Sugar - 840 Reviews

Sometimes you find yourself in Australia and you don't want to sit around the house you're staying at, so you go for a walk. After a bit you look at a map on your phone and discover you're near the beach, so you decide to walk there. After awhile you realize it's a lot further than you thought, but you've already gone so far that you simply can't turn back. Man are you thirsty though, so you stop at the only open gas station that you pass and all drinks are like $4 each. You curse Australia for being great, but so expensive (except cake for some reason). You end up with a hole in your wallet and a can of creaming soda in your hand.

This is something different than red cream soda or soda mouse as it is known in Canada. It's fruitier with a little something extra. In fact creaming soda doesn't taste like cream soda much at all. It's still good, but it's a different beast. It also gives you the boost you need to make it to the beach and back, completing your 20km+ walk like the dummy you are.

Australia is a strangely biased place. Everywhere I go cans of coke are $3.50 or more. While Pepsi products range from the $1.50 to $3 range. I mean I'm not going to argue with them Coke products are generally better, but it still seems crazy that there is such a price difference. I kept seeing this along with the Pepsi products in gas stations and meant to pick it up since we don't have it back home. I'm not a huge fan of 7Up so I continuously skipped it (mostly for water in an attempt to pretend-consume healthy foods).

Suddenly I have found myself with one being placed in my hands at a show. It is much better than I anticipated. It's straight up carbonated lemonade, including 5% lemon juice. Sure it's overly sweet and sodalike but it's better than any lemon lime I've ever had.

To be fair if this was in the US it would be garbage because instead of bring sweetened by real sugar there would be high fructose corn syrup in it and it would be a thick, syrupy mess.

I'm in Australia. I really have no idea what I did right in my life to get here. I've spent more than 20 years playing in bands and making friends through music. Now people who live 7 hours away from me have dragged me halfway across the globe to the place that is the furthest away from home I could possibly be and still be on Earth. Sometimes life is pretty great.

My main objectives for this trip were to hang out with koalas/ kangaroos and drink a buttload of ginger beer. The second half of my plans started earlier than I expected when my 30+ hours of travel was filled with flight attendants serving me as much Bundaberg as I could fit into my digestive system. Now I'm at a house show in Perth (because where else would I be?) And a new friend handed me this unfamiliar can of ginger beer. My friends know what I like.

This is made by the Coca-Cola company and it tastes like it. It's quite good, but it feels like a safe version of ginger beer. The kind an older relative would keep in the fridge and serve to the kids. It's ginger beer with training wheels. It's a bit lighter tasting than what I'm used to, with a more subdued burn. It's a bit smooth and tastes like a strong ginger beer was mixed with plain soda water. I would say it lives in the gaps between ginger ale and beer. It's also pretty sweet, coming in at 47g of sugar pee serving.

Like I said it is enjoyable, but in a country where Bundaberg is king and can be found all over the place, I doubt I will pick up another can.

I'm not going to push any product on this review but this isn't good. It's not bad but it does not taste good. I drank a third of the bottle and am not going to waste my time drinking the rest. Don't get me wrong, I have a long track record of liking Pure Leaf. Their unsweetened is great as is their "Just a Tad Sweet." Their more boutique flavors are great also. This...there is a reason this was at Big Lots. When you buy drinks from Big Lots, you buy them with a little asterisk attached. Sometimes they're diamonds in the rough like the Unsweetened Peace Tea and sometimes they're not. You can't be mad about it.

This has the aftertaste of pomegranate but while you're drinking it, you get a taste of something undesirable. It's hard to pinpoint but it tastes artificial. I think it just has a strange tinge to it. Strange that it tastes better a minute after you drink it but it's when you're in the moment that counts and when you are in the think of it, it's not good. No sir. Peace out, two-thirds of this bottle.

Since the ingredients are listed as “Tea(water, tea)” I don't believe this is the case, but this really tastes like a kettle of coconut water was boiled and then some tea bags were steeped in it and finally a healthy squirt (or two or five) of lemon was shot into it. The flavors are so seamless that it doesn't feel like the finished products could have just been mixed together. It's certainly an interesting flavor that I could see myself enjoying on all of those trips I take to tropical locations, where I do nothing but lounge in the sun staring out in to the ocean, but since I don't ever do those things, I don't know when I would drink this. It's really good, but it also feels like it has a very specific purpose. It's the kind of beverage that it just feels wrong sipping it while just sitting around your house. It needs to be enjoyed in the blistering heat of a summer sun. I'm sure many people will enjoy it in such a manner, but since that ball of gas in the sky and I are sworn enemies, I'm afraid I will never truly enjoy this in its intended manner.

I went in to 7-11 looking for one thing and left for something probably way better. I have not had a true Pepsi Fire myself. I say "true" because I got a Slurpee and, in true fashion, I mixed it up. I thought that I would get one for myself tonight but I got sidetracked by this little beauty and what a little beauty it was.

This is lightly sweetened and very strongly flavored. Nice hibiscus flavor. There are "other berries" in there, sure but it's a wonderful evening treat. The rooibos, which I am unfortunately 50/50 on, won me over in this particular drink. Sometimes I feel it can be strong for my taste but everything was done very well here. Very well indeed. There are other flavors out there. Something to think about. Something to dream about.

Back in the 30's bartenders on the movie lot would mix up some ginger ale (or lemon lime if it was all they had) with some grenadine and throw in a cherry to make it seem special. These drinks had a singular use; they were used to bride a child actress into giving some good takes for the “talkies.” They would pretend they were grown up drinks and only girls who performed well earned their grown up drink. Mix up one of these cocktails and those little feet would be dancing up a storm, never missing a step. If she messed up though, she was given straight sour mix.

Is any of this true? I have no idea. As far as I know this beverage was created by a bartender at bowling alley who was trying to appease the kids on a Saturday afternoon. That, at least, is my history with it. Whatever its origin story it's a great little drink. This Batch version of the classic drink doesn't quite capture the essence of the bowling alley version that I love from my youth, but it is a cleaner, more distinguished version. I mean it's not coming out of a soda gun, so chances are it's going to be of better quality. Whether you're trying to get kids to dance, or to bowl there really isn't a better beverage for the job.

Orange and mango are good buds. They're arguably both orange. That lumps them into that category. Really, that's it. They're also just a good pair. This tastes more like orange juice than a 50/50 split. I'd happily give it 75/25 if we're going to put numbers on it.

This was given to my mammy as a way to promote the product. Well, they didn't know who her son was. Most people don't. I am but a man. A sexy, attractive, talented, man of a man. A man who decided to spend the last seven years writing crud about drinks. This being one of them. What do I have to say about it? It's good. Simple as that. Personally I like the other Izze drinks because they're lighter and simpler. This is...not thicker...but denser. It's a sparkling juice. They call it like a sparkling soda, water and juice simultaneously and it is all of them and it is one of them. Is it confusing? No. You know why? Who is going to fight over what this is. Whatever it is, it's sparkling and fruity and drinkable. Don't put baby in the corner. Just drink it.

Ahhh Big Lots, where seasonal drinks go to die. Well at least until a year passes and they rise from the ashes of discount stores to achieve premium prices once again. Look, the chances of me spending $3+ for a 9.5oz bottle of iced coffee are very slim, even if it is delicious. The chances of me paying $.80 for them a few months after the holiday season that is depicted on the label? Let me grab a case or two and finish them within a week.

This is something else. I hesitate to even call it a coffee drink because it is so far buried under a delicious mountain of peppermint and chocolate that I wonder if it's there at all. Do you know what the best decision they made about this drink was? To use dark chocolate. Do you know who prefers milk chocolate? Kids and those with weak taste buds. The same people who would put ketchup on eggs or mac and cheese. Those are the same people who probably shouldn't be drinking coffee, no matter how much it's hidden in a beverage. People with developed palates appreciate dark chocolate. These people also want to throw all of their fancy tastes out the window and enjoy a sugary nonsense treat and pretend they are kids again. That's it, this drink is for adult children and I am proud to be part of those ranks.

For a second I wondered why they didn't just change the label of this and make it available year round. Then I closed my eyes as I took a sip and all I could think about was Christmas and the winter. Like nog it is tied to the season. You can certainly enjoy it other times of year, but I challenge you to drink a bottle and not think of the holidays. It's like someone made hot chocolate out of a nice dark chocolate(with a bit of coffee in it I suppose) and then melted candy canes in it before chilling it and somehow making it a bit frothy.

ps. This was my last bottle. I should have bought another case and a diabetes testing kit that I would have certainly needed. 33g of sugar in 9.5oz is a lot.

They cannot fail. The Pepsi-Cola company simply cannot fail with their 1893 line. The other flavors had me very excited, but I was skeptical about the black currant. We had a currant bush in my backyard growing up, and I enjoyed eating them, but I generally find their tartness rarely takes me where I want it to in beverage form. It is really great in this cola though. More than any other flavor in this line this reminds me of a cherry cola with a twist. I always think of currants as a form of grape, even though I know they are berries. I don't know if it's that thought process or an actuality, but this kind of tastes like a mixture of cherry/grape cola. I really enjoy it so much more than I ever would have anticipated. I wondered if they were going to release a cherry version of this, and now I think it's unnecessary. This fills that void and does it in a unique and enjoyable way.

For how little I care about the Pepsi-Cola company, I really love their 1893 line. I'm talking probably 8 out of the last 10 sodas I have bought for pleasure have been them. That's probably spaced out over the past six months, but those are some pretty good numbers. While I find their regular, every day cola pretty boring and uninspiring this stuff is just great. It is dark. It is bold. If I had reviewed the original instead of Mike it would have gotten top marks. It is everything I could have ever wanted out of a cola.

Now they have gone and twisted things up a bit with this citrus flavor. When I heard this was going be released I thought it was going to be lemon or lime (perhaps a combo of the two), or possibly orange, which would have been fantastic. I never would have anticipated that the citrus fruit they used was going to be grapefruit. It was a bold move and I think it really pays off. While I do prefer the original, this is something unlike anything I have ever had before and it is really great. The thing is that it is like two sodas mixed into one. I don't know how they have kept the flavors separate, but that's how it goes down. When it's in your mouth and initially after you swallow it tastes like a fantastic grapefruit soda. Very quickly that fades and the 1893 cola taste replaces it.

At first I was unsure what to think about this. It most definitely was unusual. It took about half the can before I realized that I really loved it. I've generally moves away from sugary beverages in my older age. They tend to make me feel a little bit like garbage and they always seem to have too much sugar. This tastes incredibly sugary sweet, but it works in here. I find myself savoring the sweetness like I normally wouldn't in other sodas. When this line first came out I was sure that it would disappear from shelves within a few months. With the release of two new flavors it seems that it is here to stay and I'm excited to see where else they take it.

So much smoother. "Than what, Mike?" you ask? Well that the other Arnold Palmer, man. Giving me attitude like that. Come on, dude. Don't give me that.

This is a classic Arnold Palmer but with real sugar courtesy of the good folks at Arizona. I feel like it's been a long time since we've reviewed something from them. Have they become complacent with their seemingly endless array of drinks? Perhaps. Do we, these thirsty dudes, not have our ear as close to the ground as we used to? Perhaps. Is this better than the one that they used to sell? I think so. Between my brother and this dude Mike I used to and will soon work with again they probably drank hundreds of gallons of that stuff. The light (lite) stuff. This is not light. Full sugar. Real sugar. "Good" sugar.

I don't know if they'd like it. Maybe because they're a little older and a little wiser but also because maybe they're accustomed to the taste of the aspartame or the corn syrup or Splenda or whatever they used. Who knows? I suppose I could buy them a bottle but you know what? They can get one themselves. This one was lent to me so I don't have one to give.

As you may know from reading thirsty Dudes (You don't, because you don't. I mean, why would you?) I have a sensitivity to caffeine and energy drinks can really screw with me. I don't drink them very often because of this. The thing is that I actually kind of like the weird energy drink taste that exists nowhere else in the beverage world. On top of that there are situations where I have to be up until nearly dawn and the chances of me staying awake that late on my own are slim. Friday was one of those nights. I knew I needed some help and figured I might as well cross another drink off the Thirsty Dudes list, so I stood way longer than any human should in front of the beverage cooler checking each of the energy drinks to our master list to see what we hadn't reviewed yet. Shockingly there were very few that we hadn't written about. I'm a fan of citrus, and the green of the can made me think it would be heavier on the lime side of things, so I chose this can of Rockstar Revolt.

This most definitely did not taste like I had anticipated. I had expected a lime version of a classic energy drink. That weird part bubblegum part citrus taste mixed with a whole lot of lime. Instead, this tastes like 7 Up or Sprite with a little something extra in it. That something is kind of like this was made from a powder and it wasn't missed up enough. There isn't an actual gritty texture to this, but it tastes like there should be. I don't understand where that is coming from. There is no trace of the “energy drink taste” that I mentioned earlier, this is its one thing. There is also no real taste of the orange juice that is listed in the ingredietns.

I personally think that lemon lime is the most boring of soda flavors, but I know there are people out there who love it, or it wouldn't be such a staple. This is going to make some people very happy.

Ahh ginger beer. Always a welcome guest in my house. Gosling's, Goya and now Trader Joe's. Sure, there are other ones. What? Do you want me to make a list? Well it's not going to happen. Alright, fine. Here. Happy?

This is good. It's sweet. I could put this in the category of "entry level" since it's not going to burn the skin off your mouth. Tame. Could you give it to kids? Sure if the kids you are giving it to aren't wimps and if their parents aren't around. If I saw you giving my kids pop, I might say something. If I saw you giving my kids ginger beer, I might say something after I saw the look on their dumb, wimp faces as their tiny, young mouths are on fire.

This is sweeter than I like my ginger beer but makes up for in earthy, ginger flavor. It's like losing a game only to come up a couple points short in the fourth quarter. Everything was against you and you are still going home a loser just not as much of a loser.

This tastes better than it smells. It smells like...listen...I'll be honest with you. I haven't always been straight edge. Back in the late 90's, it was a difficult time for everyone. I snuck, a bottle of red wine out of my parent's basement over to my friend's and we hid it in the drop ceiling and took sips of it. It was disgusting then. Two, maybe three baby sips. Tops. This smelled like that but sweeter.

How did it taste? Not that much better but good enough that I drank a fair amount of this bottle. It tastes like the fruity part of wine mixed in with a can of Pepsi. It had a bit of a burn to it which was probably from "Christmas spices." It did taste like it could have been alcoholic. It wasn't but if you pulled the wool over my eyes and told me a week later, I wouldn't call you a liar. I'd call you a jerk and probably puke on your car, but I would have had my hunches the entire time.

Does anyone else get weirded out when a company has zero presence on the internet? If it weren't for one distributor carrying this I would have had no choice but to believe that I was drinking ghost coffee. The supernatural is the only logical explanation when things don't exist on the internet, correct?

We let me tell you, if this is what ghosts have to drink to get them moving for a long night of haunting, dying might not be that bad. I mean serious coffee drinkers may not agree, but those of us who share coffee tastes with children will be all about this. Even though it is most definitely not mocha I would liken this to the chocolate milk of coffee. The flavor of the coffee isn't too overpowering, and it's gota nice sweetness to it. It takes more like coffee flavored milk than an actual cup of coffee, but I guess that is what a latte is supposed to be. For me the best part of this is that the caramel isn't too strong. That is one flavor that companies need to learn to be more reserved with. Everyone goes overboard with their caramel use and it's just too much. In here it is just right.

If for some unknown reason you are trying to get your kids into drinking coffee, this would be a good gateway drug. I don't know why you would want to do such a thing. Maybe you're really into the idea of them sitting at dinners all night talking about nothing and drinking an obscene amount of caffeine in-between smoke breaks. Do kids still do that?

I seemingly only drink Gatorade when I'm sick. Everyone except me is getting over a gnarly case of the 2016 GI bug. If it hasn't gotten you, it's gotten someone you know and it's a real sonofabitch. I'm just suffering from massive fatigue which is miles better than what everyone else has dealt with.

What does this taste like, though? I don't know. Mystery fruit? Does any Gatorade taste like anything? There might be some arbitrary melon in there but as far as anything I can pinpoint? Nope. "Fruit flavored" and that's as far and as much as I can do. Is it bad? Nope. It's not the best Gatorade I've ever had but it's far from the worst. This went down smooth and I'd like to think it gave me what plants crave, electrolytes. My body is fighting whatever atrocious virus the Western New York region is currently plagued with and I need whatever help I can get. Soup and Gatorade. Help!

This is…€¦odd. I don't mean that it tastes strange, it's actually very pleasant. The unusual thing about this energy drink is that they went out of their way to make it caffeine free (get it? Unleaded). The little blurb on the can says that it's so people who enjoy the taste of Monster, but who are also sensitive to caffeine can still enjoy it. My question is caffeine really the ingredient that people get all jittery over? I mean I do have a sensitivity (read: I'm not addicted so it serves its intended purpose and doesn't just make me “normal.”) but I feel like it's more the taurine that gets me all crazy. Natural energy drinks don't affect me the same way as Monster and it's brethren do. This is still loaded with B vitamins, niacin, taurine, ginseng and the like, so it still gave me a boost. It seems odd to me and not something there would be a big market for. If it serves its purpose to allow people to get where they need to go, good for it.
Overall it tastes like a slightly diet regular Monster; all sweet like chemical candy. Can we take a moment to acknowledge that energy drinks are the only beverage that diet versions don't taste absolutely disgusting? This is sweetened with sugar as well as sucralose and it doesn't taste like poison at all. The other flavors just mask the diet death taste in all the right ways.

The image on the can is a cow wearing an upside down American flag. It's pretty fitting for the current political state of this country and that is all I will say about that.

Even after all these years it still kind of blows my mind that Barr's is just the cheap soda in Scotland. It's everywhere and the cans have 39p printed right on them. Their counties garbage soda is a high quality soda here and I am jealous. Actually, I'm more envious. I would also probably drink way more soda if I lived there and that's not going to do me any good.

Another thing Scotland apparently likes to do is add raspberry flavoring into other sodas. They somehow made the best ginger beer by doing just that. Unfortunately it didn't translate as well with cream soda. This starts off so great. It's a nice fruity cream soda that is reminiscent of Crush's Soda Mousse. Somewhere in there though it takes a turn and a taste rears up that is similar to coconut. I don't know what is causing it, but it takes me out of a wonderful experience. It's like they used coconut water instead of regular water for the base of this drink. It's just strange. If that particular aspect of this drink were gone this would be completely fantastic.

I predict there will be a divide over this product, albeit with a narrow margin. People who love coffee will say, “It's pretty meh. It doesn't really like coffee.” People who are indifferent about coffee will say, “It's decent enough. It doesn't really taste like coffee.” At least everyone will agree on something.

This is more of an adult chocolate milk than it is an actually espresso drink. If I were handed a glass of this with no description I would assume it was some sort of weak malt drink. There probably sound like complaints, but I did enjoy the taste of this. In fact it is because it doesn't have a strong coffee flavor that makes it a better drink. It is chocolate and sweet with a little something around the edges that makes it a little interesting.