Cane Sugar - 601 Reviews

When we were up at Soda Pop Central on Saturday, this soda pretty much jumped out at me. It was the first soda I saw on the first shelf I looked at. As you can see from this website we are huge fans of the Thomas Kemper line so, any new flavors are always a treat. As an added bonus, both ginger and peach are among my favorite flavors. After being slightly disappointed by the Flying Bison Ginger Soda I was pretty pumped to have Thomas Kemper step up to the plate.

I wanted so badly for this to have an intense ginger burn with a slight hint of peach to it. It turns out that the opposite was true. It's primarily a peach soda with a slight hint of ginger. I actually found myself doing some research to see if "Ginger" was a specific type of peach. The ginger is that low in the mix. I would describe it as a really peachy light ginger ale. They actually use real peach juice, so that flavor is pretty incredible. Even though I was disappointed that the ginger levels didn't meet my expectations, this is still a stand out soda. I just think they should have named it "Peach Ginger" with the current recipe.

Thanks to Thirsty Dudes I now have the wonderful fruit pomelo in my life. It's an Asian grapefruit that's not as acidic. I really enjoy it. When Mike and I found this in a little Asian market I quickly claimed it as my own. I wanted it to be a lot stronger than it actually was, but you can't win all of the time. It's an over sugared pomelo juice that has been watered down a bit. It's nothing spectacular, but it's still a decent drink.

There are a couple of different versions of "hell" for me. One of them is endlessly reliving St. Patrick's Day 2009. I think that another one would be going to wherever "Margaritaville" is. I got to thinking and then the phrase actually popped into my head. "Margaritaville isn't a place. It's a state of mind.". I actually thought that and then promptly wanted to die.

I don't even know what Margaritaville has to do with this tea. It isn't a company or a subsidiary, or even a line that they carry. Strange. I have no idea why it's there.

This tea is alright. It's a poor tasting, medium quality tea. It's sweetened with cane sugar and has no artificial flavors, but it's not great. It's oddly sweet and strangely lemon'd. No, not Lemon D the drum and bass artist that I could never get my hands on any records by. I don't know what's going on in here, but it's not a good blend of otherwise good ingredients.

The label for this bottle screams "we're trying to be cute and retro, but really just bottled a mediocre root beer and called it olde time". I'm glad that this was not the case because I was excited to try this local soda (it's made in Seaside, Oregon).

The taste of this is really different than most root beers. To say this has a vanilla taste is an understatement. This reminds me of a root beer float with vanilla ice cream. Yup, that's it! And I love root beer floats. But sadly, this is no substitute for a root beer float.

Now I am really craving a root beer float. Why does it have to be 1am?

Steak and dandelion sandwiches are something to be had. They have those little weeds, grilled and marinated and placed among a bed of delicious steak.

I don't know what Burdock is, but this drink tastes like someone put those fantastically delicious anise candies in a Dr. Pepper. It has a light taste with a heavy aftertaste. Heavy good like Heavy D and the Boys and to a lesser, but funnier extent, the Fat Boys. You know what? No. Fat Boys beats Heavy D and all of their boys. Go watch Krush Groove and tell me otherwise. Sbarro never looked so good.

You know when you drink something and it has a very distinct taste, but when you look at the ingredients it's not there? That happened with this bottle. My first sip I got a really strong pancake syrup flavor mixed with the root beer. Thinking it was a fluke, I took another sip and it was more of a brown sugar taste. Turning the bottle to see the ingredients, i was shocked to not find brown sugar. There is honey and "real vanilla" in this bottle. The honey isn't overpowering, but it's a nice and subtle aftertaste. The vanilla helps this be one of the sweetest and smoothest root beer's I've ever had. While it's a nice and smooth root beer, I wish it had a little more bite to it.

My grandma rules. Every time I go over there she has made something delicious like pasta, cookie, or something else. She doesn't fool with drinks, though. If she did, that would run companies like Granny Squibb out of business. That says a lot for my grandma, but I don't want it to sound like this company is easy to beat. It is hard to find a good iced tea company. This tea was very good. It's clearly a lemon tea base with just the right amount of mint. It has enough mint that it's extra cool, but not that it's mouthwash.

Very refreshing.

What did I just say? What did I just say? Remember when your dad said that to you when you "deliberately" disobeyed him for a second time? You didn't mean to, but sometimes it just happened, like you were half way into a killer swing and had to follow through and you didn't mean for that baseball to go through the neighbor's window.

Anyhow. What did I just say? Didn't I say that I wanted a watermelon pop? I did. What did I find on a quest for new and foreign drinks? You guessed it. Watermelon pop. One step better, though, it was cane sugar and not far from my house and it had other flavored friends to accompany it.

Without hesitation, I grabbed it and ran out the door, after paying the cashier/proprietor/cook/stock boy/floor manager. I went home, threw it in my crisper drawer and let it sit and think about what it had done. A week, maybe two later, I thought that today would be the day and it certainly was. This drink was sweet. I don't know how I drank the whole thing but I did. It's labeled as a sparkling fruit drink, but that just means "pop", right? It does to me. It did taste like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, which if that's what you're looking for, is right up your alley.

We found these in a local halal market if you want to know where to get them.

I think it's safe to say that all of our readers are familiar with classic orange soda. It doesn't really taste like an orange at all, but it's still pretty good under certain circumstances. You know, like picnics and barbecues. It's a kid's soda that is acceptable to drink in instances where you want to pretend you're still a child. Who am I kidding? I enjoy it and I drink it whenever the fancy strikes me. Does that mean I'm a child? Probably.

In a shift from those sodas there are a handful of companies out there who are making a soda that is actually made with orange juice. It's a true orange soda. I for one love them. It's the adult version of the barbecue favorite. It's not as thick and has a better flavor in my opinion.

A drink called California Garden that is made in Lebanon. Well that makes sense. I don't even think pineapples can grow in Lebanon. There's some sort of mystery here that needs to be solved! I more than likely only think that because I started re-watching X-Files. I'm going to see conspiracy everywhere now.

Besides the great Lebanon cover up this what I like in a juice. Firstly, it's actually made from pineapple. You would think that would be a given, but through doing this site I've learned that "juices" are pretty artificial more than you would expect. Secondly, it's filled with wonderful chunks of fruit. We here at Thirsty Dudes really can't get enough of "chunky drinks" as we call them. This is different than most. Normally the chunks are soft and chewy. Since these chunks are pieces of pineapple they are a lot harder than I'm accustomed to. I was able to quickly adapt.

I have been putting off reviewing this one for a while due to the "dangerous" warning on the bottle. The name of this ginger beer doesn't lie. This is easily the most intense ginger beer I've had so far. As the Sloth look-a-like on the bottle is saying, it's "Hot Mon!" The ginger extract in this burns so deep. I love the taste of this too, but it's really hard to drink a lot of in one sitting. Now it's stinging my nostrils. I need to get some water fast.

Oh man. I spent all day at the beach. I went swimming, built sandcastles, commented on how ridiculous a lot of the people looked there, went on Shark Watch 2011, and most importantly I got a wicked sunburn. I slathered myself in sunscreen and everything. I'm talking SPF 85 here. Still my archenemy the sun got me, and he got me good. Burn city. The only thing to do now is to cut a leaf/branch off of this aloe vera plant and rub the juice on my burn to sooth the pain.....

Oh wait I'm sorry I just drifted off there. I'm actually still in Buffalo, NY. It's 14 degrees out and snow is everywhere. It's pretty ridiculous that even in my escapism fantasies I still get terrible sunburn. It's my life. I'm cursed with being an "outdoor kid" that is easily burned. I don't even own an aloe plant. What I do have is a bottle of original flavored aloe drink. My only history with an original flavored aloe drink is with Aloevine. Theirs tastes like white grape juice for some reason. I had stupidly assumed that aloe naturally had a grape like flavor. Nope. Alo makes a more natural product without all the additives and there's doesn't taste like grape at all. It has a fairly nondescript sweet flavor. There are big chunks of aloe in it like all of their drinks. I'm a fan.

Now back to my dreams of the beach. This time I'm upping the SPF even more.

Let me walk you through a typical drink quest between Jay and myself. We hop in one of our respective cars and drive to where we think we haven't been before. We go to places you wouldn't dream of, east side type places. Oh your east side is nice? Then places like your west side. Our east side is bad. The late Walter Matthau couldn't have done squat with these kids. Rumor and probably some fact says that there was a racist city developer who said something along the lines of "Let's separate the whites from the blacks" and just put an expressway right down the center of our fair city. After that happen, the West Side flourished and the East Side crumbled and the line is virtually uninhabitable because we all know that no one wants to live "on the cusp" of danger or safety.

So Jay and I go to these places to get drinks. While the West Side has a lot of bodegas and markets, the East Side is uncharted waters to most and we try and get through it unscathed and with drinks in hand. This is just a little back-story on our dedication. We put our lives at stake to get juice, dude. We're serious as a heart attack.

We found this little guy and another one on our last adventure. We were excited to find a nice fruit juice with cane sugar and an adequate amount of real juice. 30%. That's almost a third of the contents. Credit where credit's due. The drink has many a flavor in the ingredients, but not all of them are evenly represented to the palate. Here's my personal taste breakdown from sip to swallow:

Banana -> Passion Fruit -> Orange -> (maybe) Guava.

I don't get pineapple or apple. I don't hate it. It's very fruity and very tropical. Pour this drink, which is written in both English and Spanish but made in Taiwan for some reason, into a coconut and call it a day.

Ohhhh Bethany, this has chunks in it. Why would you give me something with chunks in it? You know I don't like chunky. I like smooth. I like my peanut butter smooth. I like my spaghetti sauce smooth. I like my jazz smooth. I especially like my drinks smooth. Honest to goodness, Beth, why would you give me this? If I wanted something with chunks in it, don't you think that I would have let you know years ago? We've been married 17 years and you've never known me, even a little bit, to go against the grain. I'm an accountant. I drive a base model Toyota Camry. I only own black and dark navy suits and white and light blue dress shirts. I have three ties and two of them are navy. I eat my sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Chunks, Bethany?! You know what? I will take another sip of it because I see that you're getting attached to these strongly rooted opinions that I have on my lifestyle.

On second though...yeah...on second though this isn't so bad. It's a very good fruit taste, and those chunks are just chunks of real fruit, so it's not that far fetched. It's just like eating a really juicy watermelon but a mixed fruit flavored watermelon. There is even a nice buzz that your lips get from the tang of the real fruit. You know what, baby? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you. This is actually a wonderfully delicious drink that I could see myself drinking again.

Bethany, here's $20. Go to the local Indian market, buy a mixed case of this stuff and meet me in the Camry. We're driving with the sunroof open today!

Murder? You've got it. You want it to look like an accident? Got it. My suggestion would be poisoning him. It's a real hands off approach at murder. It's a good start. Hey, once you start, you can't stop. Murder is like the Pringles of crime. We have to first find out a way to not let him know we're going to kill him. Food is a good thing to poison. You just have to get at it before he does. Oh, you cook his dinner? Perfect. What does he like to drink for dinner? Jelly Belly green apple pop? Perfect. It looks like antifreeze so we can just use that. The body hates antifreeze and we can mix a lot in since the smell of the original pop is so strong. Do you have one that I can have to test on? Thanks. Well, this is pretty good. No wonder he likes to drink it. It's sweet, lightly carbonated. I don't know how this would accompany a beef stroganoff, but what do I know. I'm a hit man, not a food critic. Yeah, you know, this stuff is pretty delicious. It's candy-esque, but not too sweet that you can't polish off an entire bottle yourself. You've never had it? Here, take a big swig off this one. What's that? I can't understand you over the sound of the foam coming out of your mouth. Why yes, I did put antifreeze in that bottle when you weren't looking. Your husband hired me to kill you and he beat you to the punch. As you can see, this would have worked just fine. Sorry that I had to do this so intimately, but it was the only time you were available. If you don't mind, I'm going to take the rest of this 4-pack as a bonus to my hard work. Sorry you're dead. Nice Swatch. You can keep it because it's ladies sized and I'm clearly gent sized.

Two months. Two months left. Oh, two months left in what? Flu season. There are two months left in flu season. It ravaged my boss last week and I think he got it late. Did you get it? Sorry if you did. No, actually I'm not sorry. It's not that I'm heartless; it's just that unless I gave it to you, I kind of have a "hands off" place in your life. I hope that I am "hands on" in your heart, but I hope that I didn't give you the flu.

Speaking of the flu, this smells like cough syrup. It tastes a little like cough syrup, too. It's not bad, but going into it, if you don't expect cough syrup, you will soon be in the clenches of it.

For the first time, I didn't get a honey taste. I miss it, honestly. I liked it a lot in that spiced ginger ale. No, you can't get what you want all the time, but this time I think that it would have been nice. I work hard and deserve honey.

This is not my first dance with grass jelly drink. I have had it before and although I will say this one isn't as good, it's not undrinkable.

There are chunks in it. Surprise! Surprise, dude! There are chunks in it and there isn't anything that you can do about it. You could pour it through a colander, but that you make you a pansy, a girlie man. A wuss. If you're going to buy something, drink it how it comes. Don't modify it. Just do it. Nike®.

While wearing a pair of butter new Air Max 90's, try this drink on for size. It's a light, sweet tea taste but without all of the sweetness of sweet tea. Then, when you man up and decide to bite down into the gummy grass jelly goodness, it's like the flavor crystal of drinks. This drink is like the Ice Breakers of drinks. It's a different taste but it's from Malaysia and you leave them alone. They're fine people.

God I hate that tribal monkey. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it just rubs me the wrong way. It's unfortunate because I really like their drinks. I also appreciate the shape of the bottle.

Monkey aside, the tea in this really stands out more than in their other elixirs. It has that unmistakable green tea flavor. It also has a very clear peach aftertaste. I had never heard of amalaki before this, so I did some research. It turns out it's another name for Indian gooseberry, and it has been used to fight a mess of diseases. It's supposed to have a bitter taste, so it works well with the green tea.

I can only hope that monkey design is based off of a real monkey that hangs out in their head offices. I bet they got him to fetch them drinks and do their work for them. Too bad this primate has self-esteem and he's nobody's monkey-slave. I hear he's gunning for vice president next quarter.

Jelly Belly runs the jellybean game. Seriously no other company comes even close to touching them. They have single-handedly turned the candy into a year round thing, and not just an Easter time ordeal. When they stepped up and started making the gross ones from Harry Potter, my admiration grew even more. What's more fun then sitting in the dark with your friends so you can't see what jelly bean your eating, praying that you don't get wasabi or grass. Okay a lot of things are more fun than that, but it was entertaining for 15 minutes one night.

When I saw that Jelly Belly had expanded into sodas I was a little hesitant to try them. I thought they were going to be really strong and extreme. Of course like with most things, I was wrong. This actually tastes just like the blueberry jellybeans they make. It actually tastes like a blueberry, which can't be said for most fruit flavored pops. It's a little candy-esque, but in a good way. Let's just pray they don't start making Harry Potter flavors, or popcorn. Ick, just ick.

Ginger drinks can be an iffy game. Sometimes they are super strong with a crazy burn (okay I really like drinks like that), and sometimes they can be really weak. Having just a hint of ginger is something is pretty gross. It always tastes like you didn't properly rinse a cup before reusing it. Tazo found a pretty amazing middle ground. It has a strong ginger taste, but with only the slightest of burns. It's an "every man" ginger drink. The lemon also isn't overpowering. It's the kind of drink that makes you feel like it's great for you, but it still breaks some rules of physics by tasting good. I didn't realize Tazo made drinks other than tea, but I'm glad they do, because they are onto something here.