Sugar/Glucose-Fructose - 17 Reviews

If the marketing team at Red Rain has a single brain cell in their collective heads I would hope that they have contacted Peter Gabriel to use his song that is the same name as their company. Just imagine that chorus playing as slow motion shots of sports teams winning the big game and spraying each other with cans of energy drink. It would be like they were announcing that the sun has set on Gatorade in the energy drink age. It would be triumphant, and it's a great song on top of that.

I don't know if that's the market they are looking to sell their beverages to, but it's not the scenario that is important, it's the song. It really is a great song, and I'm gonna say this is a fairly great energy drink at that. Cranberry should be used more in energy drinks. It covers up the typical candy flavor nicely. This has a predominately cranberry flavor with a nice citrus touch around the edges. It's certainly not a typical flavor for an energy drink, which is nice.

Think about it; Peter Gabriel and an unusual tasting energy drink. Then think about all of the toonies pouring in, much like that self same red rain.

I just had one of those “everything I ever thought was truth is now a lie” moments. This is soda mousse aka Canadian cream soda. From the can I expected it to be red, like the Crush version of it. Instead it is clear like most cream sodas. There is nothing mind shattering there. That came when I saw that it was made with real grapes. Does cream soda normally have some sort of grape base that I have been completely ignorant of my whole life? I don't think that is does, and my tertiary search online came up with nothing. That leads me to a follow up question; why does this have grape juice in it? Until I noticed that it had grape juice in it I thought it tasted similarly to the Crush cream soda; fairly standard with a slight berry flavor to it. Now I'm second guessing that. It tastes weird to me knowing that there is grape juice involved. I feel like my taste buds are trying their hardest to search out a grape flavor. Do I actually taste it or am I imagining it? I can't say for sure, and there is no one around for me to have them try it. I can say I enjoy the pop. It's hard to go wrong with cream soda, especially one that is slightly unusual.

I don't think that I've eaten a grapefruit in well over two decades. I just remember them being super tart and/or bitter. I've had things that are grapefruit flavored with no additional sugar that are quite awful. People eat it with tons of sugar on top. If you have to put sugar on your fruit, you're defeating the point of fruit. "Nature's candy", right? Isn't that what they say? "Nature's candy." You don't add sugar to candy. You're not supposed to. If you do, you don't really understand how candy works. If you add it to fruit, you don't understand how fruit works.

This drink knows how grapefruit pop should work. It's not terribly sweet and not wildly punchy like a lot of other ones. Squirt is good, right, but it's really sweet. This drink is more grapefruit and less pop. It could be the real sugar versus the corn syrup, which can kind of wipe out a lot of flavors. It's got a good smell and is not as strong as, say, Ting, but it's still good. If this is how they do grapefruit on the islands, as their moniker of "Island Soda," then I might have to frequent these islands. Maybe get a coconut so that I can drink this pop out of. It's how they do it. I hate feeling like I'm not a local.

Miller High Life is the self-appointed "champagne of beers." While I don't know much about beer, I doubt this is true and think that it's kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing, this could be the champagne of kola champagnes with one single caveat. Pre-caveat, right out of the fridge this is great. It's not as bubble-gummy as a lot of other kola champagnes I've had. It did have a nice, unexpected bit, like some of the ginger juice from their wonderful ginger beer got stuck in the machine, no one cared, and it bled into this drink leaving a little bit of a bite. I always want a little bit of a bite when it comes to food and drink. Spice almost always beats no spice.

Great, right? Awesome. But wait! I said there was one thing to worry about. That one thing is that you either have to keep this cold or drink it fast because once it lukewarms, it gets perfumey. I drank half, went and got a sandwich, came back, bad. Ten minutes or so killed this drink.

Don't let this happen to your kola champagne. Drink it fast or keep it on ice. Do the right thing.

When I purchased this yesterday it was the first time I had ever been confronted about taking a picture of a drink in a store. I was up in Toronto playing a show and I stopped in a little variety store because I had been up since 7, it was late, it was cold and dreary and I needed a little pick me up. I grabbed this can, set it on a shelf, snapped a picture, and took it up to the counter for purchase. The proprietor grilled me as to why I was taking pictures in his store. I told him it was just of the drink, and he wasn't satisfied until I showed him the picture to the left that showed none of his store and only a can of energy drink. I don't really understand why he was so upset. It wasn't like there was anything revolutionary going on in that store, it was just your every day corner store. Maybe there are sketchy things going on that I just didn't pick up on. Oh well, I got my drink and went out in the blustering cold.

The drink did its job in helping me to stay awake, and it did it in a delicious way. It didn't have a crazy mango flavor, as if you were drinking mango nectar, but more of an overall tropical flavor with high notes of mango. It was a nice change of pace from the usual suspects of the energy drink kingdom. It still had the underlying chemical taste of chemicals that you expect from drinks of this ilk, but instead of tasting like some sort of sugar candy it tasted like a sugared juice drink. You've done well yet again Canada.

Something you may or may not know about my fellow Thirsty Dude Derek Raymond Neuland is that he was one of the founders of the Buffalo punk house 99 Custer, aka The Last Stand. If you didn't know that you almost certainly don't know that during his time there a list was made of over a hundred nicknames for him. They included names such as Neuliana Hatfield, Neulia Styles, The Neuliana Theory, Neulia Roberts, Neulia Child, Downtown Neulie Brown, Neulie Neulmar, and one of my personal favorites: Turbo. Now I should have let Turbo here drink this beverage and write a review, but if I had done that, I'm pretty sure he never would have mentioned the nicknames and you would have been robbed of knowing that at one point someone called him Neulia Louis Dreyfus. How could I deny you of that?

Now I will tell you basically what author of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea Neuls Verne would about this drink. It has that general energy drink taste that will more than likely make you think of Red Bull, but with a little more citrus to it. It's no better or worse than your average energy drink, so don't let the terrible tribal heart logo throw you off. I mean it's a product made by a drug store (Shoppers Drug Mart) so I guess we should cut them a little slack.

ps. This is not to be confused with the American product of the same name that is the fake Red Bull that comes out of the gun at most bars. Although they taste eerily similar.

pps. He was also known as Gary Gas Hands, due to the fact that he looks like his name should be Gary (according to our friend Pat) and he worked at Mobil.

This little guy has been staring me in the eye every time I open my cupboard for about a year now. It's like he's just been daring me to taste his awfulness. I don't even remember where he came from, Mike probably…€¦the bastard. I'd like to imagine that he was summoned forth like some sort of drink demon to ruin my day. You may say, “Hey it's just soda pop in a cute little bottle.” If you utter those words to me I will tell you that A. Cream soda should not be green. B. No soda should be green. It just means that added food coloring to make it wacky. C. Soda that comes in such a small container can be nothing but overly sweetened to the point where It will instantly erode your teeth and give you a terrible stomach ache.

I'm sick of looking at this. I'm sick of being afraid. Today I face my fears and try the dreaded “Chubby” (phrasing).

Oh my god it may be worse than expected. I opened up the bottle and it smelled like a nice pleasant cream soda. I thought to myself, “Hey maybe this actually won't be so bad. Maybe you've just been paranoid.” Then I took a sip and realized the demon had tricked me into taking a large gulp of his poison. It tastes solely like sweetener, with the faintest, faintest hint of vanilla. It has sugar and/or glucose fructose plus sucralose. You can taste it all battling out inside of your mouth, and no matter who the victor is it will not be your taste buds. Damn you Chubby!

The Italian community in Montreal had had enough of the sodas that were available to them. They did not represent their tastes and needs. As a result Brio was born. This is really just the Canadian take on the San Pellegrino drinks. Sure the can lists: Milano, London, New York, Paris an d Tokyo, but the only place I have ever seen this drink on the shelves is in Canada. An internet search comes up with little to no information as well. There is much that we don't know about the Brio company, and by much I mean we pretty much know nothing. For all I know they could have been an extremist movement who used the cans to smuggle contraband. I doubt that, but hey anything is a possibility.

This here is their blood orange flavor. As I said this is basically another version of the San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa. It's very light tasting, but not dry at all. It's kind of like a nondescript soda with small waves of blood orange flavor. It's nice and it seems like it would be a nice healthy alternative to other sodas. That is until you look at the ingredients and see that there are 42g of sugar in here. I believe that might actually be more sugar than a can of Coke. Well, that was completely unexpected. I like the drink, but I think it could have done with less sugar.

Look, I'm not fantastic with boats. I'm apparently alright with cruise ships but that's no different than riding atop a floatable skyscraper. I'm fine on those. Lil' boats destroy me. I know all the tricks; ginger ale, looking at the horizon, not taking Dramamine. They don't always work and I get nauseous and either want to hurl or sleep.

Jessika, Max, and I were going to go aboard my boss' daddy's boat and we were getting supplies. We went to K-Mart to get Max a baby sized rash-guard. K-Mart in the city is rough. Rough. Jessika's mom gets us gift cards for there and we always tell her that we never go because it's pretty depressing. One positive thing about it is that there is a dude there that looks just like Prince and he's there just enough that it's a real treat when our schedules match. He was there on the day we bought this drink and the baby shirt so I knew everything was going to alright.

We boarded the ship, rode for a few hours, Max got restless, and we got off. Sickness free. I was so distracted by Max that I didn't drink this until we went home. I didn't know what to expect because between energy, cherry, and limeade my palate didn't know what to expect. What did this deliver? Everything is in a pretty decent package. It was cherry limeade with a little bit of candy taste to it. All of the flavors actually worked well together. So well, in fact that I'm surprised that I hadn't seen this drink anywhere else before. I think that if more energy drinks tasted like this, I wouldn't always think that they sucked so badly. Some companies know what time it is and you can add this one to it. Good job, Canada. You win this round.

A Eulogy.

Back in the year 2000 I became aware of a glorious place that existed a mere hour and half north of my in the magical land of Toronto. If one were to venture to the corner of Queen and Spadina on any given day (including holidays) one would find the source of much joy in this world. No I'm not talking about the bank, or the McDonalds. I am referring to the small hot dog cart that has sat there for many years. You might say, well that's not anything special. I would reply that this cart has incredible veggie dogs. You may say well okay that's a little special, but so do a lot of other carts in the greater Toronto area. My response would be but do any of those other carts boast to have over 50 condiments? I think not. A group of brave Buffalonians named this cart and it's cook “50 Toppings Guy.” You would be surprised at how many condiments you can actually fit on a hot dog. I've broken 20 on several occasions. The most important of all of the toppings is the often sought after corn relish. It is a true delicacy that the world needs to be educated about. So yes for years my friends and I would eat multiple dogs from this great establishment every time we were in Toronto (which is way more often then you would expect. There were times in the middle of the night when we would be getting hungry so we would just make the drive for hot dogs and nothing else (oh yes the stand is open 24/7). Those were the days when gas was under $1.50/gallon. With every order I placed at that awesomely dirty stand I also got a can of Cplus orange soda. Nothing compliments hot dogs better than a nice orange soda, and it doesn't get much better than Cplus. The secret to this soda is that it actually has orange juice in it, which makes it actually taste like oranges and not some weird mixture that kids are taught orange tastes like. Over the years I must have downed well over a pallet of these cans. You see it's not available in the US so I would get my treats in while I could.

Sadly the dark ages moved in. A large company bought out almost all of the hot dog carts in the city. “50 Toppings Guy' held strong and what followed was the Great Hot Dog War of 2007. (that may actually not be the correct year). A cart right around the corner and the lord and savior of condiments went toe to toe. The competition had the money so they lowered their prices to try and drive “FTG” out of business. He fired back with even cheaper prices. There was a point where you could get a dog for a loonie. It was a good day for consumers, but a dark time for our hero. Eventually condiments started to disappear. He simply couldn't afford to keep them in stock with his lowered prices. After a valiant fight 50 Toppings Guy gave in and sold his cart. A cart still stands at that location, but it's not the same. They did keep the corn relish though, so every time I'm in the land of Toronto I still eat a hot dog in memory of the ghost of a true Canadian hero.

Today I set up my grill for the year and cooked myself a round of veggie dogs. I've been saving this can since November, waiting for the perfect day to crack it open. Today as we mourn the loss of the greatest hot dog slinger to ever exist I urge you to raise a can of Cplus in his memory. You'll never find an orange soda as this, or hot dogs as good as his.

Thus far I have been very impressed with all of the drinks I have tried from the Grace company. They make possibly the best ginger beer I've ever had, and the other drinks have been top notch as well. Seeing as I am a huge fan of pineapple I knew I was in for a treat with this treasure bottle.

Like every other pineapple soda I've ever had it doesn't really taste like pineapple. Actually let me change that up (No, I have never heard of a delete key. I type this all up on a typewriter I feel desperately insecure without a typewriter in the house. I unfortunately lent out my Martinelli to my friend Bill and it came back smashed), It tastes like someone took pineapple juice and removed everything acidic about it. All you're left with is a sugary sweet juice. While I would love to have a pineapple soda that showed the fruit the respect it deserves, this is still one of the greatest pineapple sodas I've tried. It's not quite pineapple, but not overly candy-esque.

Underneath the cap it also reads "Dubby know who fi frighten." Translations are welcomed.

Dear Mike,
Our search ends here. You wanted the ultimate ginger beer and I believe I have found it. Put away your Goya and your Blenheim red caps. Those are kids stuff compared to this.

The smell of this stuff was so strong that it almost made me sneeze. I took two sips and I needed to take a break because it burned so much. It's been over an hour and I'm still not done with the bottle. You take a sip, it doesn't seem to bad, then a decent burn kicks in, you think you're going to be fine, then a third intense ginger burns drop kicks your throat. That's right this is a "three alarm" ginger beer. The thing is that it's not just crazy hot, this bottle is also full of flavor. That first wave tastes like a great ginger ale. The second wave is a great ginger beer. The third wave? Well that is just pure burn. Well-played Grace. You know how to make a great soda. If I got this in a Jamaican restaurant I think it would be a toss up as to what was hotter the soda or my jerk.

What is wrong with us that we've been searching out the hottest ginger beer? I'm pretty sure third world countries use this stuff in their torture methodologies. Us we sit back and relax with a nice cool bottle of liquid fire. We sure are idiots.

I like eating fresh lychee fruit. Sure it might have a consistency that I can only liken to an eyeball, but it tastes pretty awesome. Something horrible happens when that fruit is transformed into drink form. It somehow starts to taste the was I can only assume an old lady would. Like a perfume from the 1940s. That would be the opposite of awesome.

I've had this sitting around for probably six months. Because the can was white I thought it was diet (all diet pops from my youth were in white cans). That and my fear of lychee drinks put it on the back burner. Tonight I decided to suck it up and for my bravery I was rewarded. President's Choice did something right with this drink. They have kept the flavor of the fruit intact without bringing out the perfumey aspect of it. It's a very light beverage that I would be happy to drink again. Thanks Canada.

As ambassador for the island of Pineapple Pokopo I would like to assure you that I am as much as a professional as you can get on the subject of pineapples. I have had them prepared every way possible. I've had them sliced, diced, baked, fried, fire roasted, shoved inside of various mammals and fish. You have not lived until you've had pineapple stuffed dolphin. My mansion is actually built 100% out of pineapple. You wouldn't believe how strong that fruit can get when it's compressed enough and then shellacked.

I tell you all of this because on my vacation to Toronto you had the audacity to serve me this soda?!?! This is not my beloved pineapple! I bet that the ingredients in the bottle have never even been in the same fruit with any fruit, let alone one as pure as mine. I demand you change the name of this immediately! What's that you will call it "ananas?" Is that some sort of banana? Oh it's French for pineapple. I can deal with that. I've never met a Frenchman, so I assume I'll never run into anyone who knows that information.

Now that it has a new name this is actually pretty good. It has a nice citrus flavor, like it's some candied fruit. It doesn't taste like actually pineapple as I have mentioned in my rant, but there is something similar there. It's better than an orange or lemon soda. I will tell you that for free. That's right the cost of that knowledge will not come out of your tip. Now bring me another bottle, and a fresh napkin. I must clean off my pineapple monocle. Did you not notice that it was just a cored slice of pineapple with a lens shoved into it? No wonder you're a waiter and not the ambassador of Pineapple Pokopo.

2 liter bottles are the worst form of packaging for soda to come in. Okay 3 liters are actually worse, and I suppose if a company chose to package their drinks inside of an octopus' stomach that would also be worse. Let's just say out of normal packaging it is the worst.
A. It's plastic, which is inferior to cans, which is inferior to glass bottles.
B. It's too much drink. You generally don't finish it in one sitting and the pop ends up going flat before you get through the whole bottle.
C. If you do finish the entire bottle in a single sitting, you are a glutton and probably are going to end up weighing 398 lbs.

Most companies realize how terrible of an idea these bottles are and forgo using them. Quality companies that is. Generally all you see are Coke and Pepsi products as well as store brands like this one. We went up to Canada on Sunday to get some bookshelves from Ikea. Nothing is better for LPs. We stopped at a grocery store and I saw this on the shelf for $1.19. I'm not one to ever pass up a ginger beer I haven't tried, even when I expect the worst. I made my purchase, made my way out to my car, took a photo in the bottle and cracked it open like the impatient American that I am. While it was in my mouth it tasted like an average root beer. Then I swallowed and the ginger beer flavor became more apparent. Two seconds later a very decent burn swept over my throat.

This is a shockingly decent ginger beer. It's not the best I've tasted, but it's far from the worst, which is what I expected. I still think 2 liters are a terrible idea, and this is most definitely going to go flat before I finish it, but flavor wise it was pretty darn good.

To me Tetley is an old ladies tea. A grandma tea if you will. It's what my grandmother always drank, and it was probably my first experience with tea as a child. I was young and dumb and I thought it was complete garbage. Now that I've wised up through the years I love tea. It's probably my favorite beverage. The thing I loved about Tetley when I was a kid was that each box of tea came with a little ceramic animal. My grandmother's cabinet was filled with them (She was a women who loved her tea). Playing with them filled many hours of my youth.

When I was up in Canada recently I saw this at a grocery store and I felt I owed it to that forgotten porcelain army to buy it and review it for the site. Let me tell you 2 liters is a lot of beverage. Especially when it's a way sweet beverage. This is a good quality low quality iced tea, if that makes any sense. There's nothing special or fancy about it. It's actually more like sugar water than tea, but it kept me coming back for more. The lemon flavor is also very strong. If this came in tall boys it would be a nice and refreshing drink to pick up at gas stations on road trips. As it is I'll keep nursing this huge bottle.

Last night I went up to Canada to see Laura Stevenson and the Cans play. They were fairly incredible, which is to be expected. In-between bands I walked to a convenient store to see if there was anything unknown to the Thirsty Dudes in their coolers. Vitamin Water. Snapple. Coke. Pepsi. Jones. All of the usual suspects were there. As I was about to give up and head back to the show I noticed this little fellow on the bottom shelf. Canada Dry is a fairly standard "safe" ginger ale. No burn. Not even a real ginger flavor. It is still enjoyable for what it is though. Now they have gotten the crazy idea to mix in white tea and raspberry into the mix. Yes sir I will put my toonie down on the counter and take a bottle.

As soon as this passed my lips my mouth was invaded with an intense flavor, or flavors to be more specific. All three of them (tea, ginger ale and raspberry) hit you in their own way. At first it's just a highly carbonated white tea. Then a small hint of raspberry sneaks in to the mix. Finally as you swallow and take a breath the ginger ale flavor sits on your tongue for a bit. This drink has surpassed my expectations. Canada you've done it again. This is just another reason to lure me up north. First it was beavers and moose, then delicious veggie food and now drinks.