Cane Sugar - 601 Reviews

Do you have anything to celebrate? Honestly, who cares? Celebrate this drink by drinking this drink because it's great. Open it up, blow some noisemakers, throw some confetti around, pull one of those things that pop and fill the air with strands of colorful paper and the smell of farts. It's time to celebrate this drink.

It doesn't taste like armpits or feet which, often, to me, black current tastes like. Rosehip I've had before but couldn't pick it out in a lineup. Basically, this tastes like a good, almost grape sparkling, non-alcoholic champagne. It's really good. I shared it with a handful of people and the only complaint is that it was really sweet and they couldn't do more than one glass of it. That's fine.

Steaz pumps out more flavors that almost any beverage company that I can think of. I feel like we get packages from them more than anyone else, and I am certainly not complaining. They manage to work out new teas, but they also keep their quality high. My only complaints seem to come from their zero calorie sweetener lines, and that's not on them. There is only so much a company can do when they want to sweeten a beverage, but keep it zero calories. Also, I've had issues with their carbonated teas, but I'm simply not a fan of carbonated tea for the most part.

This is one of that flavors that stands out in a sea of greatness though. I love jasmine tea and I love all things hibiscus. I once drank multiple pots of jasmine green tea at an Asian restaurant because they kept bringing it. It was so good that I couldn't help myself, but of course I haven't slept since due to my caffeine intake. Mike and I have also been known to purchase obscene amounts of hibiscus tea for our pleasure drinking, which we don't get to do much of.

Steaz has combined both nicely. One might think that combining the two would make everything too floral, but that is not the case at all. Sure, you can taste florals, but it's not like you got into a fight at a funeral and someone shoved an arrangement down your throat. It's nice and subtle. The hibiscus is just that, hibiscus. There is no trace of the spices that sometimes accompany this flower, but even though I love them, I don't think they would have a place in this beverage. So it is classic hibiscus mixed with classic jasmine all of which is lightly sweetened cane sugar and just a drop of lemon juice. It's wonderful and if someone kept pouring it into my glass I could see myself drinking a case of it before I even knew what happened.

"Where da ginger at!" I exclaim as I drink sip after sip. "Where da ginger at!" I yell when I can't find my live-in girlfriend. More importantly, though, this drink didn't have ginger in it as far as I know. You can tell me up and down that it did but taste it, bro. Ginger it does not. There isn't that earthy flavor that ginger brings and there isn't that sweet heat that ginger so generously gives.

Gingerless aside it was good. Like a lightly sweetened half and half. Oh a half and half cut into thirds called a "third and third and third" with lemonade, tea and ginger? Now we're talking. You hear me, Steaz, if that is your real name. Now we're talking.

Okay, let's see…€¦Shoes? Check. Bowtie? Check. Spats? Check. Cumberbund? Check. Coat w/ tails? Check. Oh and I almost forgot the top hat to round it out. There, now that I am dressed in the fanciest clothes I could possibly wear I am prepared to drink this bottle of Frisa. Since I won't ever be drinking champagne in my lifetime I think it is safe to say that this is the fanciest beverage I will ever consume, and I might as well dress accordingly. It's imported, it's simple and it's wonderful.

I was surprised when I unwrapped the bottle that there was a twist off cap and not a cork. I mean there really was no need for a cork, but for the way I'm dressed it would have been nice. I can't really hold that against the company. They have everything else perfect, and I'm sure that would just be a hassle and ruin the drink somehow anyway. I want nothing to ruin this drink. I want a lifetime supply of it. If I could make the taps in my home flow with sparkling elderflower beverage I would die a happy man, and probably sooner than I would otherwise.

I really can't get over how much I enjoy this. It may be the best beverage we have ever reviewed. If not, it is certainly in the top 3. It's sweet and floral in all the right ways. Nothing about this is like sucking on a perfume bottle. It's a totally different beast in the best possible way. I really don't know when the last time was that my taste buds were this happy. This is simply perfect. I expected the price tag to be much higher than it is as well. $10/bottle is not bad at all, especially for the magic you are receiving. I am going to insist that any fancy event I attend from here on out serves me this. If they turn me down I will just refuse to go. That is how much this means to me.

Now my bottle is empty. I feel like a glutton for consuming so much, and I feel ridiculous sitting at my computer in full formal wear, but yes, it was worth it.

Well, la-di-da, Mr. Frenchman. French soda. What a great name for something that just pop as far as I'm concerned. Added to the fact that erythritol is in it which makes it totally more American, don't expect something exotic. This is not escargot. This is pop and I will review it as such.

Tangerine pomegranate. It's a nice, lighter flavor. Maybe that's what makes it "French" is that it's not a million grams of sugar and syrup. I'm not giving it to them. I'm not holding an embargo on France, but I'm not accepting that this is anything different that a lightly flavored pop. It's good. Ol' fashioned American pop can come across as heavy and too sweet. This is absolutely not that and I don't miss the "extra" or "bonus" flavor at all. This would be a nice transition between, say "American pop" and something like a seltzer or even a Dry pop as that is basically "almost soda."

A car hole.

It seems to be a trend these days to be healthier. It may just be the best trend of all time. Everywhere I look healthier food options are popping up, including many drink companies making lower calorie beverages and presenting them in a “cool” way and not labeling them as diet. In the past diet drinks were pretty much marketed towards housewives. Now they are attempting to make them more attractive to the general population. Jones is doing so with their “Stripped “ line. The typeface they use looks as though it should say something along the lines of “extreme.” That's what the kids want I guess.

Another change these days is that in the past a single sweetener, such as sucralose or aspartame, would be used and I'm fairly certain we are all familiar with that diet death taste they would leave behind. A few years ago stevia started to get popular. It was more palatable, but still had a very distinct taste that it added to whatever it sweetened. At some point in the recent history of the world someone realized that no matter how diet drinks were marketed if they tasted more like the sweetener than the flavor of the drink, they weren't going to change many minds. This genius decided that while most people wouldn't drink zero calorie beverages, lower calorie was better than nothing, so they proposed using stevia as well as lower quantities of cane sugar. The result was beverages that I can drink without feeling like I need to run a mile to work off the calories.

The orange and mango flavor in this soda may be on the lighter side of the spectrum, but they are still stronger than whatever diet taste that is barely noticeable. It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction. As a nation we embrace sugar far too much. I know I just crave it sometimes, but this is helping move us to a place where we don't need as much of a fix. It's to soda what methadone is to heroin. Junkies, all of us.

I can just imagine Christian groups being up in arms over this beverage. I envision picket lines and protestors screaming about how this beverage is luring the youth of America on a dark path; that they will become possessed by the devil if they drink it. Then someone will calmly explain to them that “diablo” is devil and “diabolo” is actually a prop for juggling and has nothing to do with the dark lord. As I've said in the past one letter can make a huge difference. For some reason the protestors will think that they already took things too far and won't believe the facts presented to them. It would be nice publicity for the company, so maybe that will actually happen and it will help them out.

In other worlds Diabolo is apparently a beverage that you can get in French cafes. They are fruity sparkling sodas and that is exactly what we have here. The twist with this company is that their products are low in calories and blend cane sugar, erythritol and stevia to sweeten their beverages. I'm not sure if it is this flavor in particular, but as soon as I took one sip my mind began to compare it to Clearly Canadian. It's very light and fruity. Unfortunately the diet taste can be a bit strong, but the dragon fruit and plum are flavors that it blends with nicely.

This is a nice alternative to the sodas that the American public is used to. It's a different beast that is not as horrible for you. Even compared to other diet sodas this feels lighter and not as thick. It definitely makes sense that it is the type of beverage that is popular in European cafes.

When I see the word “cider” I have a very specific flavor in mind. It's a fall flavor that is created by juicing apples in a certain way, and a lot of the time it involves spices. It is not simply just any apple drink. It's a flavor that I am particularly protective over, because there is a cider mill in my home town and to be honest, it's one of the best beverages ever created.

This, this is not cider. It definitely tastes like apples, but nothing like apple cider. To me it tastes like all of those apple sodas that you can get in the UK. My ladyfriend tells me that it tastes like alcoholic cider, without the alcohol. It's sweet, it's appley, but it lacks the bold warmness that comes with real cider (even when served cold).

If this were not presented as cider, I would say that it is one of the better apple sodas, but as I said I'm a protective man, and cider this is not.

For those of you too young to remember this company was everywhere in the late 80's/early 90's. Back when corner stores and bodegas did not have a large selection of beverages this was always right alongside the Coke and Pepsi. I don't know if this was the case all around the country, but in Western New York, we loved our New York Seltzer. Now I have to be honest with you, I don't know if I ever actually tried one of these back in the day. By the time I was of age to be purchasing my own beverages I was far more interested in straight up soda and Mistic (they looked like wine coolers and made you feel cooler than you were, because you know wine coolers were always the thing the cool kids drank). Perhaps it's because of similar choices made by the youth of the 80's that caused this beverage to disappear from the shelves and production to grind to a halt. I will choose to believe that because who doesn't want to think that they had that sort of power as a pre-teen?

Here we are over twenty years later and New York Seltzer is back in business and cranking out six of their classic flavors. We really should have gotten to this earlier, as we like to review the classic drinks when they come back, but for some reason I hadn't been able to find it until I was in Michigan of all places. Strange times.

My first thought as I took a sip of this was, “What the hell there is sugar in here!” I had always thought that seltzer was just (possibly flavored) carbonated water with no added sweeteners. A quick look online informed me that any carbonated water beverage is considered a seltzer and even soda falls under that umbrella. In fact in my world this is just a soda. There is 31g of sugar in this 10oz bottle, and well it tastes like a raspberry soda. It's a little on the light side, but it's a fruity soda through and through. To be honest, I feel a bit cheated, but it's solely because I was uninformed. It's a decent soda and I just need to get in the headspace for that kind of beverage.

Everyone knows that wolves howl at the moon. What we don't know is why they do it. Sure there's some magic with a full moon that transforms human into beast and inspires wonderful movies, such as Ginger Snaps, but what else is there. I submit is that while in the moonlight (were)wolves can get a clear view of their paws and are reminded that they simply do not have any ginger beer to drink and they howl out of frustration. I know I would do the same in that situation. The bottle also tells me of a legend that an elixir brewed with ginger and steeped for a fortnight can bring on the change from man to wolf. I don't know if ginger has the same effect as a full moon, but it is certainly delicious. Actually I'm going to say it doesn't work. I've drunk enough ginger brews in my life and have never changed form. Maybe the steeping time was off, but yeah I'm calling poppycock.

This ginger beer may not cause a change, but it does make my taste buds happy. It's made with natural ginger flavor and hot pepper extracts so it has a nice burn to it. It's not too out of control, but it's more than I had expected from a beverage made by Orca. Along with that burn is also a nice sweetened ginger flavor. This is actually what I look for in a ginger beer. It walks the line between burn and taste without falling off of the tightrope. I wonder is being part wolf helped with that balance.

Welp. For us so far, that's zero for three. I feel like Jay Street did not sign off on this and might have just let this slide out of the door. It's boring and chalky. I am not a connoisseur of coffee, let it be known, but if I gave this to someone who more avidly drinks coffee, I think they would agree. I enjoyed the initial two sips and then it was just like drinking the equivalent of watching paint dry. I'll leave it at that.

Hey folks, I'm here to dismiss the myth that cowboys are all whiskey and sarsaparilla. They are not two dimensional beings; they have more depth than that. One top of those two classic beverages cowboys also love lemonade. Actually that's it. Cowboys only drink whiskey, sarsaparilla and lemonade. They just don't have a taste for anything else, well of course they do love beans cooked on an open fire, but we're talking beverages here folks. Does the banner at the top of this page read “Hungry Dudes?” I think not.

Jackson Hole makes some very special sodas and I can now report to you that they also make some kinda great lemonades. This beverage is very tart, but at the same time it's very sweet, like proper lemonade should be. There is 42g of sugar in this bottle, which I wish I didn't know, but I'll force myself to forget that fact. The lemon juice used to make this is from concentrate, but the huckleberry juice is not. That leads to a nice tartness, as lemon juice concentrate can be very strong, and for a great berry taste. One thing that is for certain is that this is not a beverage for gulping, but instead it was formulated for sipping on horseback out of the range. That is on the extremely rare occasions that cowboys had access to ice.

A real conversation that I had with Jay:


Mike: I bought a Jay Street Coffee from Big Lots and it's made by Ito En. That's strange.
Jason: I reviewed on of them awhile back and it was kinda grozzzz.
Me: Welp, let's see if caramel macchiato is any better.
Jason: Here's to hoping!
Me: Too late. It's kind of grozz.
Jason: Bummer. I've eaten 6 soft pretzels so far today. I think that makes me invincible
Me: I think that's the recipe.
Jason: I will continue to ingest a steady stream of them

Real talk between two grown adults.

Yeah, it's gross, though. It tastes dusty. It tastes like the powdered condensed milk is still partially powdered and chalky. The flavor is...fine...at best. It's just so overwhelmed with that faux milk that it doesn't really taste like coffee. It doesn't taste awful but it does stick with you too long like that girl you date in high school that just can't take the hint that you're trying to break up with her. She'll get it, but you're not getting out easy.

Enjoy your pretzels, Jay. Enjoy your pretzels, everyone.

Did you know that there is a war going on in Australia? It's not the type of thing you would imagine, but it gets pretty rough. The native animals of the continent flat out hate each other and they will just tear into each other if presented the chance. It's a hatred as old as time, but in recent years they have somehow directed their pride into the soda flavors that are created by their national treasure Bundaberg. The koalas hold the rights to the burgundee creaming soda, wallabies run for the passion fruit, wombats fight for peachee, dingoes fight for root beer, and of course kangaroos are running the show with the most sought after soda of all; ginger beer. They are straight up like soccer hooligans out there in the outback. They just gang up on each other, fighting to prove that their soda is the best.

An underdog in this fight is the platypus. They tend to not get involved. Most people say it's because they would be destroyed by the bigger animals in the fight, but their venomous spike on their back heels can do quite a bit of damage. The truth is that the platypus knows that their soda, blood orange, may not be the best as it has a few flaws, but they love it all the same and they don't need anyone else knowing how great it is. They want it all for themselves. Their soda is made with actual blood orange juice from concentrate and not some weird chemical equivalent. You can taste that level of commitment in the soda. Sure it has a yeast brewed quasi alcoholic taste to it, but once you become acclimated to that it's a wonderful ride. Other animals on the island have been trying to draw out the platypus by making unfounded claims that their soda is no different than any store brand orange soda. The weird creatures that are filled with venom just sit back and laugh at this. They know their blood orange soda is so much more; It's much darker and flavorful. They just stay out of it all sipping on their soda while the rest of the animal population of Australia destroys itself. They may indeed someday inherit the nation.

A kid I work with doesn't really know what lemonade really tastes like. I don't know how. If you have made it to your twenties, you should know what lemonade tastes like. I asked if he wanted this. He declined. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I told him not to judge all lemonades by this "functional" lemonade. I'm not judging this based off lemonade but just saying that since this is not trying to be "just lemonade," it should not be reviewed as such.

So how is it? It's surprisingly good. Smooth. There is no bite. It's clearly lemonade but is smoother and doesn't have any of that natural sour bite that something derived from lemons would have. It splits sweet duty with Stevia so there is a little bit of that but way down in the mix like when you said your girlfriend could sing backups in your bands recording and you potted her way down in the mix where it's almost negligible whether she is there or not. Sure, she can tell her friends she's on the record and sure she'll get credits in the linear notes but she gave an "old fashioned" to the drummer so she can do whatever she wants because she sucks.

There was a brief period a couple of years ago where vitamin drinks with a powder/concentrate stored in the cap were all the rage. The idea behind it was that it kept the vitamins fresh and more potent. Mostly they ended up tasting like Flintstone chewable vitamins, and while I can't vouch for their potency, they were fairly tasty and there's an element of fun in watching it mix.

This is the first time I have experienced an iced tea in this format and as expected there was no vitamin flavor at all. After I twisted the cap (and was surprised by the force of the propulsion of the flavor concentrate shooting down into the base) I was greeted by a nice peach ginger taste. There was zero burn from the ginger, but the peach did not taste candied like a lot of teas of that flavor do. This is sweetened with a mixture of cane sugar and stevia, but it's not obvious from the taste. I more than likely wouldn't have guessed that a zero calorie sweetener was involved at all if I hadn't read it on the label.

This may not be a perfect tea, but it's as close as your going to get with a a mixture and not something that has been freshly brewed.

Do you long for the days when you could just sit at a restaurant all night with your friends, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes? You would squeeze at a minimum eight people into a booth and everyone would order coffee and a single plate of fries to split between the table. I'm sure the waitress loved the change that was left behind as a tip for what would invariably be her table occupied for hours. Those were the days of my youth and I assume a decent amount of you out there had the same experience. I have no idea if kids still do such a thing, but the amount of 24 hour restaurants has plummeted and the anti-smoking laws probably took away some of the allure.

Why do I bring up such things? Well it's because with a heavy heart I have to report that this soda tastes like I was at one of those late night meet ups and someone played a practical joke on me and ashed into my mug. At first this has a strong coffee taste, but it quickly turns into something that I can only liken to the way that stale old half smoked cigarettes smell. It is a shame because Proper Soda Co obviously puts effort and care into their products. Their cans look fantastic and while a coffee soda isn't a new idea, it is still something that is fairly rare, and I appreciate them taking a risk with it. Unfortunately the arrow didn't hit the mark (the can looks like a design that would have an arrow on it). When I drank this straight from the fridge it was far more carbonated than I expected, or needed, and the flavor was very off-putting as I have stated. I was leaving on a road trip, and I knew I would need some caffeine so I put it in my cup holder, planning on forcing myself to work through it. I will say that after it warmed up a little and some of the carbonation dissipated it wasn't as bad, but it still had a ton of room for improvement. I'm sorry folks, I really wanted to love this, but it just didn't work out that way.

I'm here to admit to you all that I have a problem with Bing beverages. I absolutely love them, and I drink them far too often. It started with them being on sale, and me justifying buying them by telling myself that it's not as crazy as most energy drinks, it's just juice with vitamins, caffeine and ginseng. Next thing I know I'm downing them every other day. I don't like relying on caffeine. It's one of the reasons I avoid coffee for the most part. I don't think I'm quite there yet, but I'm well on my way. My go to drinks are the blackberry and the raspberry ones. When I saw a new apple flavor I knew I had to grab one.

I love apples. I love apple juice. I love apple cider. Something happens when you add sugar and carbonate apple juice that candies it in a weird way that I am not a huge fan of. I'm sure you all know what artificial sour apple flavoring tastes like, and this is halfway between that and a real apple. It's not horrible, but something about it is a little off to me. I know tons of people who would love this, but it's just not for me. It's sweet and that middle ground apple taste overshadows the cherry juice a bit too much. If this were my first time going out with Bing I probably would not ask them out on a second date. As it stands I'll probably either be seeing Blackberry of Raz in the morning.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I am here today to prove to you beyond the shadow of a doubt that grapefruit and honey are a perfect flavor combination. I know what you're thinking; grapefruit is too tart and it's what grandmothers eat for breakfast. While that may be true, it is still a delicious fruit when consumed in moderation. On the other side of the coin I have never heard a single person utter a complaint about honey. Everyone loves honey. Even bees understand that people love honey and don't put up too much of a fuss about humans collecting it for consumption. Mike tells me that someone in his family is beekeeper and that he can get me fresh honey comb. I've yet to see this come to fruition. Sorry, I've gone off on tangent there folks, but as you can see I am a passionate man, and this is a passionate flavor.

Now I don't claim to be a fancy man. I didn't attend a fancy learning school, I got my degree from a SUNY school, just like most of you. The fact of the matter if that you don't need to have a piece of paper from an Ivy League school to be able to proclaim with certainty that this is one delicious beverage. I'm guessing that you folks in the jury booth are like myself and have never drizzled honey on a grapefruit. Perhaps, just perhaps we have been wrong all of these years not to have done that. For you see the two pair perfectly, especially if the presentation vehicle is a lightly sweetened green tea. The results are smooth, delicious and refreshing. The tea, the grapefruit and the honey are all quite distinct in the flavor, but they also mingle together to create something new and wonderful.

Ladies and Gentleman, before you banish this beverage to the shelves of the Big Lots of the world I urge you to just give it a chance and I assure you that you will want it to appear in the coolers of every gas station this great country of ours has to offer.

Normally when you get a flavored tea the ratio is along the lines of 85% tea 15% fruit flavor. That is unless it's some artificial garbage, then the ratio can be all over the place. This beverage is closer to an Arnold Palmer 50/50 split. It tastes like it's equal parts juice to tea. It's not what I'm used to, but it's pretty great. To be fair this is far from a sweet tea. In my world that is a very specific way of preparing iced tea. This is actually not abusively sweet. It's not overly tart, but it's not the cavity promoting wonderful swill that is sweet tea. Also, they actually use somewhat fancy tea in this as well. It's a blend of Orange Pekoe and Pekoe Cut Black Tea. That's higher up the tea chain than the normal every day black that is generally used in sweet tea. In summation it's not really sweet tea, and it's more juice than most teas, but neither of those are necessarily bad things and this is great.