Pure Cane Sugar - 220 Reviews

I've been on tour with Night Birds for a while now playing the roll of merch pusher. There are low times at the old merch table where boredom sets in. That is when I sit back and enjoy a nice frosty beverage. That is until some mutant shows up, having no interest in anything we're selling. They recognize that I am in a position where I have to stay at the table, making me an open ear to listen to any sort of insanity they choose to spout out of their food hole. Sometimes it's entertaining, but most of the time they are annoying and occasionally they truly creep me out. Today while an individual attacked me with his insights on The Beatles and the superiority of Domino's pizza, I told him I had to end the conversation in order to attend a date with a bottle of fruity soda. He looked at me dumbfounded as I turned around and popped the cap off this bottle of neon sugar water.

The pop was better than the conversation, but not much more interesting. I taste neither kiwi nor strawberries. It's a fruity sugar mixture. It's tasty but I can't place an exact flavor.

I've been drinking this soda and writing the review and crazy dude is still standing here waiting for me to finish. Now he wants me to touch his finger. Glorious.

Mint is a tricky game. When done right it can make you feel like you're the king of Refreshmentville. Just the slightest thing off can leave you feeling like you just popped a fresh stick of gum in your mouth before each sip. I find that the lime in mojitos seems to neutralize the mint a bit. Sadly I don't think it worked in this tea. It's a bit gum-ish for my liking, but the lime is also pretty strong. This is the first mojito that I've tasted that I didn't want to force everyone around me to drink.

As I type this I am watching the Phil Spector documentary. As each minute passes he seems to become more and more insane. I also believe one of his parents may have been a fish, due to his facial features. He really doesn't even look human anymore.

None of that has anything to do with this soda, but wow is that dude crazy. This pop not so crazy, but it's really good. It's not often that you come across a cane sugar sweetened cream soda, especially a red one. When something like that comes along you hold on to it. You sip it slow and savor the sweet cream flavor. This has a great balance between sweet and vanilla. They apparently listened to Dave Gahan and "got the balance right."

If you're ever in southern Illinois you should search this out. A high quality local soda is something I can get behind.

It's so hot and humid. Being down in those mines isn't much better. Sure it's cooler, but the air is stale and I can't shake this cough that's come over me. Why on Earth did I let Cletus talk me into trekking out to California to mine for gold? That sonabitch couldn't even dig a well on his farm back in West Virginia. We've had absolutely no luck out here at all. We're pretty much out of money and food. Cletus keeps going on and on about this root that he found and he won't leave that stupid spring. Man this sun is oppressive. Cletus left that bottle of whatever it is over there. Screw him! I'm drinking it!

Holy crap! This is incredible! I don't know what Cletus did with this, but it's fantastic. It tastes like that root and a little bit of lemon. I shall call this Ginger Ale. It also has the faintest hint of a burn. It's sweet, but nowhere near overbearing. I bet in the future people will make a cheap knockoff of this and steal my name for it, even though it will be nowhere as good.
Cletus, screw this gold rush, let's sell this elixir!

It's always great to be able to sample local drinks when you're visiting other cities. I have to say that when you're in St Louis you should drink Fitz's root beer. It's has a fairly standard flavor. There's nothing fancy about it, but it does have a solid taste. It's in the same vein as your "major label" pops, but of a way higher quality. The use of cane sugar alone makes it superior. It did make my tongue feel slightly numb, but that just makes the drinking experience more exciting.

Chicago is home to some of the best vegetarian food I've ever tasted. There are multiple restaurants that are must eats if you don't partake in the flesh of other creatures. Today I learned that the same city is also home to one of the best teas I've ever poured down my throat.

I obviously chose this because of the awesome bottle. It looks like it should house some sort or marinade and not a tea. Secondly when has anyone known me to pass up something with ginger in it? Not only does it taste like ginger, but also there are actually small pieces of it in the drink, like sediment. It's surprisingly smooth with a heavy ginger flavor, minus the burn. The secret weapon in here isn't the ginger though; it's the trace amounts of vanilla. It gives this tea a whole new dimension. I picked this up at Whole Foods. Hopefully their stores outside of Chicago will also carry it, because I definitely want more.

With all the drinks in the world, it's hard to keep up sometimes. That's why it's nice when people suggest drinks for us to try. It's even better when they buy them for us. My friend Jenna was appalled that we hadn't reviewed her favorite flavor of Calypso so she bought me this bottle of Black Cherry Lemonade. She was talking it up a lot, and I was afraid of it not living up to the hype and thus ending our friendship when I gave it a bad review. I was kinda afraid to open the bottle because of how much was riding on its contents.

Luckily, it is as good as she made it out to be. The black cherry has such a strong and juicy taste to it. And then the perfectly tart lemonade kicks in and completes the drink. It's a little heavier (or maybe rich is the word I'm looking for) than most lemonade due to the great black cherry flavor, but it works and I like it a lot.

This can tells me to "think pineapple." Don't worry friends. I'm already there. I take a bite and it's so juicy it dribbles down my chin. The acidic levels in it make my tongue tingle a bit, but not to a level that it's uncomfortable. I mean it's my imagination so I cut the thing right off the tree/bush with a machete and use that same tool to slice it up. Man this is some good pineapple. I do have a question though. What does this pineapple have to do with my mango tea? There's no pineapple juice in it. It doesn't even have the faintest taste of pineapple. It tastes like a nice dry/bitter white tea with just the right amount of sweet mango juice mixed in. There's also some cane sugar and agave thrown into the mix. It's not overly sweet. It's just right.

Now if I could only get this pineapple off my mind...

I wonder if they wanted to put the strawberry seeds in here? Is there any pop with stuff in it? Aloe has chunks. Some lemonade has chunks. All of those Kato drinks have chunks in it. Juice seems to take the cake when it comes to accompaniment. I bet, if done well, this drink would be awesome if it had actual strawberry seeds in it.

Where is this all coming from? This might be the most honest fruit flavored pop I've ever had. Not to mention it's mixed with everyone's favorite sweet fruit, rhubarb. Yeah, rhubarb is technically a fruit. I thought it was a root, but I guess roots would grow underground. "Plant" would be a good second categorization, but it would also be wrong. Either way, the taste of strawberries and rhubarb...rhubarbs(?)...rhubarb is pretty fantastic.

I feel like this is a real "country guy" pop. Like you get this at farmers markets and ho-downs. I would like Jackson Hole to please respond if you read this and let me know if either of these assumptions is true. I hope they are.

Mohawk Place is the only bar in Buffalo that I think is worth going to. It used to be a biker bar, but over the years it has transformed into a "punk" bar. All of the employees rule, and I've become good friends with most of them. I DJ there bi-monthly, and when my bands play Buffalo that's where we do it. It's a dive bar with the perfect size stage and the room is big enough to hole 200-300 people, but doesn't seem empty when only 50 people are there. It is a beer and mixed drink bar with nothing too fancy. The other day someone asked the one bar tender to make him a mojito. For some reason that is hysterical to me. Don't get me wrong I think they are tasty (minus the alcohol of course), but the idea of someone drinking one at Mohawk is completely ridiculous. It's way to fancy pants for that place. I didn't witness it, but I can imagine Erik the bartender semi freaking out of the guy, and that makes it even funnier to me. I had that on my mind today and when I had to make a decision between Give flavors, it was a no-brainer to go with the mojito grapefruit.

This is an all-natural energy drink. It's a good thing to be in this day and age. It's made with yerba mate, gotu kola leaf, guarana, gingko biloba and rhodiola rosea root extract. Nothing chemical. Nothing gross.

The can did not instruct me to, so I did not shake it before opening it. As a result three distinctive sections of flavor were in the can. The first third of the can was mostly grapefruit with just the tiniest hint of lime and mint. The grapefruit flavor was great, just the way I like it. The second third was more mojito flavor with a hint of grapefruit and a slight note of yerba mate. For the end of the can it was mostly all yerba mate with a lime/mint aftertaste.

I would have preferred more grapefruit flavor the whole way through the can, but it was still pretty great. Better than most energy drinks. I will definitely be giving their other flavors a shot.

If you ever find yourself in Buffalo at Mohawk place, order a mojito and see if you can get the bartender to snap.

I've been sitting on this for a long time. I knew it was going to be at very least interesting so I wanted to get some other stuff out of the way first, hence the large gap between Zuberfizz reviews.

I don't know who the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is, but they've (apparently) teamed up with the Zuberfizz crew in order to create this little treat.

I, for the life of me cannot place what the chocolate reminds me of. My friend said that it was like the chocolate you get from Kinder Surprise, a Canadian treat which is essentially a hollow chocolate ball with a toy in it. To the tongue, this is a great drink, but once it goes down your throat, it's a little strange. The fizz almost makes it seem like a spicy chocolate. Once it's down your throat you get a nice aftertaste of a real genuine chocolate taste that's quite pleasing. The smell is great, too.

I've got it! It tastes like chocolate PEZ. Don't know what they taste like? Find 'em and buy 'em and tell me I'm wrong. I dare you. Chocolate PEZ. My friend says it also smells like chocolate Tootsie Pops. Together I'd say we nailed it. Track this down. It's fun. Have fun with pop. Pop is fun.

At least one person on this planet is going to be real bummed when they buy this soda. I feel like most people think of ginger ale as something completely different than those of us who scratch the surface of the soda world a little more. Companies like Vernors and Schweppes, while making decent products, have led the world to believe that all ginger ale is sweet and smooth. Here is a news flash folks; "real" ginger ale has a kick to it. If you've ever tasted actual ginger you know that it has some spice to it. When made into a soda properly it can have quite a burn. That burn is not for everyone, but those of us who like it really, really love it. Usually ginger sodas that have this kick are known as ginger beers nowadays. Sometimes companies still call them ginger ale, and I'm fine with that. Red Rock is one such company.

It doesn't have the strongest burn I've ever experienced in a ginger soda, but it's stronger than I had expected. This is a slow sipper with a lot of flavor. So when aunt Milda ventures to the store to buy some ginger ale to sooth her upset stomach, she is going to be in for a shock when she takes a swig of this. Her stomach will probably be all the better for it though.

Can you get mad at someone if they only do 50% of a task but the 50% that they did do is stellar? I mean, you can't be totally mad at them, especially if it's something like your nephew coming over, telling you he's going to wash and detail your car, but right before he's supposed to start vacuuming up all your crumbs from eating toasted English muffins on your drive to work, you sister calls and tells you that little Mason has to come home. You assume that he's done so when you go into your car the next day and notice that there are still a mound of crumbs because you can't get up five minutes earlier to eat at the table like a civilized adult, you are a bit surprised. Here's the thing, though. He simply offered it to you. He didn't have to do any of it. He did half and to all of the people on your treacherous ride to work love the look of your clean Toyota Yaris sedan with the radio that looks like it had the display ripped off of a calculator you had in 3rd grade.

Xing has not let me down thus far. Yes, some drinks I like more than others. This I was interested in because it was their first endeavor to the realm of half and half. It's a tricky market because Arizona has been dominating the market and people's minds with their Arnold Palmer, which, in my opinion, isn't fantastic. This, though, is mostly just lemonade. I can't really taste the tea with the exception of at the very end where it might have been tea because it tasted differently but actually could have just been because the can was in the sun for a while.

Here's the thing...the lemonade was quite exceptional. It made me forget that it was a half and half at all. It's a strange predicament to be in where I have to rate a drink that I liked but didn't taste anything like what the label said. For that reason, I have to put it right in the middle.

If you like half and half, we've got tons on this site to check out, but if you like lemonade, you might just want to pick this up and forget that there is tea in it all together.

Lemonade is something that you sip on a beach, or on your back deck. Better yet it's a nice beverage to slowly sip when sitting in a gazebo. I don't know why or where it came from but I have a pretty immense love of gazebos. They are so relaxing and nice to look at. If I even end up owning a house you can bet your ass there will be a gazebo in the back yard. Now back to lemonade. It's is a wonderful drink in all the above situations. It is not a good choice as refreshment for hiking. It burns the throat, and it's way too sweet. I made a poor choice today, but I still enjoyed this bottle of Calypso. I do have to say that the lemon in this bottle was way stronger than in any of their other flavors I have tried. It was super strong lemon with just a hint of pineapple and passion fruit. I could have gone for a little more pineapple in it, but I'm sure that would have ravaged my throat even more. I will say that this is also the first of their products that I've had where I could actually feel the chunks from the lemon pulp. If I wasn't hoping for them I probably wouldn't have realized, but it was nice.

Gorgeous packaging is a selling point to me. I like when people put some time and effort and thought into it. Shouldn't everyone? Does anyone not care when an item is packaged nicely? All you Mac fan-boys, you don't love how well your hundredth iPod is packaged? They do a better job of their packaging than their products. What? How many iPods have you owned because they last about a year and a half before they just stop working. Alright, alright. I'll stop. Now back to drinks.

This tea is fantastic. It's such a dark brew of black tea. One of the darkest ready-to-drink beverages I've ever had. I think that companies try and play it safe. They brew it lightly so that it's not as heavy but brother, this is not that company. It's perfectly sweetened and you can really taste the honey, which isn't overshadowed by the sugar.

This is my first drink from Argo and it will not be my last. You hear me, friends? It will not be my last. I only know one place around here, which is Merge Restaurant in Buffalo, that I can get it, but I hope that Argo steps up their distribution, charges a little less, and pleases me and you by making it more readily available.

I'm pretty sure BOT may have been contracted by NASA to make this beverage. I can think of no other reason why this smells so much like Tang. It's what astronauts drink, in case you didn't know. Not only do they drink it, but Thirsty Mike used to drink an obscene amount of it when we used to live together. He had a huge tub of the powder that me mixed with water in an old juice container. That powder had a very specific smell that has been exactly replicated by BOT. The flavor is also there, but in a subtle way. You may expect this to be just another version of Vitamin Water, but it stands on it's own. It tastes more like flavored water. It's also has more natural ingredients. The bottle boasts, "Low calorie. No Artificial Sweeteners. No Dyes. No Preservatives. No Sodium." BOT has taken the original Tang and made it better. They want to make sure that our fellow Americans in space get their vitamins, electrolytes and antioxidants. They care about our nations heroes. Well at least they do in my head. They were really probably just trying to make orange flavored water, and the whole Tang thing came as an accident, but a boy can dream.

Calypso claims to be the "Taste of the islands." What I want to know is what islands? Are we talking islands out in the Caribbean, or are we talking some tiny little pieces of land in the middle of lake Minnetonka. If you don't know what that is you really need to brush up on a little movie called Purple Rain. Speaking of, I bet this is how Prince drinks to relax on a hot, hot day. He wakes up early, spends a good portion of an hour talking to himself in the mirror, heads down to his basement studio where he lays down some guitar tracks that would melt your brain, makes some pancakes, and then heads out in the backyard where he inexplicably does the Bat Dance for two hours while sipping on some Kiwi Lemonade. Of course he has his servants die it purple for him before he allows it to pass his lips.

Like all of the Calypso lemonades this is very tart. That is because they use real lemon juice and pulp to make it. You can see the lemon pulp floating in the drink, but unfortunately you can't feel them in your mouth. The thing that really stands out with Calypso is that they actually use fruit juices instead of artificial flavors. I think this may be the first drink I've ever consumed that actually has real kiwi in it. You can really tell in the flavor. Hey if it's good enough for Prince how can you argue with it?

After the last flavor of Hog Wash and how sugary it was, I was not looking forward to this one. To my surprise, it was actually really good. It tastes like Sunny D, which I love. Mary Liz also noted a chemical aftertaste, which became apparent after she mentioned it to me. It's been a while since I've had Sunny D, but it seems more tart that the iconic orange beverage. Mary Liz said she likes it less the more she drinks it, and I think I'm going to have to agree with her. I'll stick to the real Sunny D.

We found the warning on this bottle to be very amusing. "Warning: Contents under pressure. Cap may blow off causing eye or other serious injury. Point away from face and people especially while opening." Heeding that advice, I did not point this bottle at Mary Liz while opening it.

This is quite a refreshing soda. It's a really crisp, but light lemon-lime taste. Mary Liz says: when it first enters your mouth, it taste like a seltzer. After a few seconds, the sweetness kicks in and the lemon-lime taste shows itself. It's very lightly sweetened, so sugar fiends should stay away from this one.

I don't think this should ever be given to a child. It's just pure sugar. The blue raspberry flavor is really tart, which is nice, but a little overwhelming. Monet says it reminds her of a liquid blue raspberry Jolly Rancher. I don't taste it, but that's probably because my throat is burning from all the sugar in this. Seriously, if someone who drinks soda all day/everyday says that something is too sugary, then there's something wrong.