Cane Sugar - 601 Reviews

This is surprisingly good, like "would buy again" good. If I had to describe the taste, it would just be a black tea with a lot of cane sugar. I didn't get much chrysanthemum, which was honestly a bummer. I kind of wanted a nice, light flowery drink. There was an element of "something" which I'm assuming was chrysanthemum, but the sugar was a bit overpowering. Not too overpowering, but enough to beat the race to the finish line with the pre-desired flower taste.

Still it wasn't bad. I was hoping for a little dirty, garden flower taste, but, alas, it was not delivered.

We found out that a local brewery, Flying Bison, had started brewing some sodas as well. We stopped in today and the flavor they had was mint cream soda. We ever so excitedly grabbed a growler of it and were on our way. We hadn't even made it into the car before we had cracked it open. Oh man is was good. It smelled way too minty for its own good, but the smell was deceiving. It's a great cream soda. The mint hits you right away, but the aftertaste is mostly cream soda. As an added bonus when you lick your lips, you get to revisit the mint. After a few sips we decided it reminded us a lot of Vanilla Scope mouthwash, but in a completely not gross way. It in no way feels like your drinking mouthwash, but that was our only comparison for a vanilla mint combo. If you're in Buffalo, head over to Flying Bison sometime and pick some of their soda up. I can't wait to head back and try some other flavors.

We're getting a little high class here. This drink was imported from the U.K. The bottle makes it look like a white wine, but fortunately for us it didn't smell like death and decay. It has a weird fruity/flowery smell and taste. It kind of reminds me of lychee, but a bit more floral. I feel like it could accent a meal very nicely, but drinking it on it's own might be a little much. It was a bit pricey at $7 a bottle, but hey it's imported.

Did cola 40 years ago taste bad? Because if this is vintage cola, I'll stick with the modern recipe. This is made with can sugar, yet has the bite and aftertaste of HFCS. Usually cane sugar cola's taste much better than the normal 99 cents per 2 liter store brand stuff, but this one tastes just like them, if not worse. This is my 2nd bottle of Trader Joe's "vintage" sodas. The only one I haven't tried yet is Orange Cream, and I don't know if I want to see how bad they messed up one of the best soda flavors. I'm going to try it though for the sake of Thirsty Dudes, so check back soon to see how that goes

I saw this root beer in the store for $3.50 for a sixer. I figured for cane sugar root beer, how could I pass it up? On the way home I cracked one open, and was fairly disappointed. It tasted more like root beer barrel candy than actual root beer. The rest has been sitting in my fridge since. Today I brought one to work. Having it cold made such a difference. It became creamy and smooth, almost like cream soda minus the vanilla. I will enjoy the rest of the bottles I have, but I doubt I would purchase it again. There are just too many other better root beers out there.

Remember when you were a kid or a stupid adult and you used to put your mouth over a fresh two-liter bottle of pop and just inhale? That was stupid, but do you remember the taste? It was like a dry cola air. Like a cola flavored, breath subtracting air. This "dry cola" tastes like that and nothing else. Nothing. I don't know who is complaining about too much cola taste but I do understand the too much sugar, which this drink takes care of.

If you are 84 and hate a rich cola taste and an adequate amount of sugar, this is for you.

I don't know why I expected more of this root beer since it's a store brand. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's definitely mediocre as far as root beer goes. It's better than A&W since it's sweetened with cane sugar, but it's far from being as good as Virgil's or other top tier root beer's. It's drinkable, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get a bottle.

This cola isn't really different than any other cola. Does that make it good? Possibly. I guess if you have a good thing, stick with it. For a company that has been around for over 100 years, I would say Boylans is a staple in the cola game. I might be disappointed if it did taste strange or different unless that's what they were known for.

"Strange tastes for over 100 years"

Who wants that tag line? How about something like:

"The taste you know and love, unchanged for over 100 years."

Probably better, right? This makes it hard to rate because although it's nothing different or special, it is the gold standard of cola tastes. I would go as far as saying that due to the age of this company, this would be the model of cola. Does that make it a 5? It certainly doesn't make it a 1. Is a 3 too harsh? I don't think they want me to expect anything more since it's such a classic.

I'm rating it a 4 because I give them full credit for keeping with what they believe in with the cane sugar and making a high quality cola. Glass bottles and a pry-off cap also a +1, even if I rarely have a bottle opener on me. It's classic. You could share this with your dad and grandpappy and they would say the same thing. That speaks to me, the consistency.

I thought that this was going to taste like carbonated lemonade. It did not. Was I disappointed? Boy please. It was better than that. It tasted like carbonated Lemonheads. Can you take a second to contemplate how awesome that is? Imagine 6 year old you and how psyched you would be if this was out then. Give a sip of this to your little brother and watch them as they scream with pleasure.

Hmm. Tart. Super tart. It's as if they accidentally labeled it pomegranate and it was really grapefruit. That's what the bite was like. Like sinking your teeth into a grapefruit. I honestly got no pomegranate flavor.

Kudos to the local Mayer Bros. for using real cane sugar, but the taste is simply off. See you in the fall for cider, though.

Mike reviewed this drink three and a half years ago, and just wasn't into it. As you can see below, it just didn't deliver what he wanted from a sweet tea. Cut to now, the company contacted us and said that from what he wrote, they thought something was wrong with his can, as in a bad batch or something. They ended up sending us a couple cans to try again, and I have to say they were absolutely right.

I will now address Mike's issues:
1) There is a difference between sweet tea and sweetened tea.

I can most definitely taste the sweet tea aspect of this. You can absolutely taste the cane sugar, and it's one of the driving tastes in this beverage. That is what makes a sweet tea to me.

2) He couldn't taste any actual tea, and it tasted fake.

There is both black and green tea in this, which I admit is odd in a sweet tea, and purists would scoff at it and claim it wasn't real sweet tea. Those people are snobs. I can definitely taste both type of tea very distinctively. It gives a new twist to an old standard. I am personally a fan, and during a sweltering summer I would drink this all of the live long day.

Sorry you got a bunk can Mike, because this is great and more than lives up to my Xing expectations.

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Mike's Old Review:
The more I am drinking Xing Tea the more I am getting disappointed. This sweet tea is, technically, sweetened tea, but there is a significant difference between "sweet tea" and sweetened tea. Also I taste no actual tea in this drink and something about it seems fake. I don't think I need to say anymore.

Better than the cherry? Possibly. Once again, not a strong tea flavor, but this time the pomegranate was the star. The aftertaste of the fruit was pretty spot on to the sweet, tartness of real pomegranate seeds.

The pomegranate green tea is a nice, drinkable alternative to the ten minutes and yellow fingers you have to deal with on a real pomegranate. I do love the bursting flavor of those lil' seeds, though.

I've had Xing Tea before. It was a nice change from the Arizona tall boys to these because of the totally different cane sugar taste. This cherry flavor was unique since I've never had that flavor iced tea before. It certainly was unique but it was so cherry flavored that they could almost remove "tea" from the title and change the title to a juice and get away with it. It's got green and black tea in it but it's so faint that it's almost non-existent.

Look, it was one tasty drink, and I recommended it and would get it again, but now I know to get it when I have the taste for juice and not iced tea.

I typically love independent, mom and pop, generic iced teas because they're hand made and generally very good. This one was a bit of a let down.

The sugar was overpowering to the point where it tasted more like tea flavored sugar water than sweetened iced tea. You didn't get much tea flavor at all.

I will continue to try out small company iced teas like this in search for more winners.

After a long, or even moderate bike ride to work, I usually chug about one and a half bottles of water. Yes, it comes from a container and not individual bottles. What, do I look like a savage to you? Anyhow, today I decided to change it up with some iced tea. Now normally, once again, I would never drink anything with sugar this early in the morning. You know when you brush your teeth and the last thing you want to do is ruin it with something? Who cares today? I feel like I can trust Ito En not to destroy my efforts to have nice teeth by always and consistently producing lightly sweetened drinks and this is no different.

This drink is clearly a black tea due to the lack of bitterness that a green tea, regardless of company, produces. It also has a fresh lemon taste, as if someone made a very light sweet tea (because it's black) and then squeezed some lemon in it. It tastes authentic and not produced, from concentrate, or just plain fake.

Is it my favorite Teas' Tea? No. Will I get it again? Probably. Do I recommend it? Yes.

I always get really excited to try products made by local companies. Johnnie Ryan is produced in Niagara Falls, about 20 minutes from my house. A bunch of restaurants in the area carry it now, which is great because it is sweetened with cane sugar. I'm definitely a huge fan of the company, and I'm surprised it's taken me so long to try the root beer. I have to say, it's not what I want from a root beer. It just tastes like a sugary soda, and doesn't have any of the earthiness that I have come to expect in nicer varieties. It actually reminds me a lot of A&W or Dads. I'll stick with my "fancier" root beers.

As I may or may not have stated previously, I don't like blueberries. I know, I know, I should, but I don't. That being said, I do like blueberry flavored drinks. This is no exception. I enjoy a nice bitter green tea, but mixed with the subtle sweetness of the cane sugar and blueberries, this is a nice, light drink. It doesn't feel too sweet and you can still tell at the end that it's still a tea. I'm endlessly pleased with Ito En's rendition of everything blueberry. Keep up the good work.

Wegman's is our local grocery store. We're lucky to have a company whose store brand is just as good, if not better than brand name products. This year they launched their Fruit Tea line, and I for one couldn't be happier. It's a very lightly sweetened tea, with the perfect amount of peach flavoring. It's not breaking any new ground, but it's a nice inexpensive alternative to other teas on the market. If you're ever in the area, and you're looking for a nice tea, I recommend you stop and pick some of this up.

This beverage comes in an eye appealing little bottle. I had seen it at the grocery store for a while, but didn't actually pick one up until today. I had expected it to be very lightly flavored water, but in reality it was actually very flavorful. I don't believe I have ever had anything with hibiscus in it before, and I really don't know how to describe the flavor. It was sweet and tangy, nothing like what I would expect a flower to taste like. I'll definitely be picking this up again, and I'll be on the lookout for other hibiscus flavored things.

The function drinks had been on sale at my local supermarket for a while before I picked one up. I found the marketing a bit ridiculous. The description on the bottle tries to make it seem hip to city folk, before it comes out and says it's a hangover cure. I finally gave in, and I was pleasantly surprised. It reminds me of Vitamin Water, but way better. It tastes like achieving a full flavor was more important to the company, than the vitamin intake. The citrus flavor definitely overpowers the prickly pear, but I for one am okay with that.