temperature hit an all time high and something about the mixture of the heat and the smell of the citrus drove the local dogs crazy. Whenever someone passed by that was drinking lemonade or had done so in the recent past barking and snarling would ensue. The summer of tranquility soon came to an end and the council shut all of the lemonade shops down. People went back to their miserable lives and the war marched on.

To help remember that life can be grand, even in the most dire of times, Mad Dog has produced a sparkling lemonade energy drink for the inhabitants of Britain. It is possibly the best tasting carbonated lemonade that I have ever tried, and that is saying a lot since it's also an energy drink. The thing is that all of the normal chemical candy energy drink flavors are not present; it simply a great tasting lemonade with very harsh carbonation. It's sweet to an extent that it's almost at the lemon soda point, but it keeps it's integrity and truly remains lemonade. If the energy properties of this drink wouldn't crash their fragile little hearts, all of the folks who were old enough to remember the glory of 1942 would surely have loved this.

Is that an accurate portrayal of mid-20th century England from a 21st century American's point of view?

A. Excuse me. Yes, umm I don't mean to interrupt you but could you please tell me what they delightful pink beverage you are drinking is? I am from another country and I would love to try the local delicacies. You see I am a bit of a foodie and would love to try some of this.

B. This is a Yazoo.

A. Ohh, that sounds exotic! Is it infused with rose petals? Oh, oh is it some sort of exotic fruit that only grows locally?

B. It is flavored milk. It tastes like Strawberry Quik dude!

It's always weird going to another country and walking into a corner store/gas station. Everything is familiar yet different. It's almost like being in a dream where you know what you want and when you reach for it you realize that something is off. Names and packages are different, and sometimes unreadable due to language barriers, but for the most part this could be the store around the corner from your house.

The UK may not have companies like Motts and Veryfine, but they do have Rebina. I've had their original (blackcurrant) beverage before and it was pretty alright. I'm a bit shocked we hadn't reviewed it already because I've seen it in some little markets around Buffalo, and I didn't think it had been that long since I drank it. It's nice that they have expanded their line of drinks. They may have done so decades ago, but this is the first I've seen of it, being holed up in Buffalo.

Essentially Rebina puts out fruit juices that are sweetened and a bit watered down so that they don't taste like actual juice, but instead become juice drinks. This flavor in particular is mostly mango with just a pinch of lime. It has a ridiculously mango smell to it, that I wish was more present in the flavor. I think it's the orange juice that is involved that makes it taste so little like juice.

I have no real qualms with this drink, as it has its place. I just prefer my juices to be what they are and not diluted into what this has become.

Here is another company who graciously put together a care package for me during my stay in the United Kingdom. In the early days of Thirsty Dudes we reviewed a bottle of their elderflower presse that we found in a gourmet shop. It was great but it had a hefty price tag, due to it being imported and all (shipping on glass bottle beverages is obscene even in the states, let alone overseas). I was thrilled to have access to a variety of the flavors for my trip. For the most part I found them to be outstanding, this bottle of raspberry lemonade was no exception.

Let me start by saying that sparkling lemonade is very rare in the US, but in the UK it is everywhere. It's nearly as common as cola is over here. Actually I'll say that it's as common as lemon lime soda is here, which is an inferior flavor in every way. Lime on it's own is great, and I've learned on this trip that sparkling lemon can also be wonderful. I can't say that it is my favorite, but it certainly has its charms, especially since it has real pressed juice added to it. If it were just lemonade this would be nothing to scoff at, but that extra juice pushes it in the exact right direction. I mean anything that has pressed raspberries in it has to be fantastic, especially when it makes you feel like you're eating perfectly ripe berries like this does. It's so damn good. Before I knew it I had drunk this entire oversized bottle, which led to a lot of guilt. I dealt with it though and continued to drink an obscene amount of sodas over the course of my trip. I do it all for you our fair readers. Just remember me when I'm huge and diabetic. Help pay my medical bills. I mean it's only fair since I told you what some drinks tasted like…€¦.right?

The UK has some crazy rest stops. I know there's one in Delaware here that is supposed to be all fancy, but the one where I purchased this was beyond anything I could ever anticipate in the states. There was a nice duck pond and a fancy restaurant. Heck even the cafeteria style section looked like a rich persons version of Old Country Buffet with everything being served to you by people in chef outfits. I can only imagine that they spoke French while doing so as I saw a multitude of people eating fancy croissants.

With all of the lavishness around me, and a cooler full of “artisanal sodas,” I thought this ginger beer would blow my socks off. I cracked open the bottle cap and prepared to enter the station at flavor town, all the while preparing myself for one hell of a burn. What I got was not what I wanted or expected at all. There was a decent ginger flavor, but the proper burn just wasn't there. There was something happening, but it wasn't what normally comes with a ginger beer. It was like the soda was trying to match it's ornate surroundings and just couldn't pull it off. This soda is a classic movie where a down and out character from the wrong side of the tracks gets a make over and tries to live like the other half. It never works out in the movies and it didn't work out for the soda. In the film everyone would end up accepting it for what it was, but you know what this is real life and I'm not going to accept an inferior soda just because it came clean to me.

I might have too high of a standard for ginger beer, but it's what I love and I will not accept anything less than greatness. The company also makes a “Cool Ginger Beer” that I can only assume tastes like ginger ale, that I would like to try. This would have been decent if it wasn't for the weirdness of the burn.

In case you are unaware, root beer apparently does not exist in the United Kingdom. It's some sort of rare bird there. People have told me that they have it, but I searched high and low without even a glimpse of the soda of choice. I guess when your company doesn't have a history of cowboys you don't get cowboy drinks (ie. root beer, birch beer, sarsaparilla).

In the odd chance that a cowboy found themselves abroad in the queen's country decked out in pearl snaps, spurs and a ten gallon hat they would be given a strange look as they asked the barkeep for the dark soda. I know I certainly was given that self-same look with only one of those three requirements on (you can guess which one). Instead I was told to try this, and said it was something similar that fell between a root beer and a Dr. Pepper.

Let me tell you this for free; when you go into a drink expecting something similar to root beer and this is what you get it is quite a shock. The absolute only things that they have in common are that they are both carbonated, sweetened and both involve anise. It's actually quite a strong anise flavor, which would result in Mike loving this. I can see where the Dr. Pepper bit comes in. I suppose I would describe it as a less syrupy Dr. Pepper with a whole mess of anise in it.

I must say that any barkeep that serves this to a cowboy asking for root beer would be lucky if they didn't end up with a six shooter pointed at them. If it was properly explained I think the roamer of the prairies would enjoy the bottle as much as I did though.

I just returned stateside from a European tour. I spent two and a half weeks in England, Wales, Scotland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. As a result I drank an obscene amount of beverages to review for Thirsty Dudes. I have like 45 drinks that I wrote notes for that I have to write full reviews, it may take awhile, but I'll get through them.

When I arrived there were a couple of boxes of drinks waiting for me that companies were nice enough to send to a friend there. Feel Good sent me a whole bunch and I couldn't have been happier when I opened the box. The last time I was over there I drank their products all the time. What they make is wonderful and I wish more companies would take note. It's simply juice and sparkling water with no added sugar. These Smarties used the natural sugar that is found in apple juice to sweeten this bottle of glory. In fact this is mostly sparkling apple juice with lime and cranberry juices making up only 1% of the beverage each from concentrate. Even though this seems like a low amount the flavor is mostly a strong, sharp cranberry lime. You wouldn't even realize that it was mostly apple juice unless someone filled you in on the fact.

On of my traveling companions who tried this said they thought it was too sharp. That person lacks common sense, because this is wonderful and exactly what I would want and it's how cranberry juice should be.

This certainly is a drink you can feel good about because it's got all of the bubbly flavor that other soda has but has only 6.6 grams of sugar. That's magic in a bottle

I regret me decision to wait to long to try this. I can assure you that it was not intentional. It was just a bottle so big that it wouldn't fit in my frequently accessed cache of drinks. Not to mention this is a concentrate and I would have had to go through the "trouble" of mixing it and blah, blah, blah. I can now admit that I made a mistake and the general public, as well as Bottle Green who was so generous to send us this drinks, should know that I was wrong.

This is a pretty strong concentrate. No, I did drink it straight like some sort of idiot kid or dare devil. I just am basing this on the 10:1 ratio that you mix it. I bet it would taste like the wrath of a hundred angry limes if you took a quick swig of this. I mixed it accurately and measured exactly what I was supposed to and I was gifted the delightful drink that I am enjoying this afternoon.

"Aromatic lime" is an understatement. This is more than "smells a little like lime." This is as if a lime has made his bed inside whatever receptacle you used to mix this drink. Also, that is a good thing. It's wonderfully sweetened; lightly enough that you still get to have your taste buds predominately washed out with the tasty taste of lime all while basking in the scent of a garden of limes. I know, I know. A garden of limes is a boring garden but if it makes a drink like this, where do I sign up. Sure, Buffalo is not zoned for limes, but I can always greenhouse the daylights out of my backyard in hopes to be able to grow them. Since this exists, I won't be doing this. Bottle Green got the mix right and as long as you can read directions, you'll be just fine.

I've had my fair share of these drinks, and this is probably the best tasting of the bunch. It has a generic fake orange flavor to it with a hint of ginger (no burn) that tries to fight the fake sugar taste that lingers at the end. The fact that it is non-carbonated only helps. It goes down smooth, and it serves its function.

For once my issue with a functional beverage isn't with the flavor, it's with the name. I really have no idea why I have never questioned it before, but why is this company called Celsius? What does that have to do with eliminated calories? I mean I get that they are trying to tie it in with burning calories, and flames are hot and Celsius is a unit of measurement for temperature. It just seems like there has to be something more behind it, and I want to know what it is. There's more to this story, and the ex-reporter in me wants to find out what it is. The ex-15-year-old in me couldn't care less and just wants to go and play video games until his friends call. Guess who's going to win out?

With a name like 'Royalty', I was expecting this to be a fancy ginger beer. Okay, maybe not THAT fancy since I got it for $1.30 at Spice Bazaar, but still. If ginger beer were as common as cola or root beer, I would call this a 'classic tasting ginger beer'. Mike and Jay will probably know what I mean since they are some of the few humans who have tasted around the same amount of ginger beer as I have. With that I'm saying that it has a good ginger taste, but a very minimal burn. While I prefer a good burn with ginger beer, this is still pretty tasty.

I saw this in every rest stop and convenience store that I went to while in the UK. Nothing about it looked appealing to me, so I passed it by every single time (take note that this was before Thirsty Dudes, so I had no contractual obligation to drink it). The label looks childish and not appetizing. As my ladyfriend pointed out something about it is reminiscent of Irn Bru, which I am also not a fan of.

I don't know where Mike got this from, but when he handed it to me I sighed and said, “Fine I'll do it.” I really expected this to be bubble gum flavored, which would have been infinitely worse than what it actually tastes like. It really tastes like carbonated sugar water with a little bit of lemon in it. There is that weird Gatorade flavor in there as well. What I expected to be some sort of weird, crazy British energy drink turns out to be a slightly carbonated sports drink. There isn't even any caffeine in it. All of its “energy” seems to come from sugar and lactose acid. Now I have no idea why athletes would want to drink something carbonated immediately before or after crushing it on the field, but I guess that's what people do “across the pond.” Man I hate that phrase.

You put the orange in the mango and you drink them both up…€¦wait…€¦that's not right. Oh well they are already mixed together so I might as well go with it. I mean I already checked out and the cashier gave me the weirdest look because I was singing. I didn't really want anything coconut flavored anyways.

Okay, now that I've tried this I'm pretty happy that I messed up. It tastes like tiny mandarin oranges were juiced and then filtered through some mango puree. The flavor starts off completely orange and by the time the aftertaste has faded away it had gotten to a point of pure mango. Somewhere in the middle it tastes like someone spritzed in a little lemon juice, you know the way you add limejuice to guacamole so it doesn't turn brown. No one wants their sparkling juice to turn brown, so make sure you add a little lemon.

As an after thought what the heck was Harry Nilsson talking about? Who wants to have lime and coconut mixed together? It just seems like it would curdle and that is way gross.

Dear diary,
Today was a heck of a day. We wanted to go to Lake Victoria but it was closed due to some awful occurrence that no one wanted to talk about. We decided to all go to "Big Wet" which is a new waterpark that has an adult pool where everyone is naked. Now I'm confident about my body but I'm no dummy. I know that it's going to be filled with nude old people. Also, we saw in the town paper that David Hasselhoff was going to be there for the grand opening. We stopped at the grocery store the night before to get some drinks and suntan lotion and went to bed so we could wake up early and beat the rush the next day.

We got there bright and early and there were a few dozen people there already. We eventually got in and it was alright. It really didn't feel like anything special. Two pools probably run by some seedy dude who wanted people to pay to think they were going to see hot girls nude. The water was nice and everyone has having a nice time. Oh, and Mr. Hasselhoff did show up and for his age, looked pretty good. I've got to admit.

All of a sudden, people started screaming. I couldn't see what was going on so I got out of the pool and started going over to where people were yelling. In the adult pool there was blood everywhere. It was like nothing I had ever seen. Someone mentioned something about piranhas but I didn't think that was true at all even though it did seem like twenty people were running around with blood on them. We didn't want to stick around so we left.

All the sun and excitement wore us out so we went back to the hotel. I bought some organic energy drink that was actually really good. It was fruity and sweet and didn't taste like an energy drink. It was tart and on the way better side of other energy drinks. Also, the can had a nice hand to it, like it was painted with some sort of flat paint. Normally I wouldn't care so much about a can, but the effort was put in to it and I felt the need to mention it.

We turned on the TV and saw that it actually was piranhas and a ton of people died. I can't be right all the time, I guess. That's terrible for those people but I'm glad we got out of there when we did. We promptly turned off the TV because it was bumming us out and went to Applebee's. I hope David Hasselhoff was alright. I think my mom would be devastated if anything ever happened to him.