Sugar - 840 Reviews

Our boy Marvo from The Impulsive Buy found something that we needed and it was this soda. I was at the store and thought I'd grace the shelves with my presence as I tend to do every time I got to a store and found it. I didn't know that it was going to be there. I thought Jay and I were going to have to take a twenty minute pilgrimage to Canada and buy it there but nope. We did not. I found it five minutes from my house which is convenience because it is absolutely incredible.

The cola tastes like Pepsi but it has cane sugar and yes, there is a noticeable difference. The ginger, oh the ginger. The ginger is sharp and hot. Dare I say too strong for some people which is right where Jay and I like it. We like our ginger to be dangerous and alienating. We like our ginger like a masochistic. This is right there. This is great because it tastes the way that it should. Nothing is held back and everything shines.

Find it. Drink it. Pepsi? I've probably said some terrible things about you in the past that I will not apologize for but this? You deserve a pat on the back because you nailed it. I can't wait to get more.

Sometimes your ladyfriend nicely makes you dinner when you are sick, even when she just had a long day of school/work and is exhausted herself. She grinds up the always great garlic salt mix from Trader Joes to spice it up a bit for you. Not often, but sometimes, in her delirious state she doesn't realize that she left the cap on and goes to add more when she tastes it and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. This time she remembers to take the cap off and an obscene salty mess tumbles into your otherwise delicious meal. You don't want to be rude, or unappreciative, so you eat it, sodium and all. Now it's a week later and you have a can of Salted Caramel Java Monster in front of you and all you can think of is how salty that meal was and if this tastes even a fraction like that, there's no way you will be able to enjoy it. Salt could be ruined forever, and that would be a horrible life to lead. I mean think of all the salsa and guacamole I would miss out on? That's not a life I have any interest in living.

Somehow, like in a dumb sitcom, everything turned out just fine. It wasn't overly salty. In fact it has only the faintest trace of sodium, which is how drinks should be. No one wants a salty drink, unless it's some boozy concoction on a beach, and even then I don't understand it. This has a general canned coffee flavor to it, with some small traces of caramel. There is another flavor that people tend to overdo it with. With a confection that is pretty much just burned sugar, less is usually more. I want hints of it, not a sore jaw from chewing a hunk of it for hours. Luckily there is no trace of the energy drink flavor in here. The idea of it mixed with coffee, is pretty wretched, and Monster seems aware of that, so they keep them separate.

Overall I found myself enjoying this way more than I had anticipated. It's nothing terribly special, but I had overall low expectations and every single one of them were surpassed. Aim low and you'll never miss the mark.

If this bottle looks familiar, yet slightly off that would be because Goose Island Sodas has become WBC. Apparently WIT Beverage Company lost the license on the name Goose Island and decided to change it to WBC. I have no idea what that stands for, but this is the information the internet has provided.

This is a slightly different twist on the classic creamsicle style orange cream soda. It's due to their use of natural flavor in the way of Valencia oranges. It gives it more of an actual orange (fruit) flavor instead of the generic orange (color) flavor that most companies have. It's not too extreme. It doesn't taste like vanilla was mixed into carbonated orange juice (although that does sound awesome, minus the potential curdling). 43g of sugar put this on the sweeter side of the soda spectrum, but what do you expect from this type of pop? You're getting what you assume you would get with a little bit of a twist. All of that and you don't have to envision an island completely covered with goose excrement whenever you drink it.

What a bummer, all I have to drink is this delicious soda that tastes like it was made with real grape juice, and it's only lightly sweetened with real sugar. What would really make this better would be if I could just dump a whole mess of erythritol and stevia in it to give it a weird fake taste that no one really likes. Man that would be just perfect. Oh , you have some of those natural zero calorie sweeteners that I can use. Thanks man, I really appreciate it, now that I mixed it in this is perfect. It's exactly what I didn't want. Dreams do come true.

One of the moments in my life when I was completely embarrassed for someone I was with was back in the late 90's when a handful of friends went to Denny's late night to hang out as teenagers are prone to do. One of us ordered some sort of chicken dinner and when it arrived he realized he hadn't read the description correctly, and he asked the waitress to take it back because it wasn't what he expected. Just typing that my spirits dropped and I got a pit in my stomach. I am of the belief that if you order something and it is what it says it is, you deal with it. Just because you come up with something in your head it's not the establishment's responsibility to meet your imaginary expectations.

I feel the same way about this beverage. When I grabbed it I saw the “rhu” and I expected some strange rhubarb soda. I completely ignored the second half of the title, which would have actually prepared me for what this tastes like. It tastes like someone made a soda from those little strawberry candies that come wrapped in cellophane that looks like the fruit. Once that soda was created that added a little bit of rhubarb flavor to it. This is certainly a candied soda, and that's fine, but it's not what I expected, and not what I wanted at this moment. That's on me. It's not Twig's fault. Don't be like me. Read into things. Life's no fun when you're a dummy.

There is lime in this. Why wouldn't there be? Good question but you would be surprised. This actually has a good cherry taste and lime taste. That's both tastes. Two of two tastes are good. All together how is it? It's good. I didn't polish off a whole bottle in one sitting but that's no insult to the drink itself. It's good. It tastes like a cherry limeade you would make yourself with cherry Kool-Aid and lime juice. Do you make things like that yourself at home? Perhaps. This is also made from real sugar so it doesn't taste like poison at any stage in the game. I've got a couple bottles of this line that I am now looking forward to.

Point brewery makes a less than stellar root beer, but they certainly know their cream sodas. This is what I expect a product from the wonderful state of Wisconsin to deliver. It has a very strong vanilla flavor that is somehow improved by the addition of a little honey. Honey and vanilla certainly play well together and this soda gave me just what I was looking for this afternoon. It's fairly sweet, but it's not too much.

After drinking this I really need to grab another bottle of that root beer and give it a second chance the next time I'm in Wisconsin (actually that might be next week). This is one of the better cream sodas, sorry vanilla cream, that I've ever tasted and I hope that crosses over into their other sodas as well.

Look at you Sotea, you're moving up in the world. You've taken off the training wheels and have put out a flavor that is actually pretty decent. You may not be ready to go on a 40 mile bike trip yet, but you are moving out of the driveway and onto the sidewalks. This may be the dumbest analogy I have ever used and it doesn't even really make sense. My point is that while the other two Sotea flavors we have reviewed left a lot to be desired this one is actually pretty good. It tastes like carbonated green tea (always a bit weird, but sometimes enjoyable) with a fairly good (black)berry flavor to it. Sure, there is stevia in the mix with the cane sugar that is messing with the taste a bit, but it's nothing horrible and I can easily see past it. I feel like this is what they were reaching for (and missing) for the other flavors. I can only hope that with the other flavors we have on deck that they get even better.

When Editor Dan and Jay and I get together, we eat food. We love the stuff. It's like we need it to live. When we've got a couple more minutes than normal, we do what other extremely attractive and confident men do which is go to Big Lots.

Why wouldn't I like a nice, tall mocha drink? You're right. I wouldn't not like it. Except, of course, when it tastes like this.

I don't think it's the almond milk because I've had that but something in this drink gets stuck to my tongue and tastes bad and tastes bad for an extended amount of time. My live-in girlfriend likes it so I'll try to think of the good parts. It does have a good mocha taste. It's nice and smooth. Badness? It's just got some sort of...presence that sits on your tongue like you on the couch after the boss was riding you all day. You aren't moving. You don't care what's on TV. You will watch The Bachelor if it comes on. You like watching those girls fight about their completely fabricated lives anyhow. This drink resides for so long that it should have to pay rent or mortgage depending on your current living situation.

I wish this was better. Almonds? Love 'em. Mocha? Love it. This? Naw, bro. Swing and a miss.

Let's cut to the chase. There is far too much garbage in the food that we consume. We ingest so much junk that we would never even consider putting in our mouths if we saw it in its true form and not mixed in with our food. Hell, there are a whole bunch of ingredients that are allowed in food in the US that are completely banned in other parts of the world. We are poisoning ourselves, and for the most part we don't care. I know I eat tons of this junk without even thinking about it. It's just easier to be ignorant, or force yourself not to think about it. Will I die sooner because of it? Probably, but do I really want to be around when I'm 80+ years old? I'm less than half of that now and I don't know what to do with my time.

Okay, I went off on a death tangent. My point is that there is a cubic buttload of unnecessary ingredients in food that are more than likely harmful. We tend to think that they are there for a purpose, but then a drink like this comes around and proves you wrong. This lemonade soda is simply carbonated water, sugar and lemon (juice, fruit and flavoring). It has a decent shelf life and it tastes great. So what is the point of all the other junk companies use? This tastes like homemade lemonade that was put in a Soda Stream. It tastes like lemons and that is all I could ask for from this. This will not kill me, well unless I get diabetes from the sugar, but that's a different death altogether.

The most important thing that I learned from this soda was that during the 50's in Wisconsin either bread was really expensive, or the mark up on soda pop was very low. The bottle tells a story of how the founder of Twigs would sell a case of soda and use the money he made to by a loaf of bread for his family. With modern production methods you can get a case of cans for more than double what a loaf of bread costs. Taking into consideration the time he put into it and the cost of the bottles that is some crazy math. Who knows maybe wheat was hard to come by in WI during that time. Maybe there was a yeast shortage. All we know is that Twig provided for his family and we applaud him for that.

I was hoping that this would be a lime soda that actually tasted like the green little pieces of citrus, but alas like most sodas this flavor it tastes like melted green freeze pops. Luckily for us there is not that harshness that comes along with that particular confection. Kids would love this, but it doesn't really have a place in my life. It may be the only lime soda I have ever had that uses cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup though, so that's something. I wonder if I could still buy this with bread.

Blood orange, the most metal of flavors, is quickly becoming a hackneyed flavor for me. It's like people are making it the "cooler orange" when it's really just a little bit different. Sweeter than citric. That's all. Does that make it cooler? I don't think so. You know what would make it cooler? If it came around in a dope leather jacket. That would make it different than all the other citric lemmings.

How does this fare? A little bit different than an orange pop. A little bit different than any old orange pop. This is fine. It's not going to win any awards but if you did something to make it different (leather jacket) it might be something special. For now it's just orange pop to someone that isn't familiar with the likes of Thirsty Dudes. At this point we've reached millions of people though. Right? Millions? Is my decimal in the right place. No? Tens? Oh come on! We're better than that. Jay! Tell them we're better than that.

"Don't bother" would be my response to the statement, "I'm going to carbonate tea." Sure, it's a real "millennial" response but seriously, don't bother. Iced tea is like the perfect drink and you're going to ruin it with a million sugars. Yeah, I said it. This drink is ruined. It's got citrus but it tastes more like someone dumped half a can of Sprite into...something. I am not sure if there is tea in this to be honest. Aren't I always honest with you, friends? This kind of stinks. How's that for honest? It's too sweet and I don't like it. You like that? Brutal. It might be sweeter than actual Sprite. They really let this drink have it. Woo! So sweet. So bad. Peace.

Sometimes in life you just want a nice cold bottle of cream soda. When the vanilla hits your taste buds, sometimes it's just what you need. It's not often that I get these cravings, but when I do, it feels so good to have that itch scratched. When an descriptor is added to a soda flavor that you don't normally hear, it intrigues me. When I read “dark cream” my mind wandered to two places. A soda that is very intensely vanilla and secondly, and more probably a cream soda that is heavy on caramel. I didn't quite get either. Actually I'm not sure what exactly is making this cream soda dark. It's actually a little light on the vanilla and there is an aftertaste that I cannot place. That unknown flavor may actually be stronger than the vanilla. I find it distracting, but it could be one of those things that once someone tells me what it is, it will all make sense and I will enjoy it more. Right now, it's just not doing much for me.

We live in a world where there is a bear in New Jersey that just walks around erect on its hind legs all of the time. It's not someone in a costume; it's just the coolest bear ever. It's just a matter of time until more bears adopt this mode of conveyance and that will most certainly lead to bears riding skateboards, as seen on this can. This portrayal of our furry friend is the peak coolness that any bear could hope to achieve. It makes sense that it should adorn the can of one of the best ginger beers I have tasted in a long time.

Now I love a good burn in my ginger beer, which you may know as I never shut up about it. This soda has somehow surpassed that love of mine. There is definitely some heat to this drink, but it's more on the mild side and it does not overpower the actual delicious flavor of this soda. There is a ridiculous amount of ginger flavor in here with some burn at the end. It's very, very good and the kicker is that this is “cheap” soda in Scotland. The cans are like 40p each. If I lived there it wouldn't just be the deep fried everything that would make me fat.

You might think this was a good idea if you're one of those dudes who makes pant tents for bacon but if you are a regular person, this is vile. Woah. This is gross. It smells like salt and smoke flavoring and "regular" hot chocolate. When you taste it, you thank your lucky stars that it doesn't taste as bad as it smells. It smells like fake bacon and tastes like fake smoke and has entirely too much salty saltiness.

This is a bad idea that went too far. Reign it in, Aspen.

I have not had strawberry milk since I was like fourteen. My friend Ian and I were sitting in his kitchen and drinking it and calling it "cow blood." Pretty morbid now that I think about it but we were fourteen. What did we know? Neither one of us had touched a boob. What else is there? We never drank. We didn't smoke. We just hung out all the time and played football in people's yards and hockey in people's driveways. We just hung out. We were all we knew and we were fine.

What we should have known was that this strawberry milk is complete garbage. Man. Now I know why I haven't had this stuff in like twenty years. It sucks. It tastes like candy strawberries but something about it still being milk makes me sick to my stomach. This is almost most certainly a "me" review and an opinion so don't get mad at me but I did not like this one bit. I don't really remember liking it back then which is probably why I haven't had any desire whatsoever to buy it.

Not for me. Ian, I'm telling you this now and I'm retroactively telling you this in 1994, I don't and never did like strawberry milk.

Melba loves that sugar, man. She adds it to everything. If the recipe called for eight ounces, she puts in ten. It's healthy. It's energy. In doing so, this is one sweet treat, dude. I shared this with people and this was too much. Way too much. It might taste like cherry and I suppose there could have been an element of "cream" in there but cherry cream soda this is not. Cherry cream soda does come at your teeth like a thousand minuscule jackhammers. I could feel my dentist getting richer as I drank this. Was it good? Eh. It wasn't her finest. It was alright. Melba, you're alright in my book but you might want to keep an eye on your fat grandkids before they get "the sugar."

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, and by Circle K I mean this bottle of carbonated tea. I've had a handful of tea sodas in my days on this planet and to be honest I don't know if any of the flavored ones have really impressed me. Give me a straight up sparkling black, green, white, or yerba mate tea and I'll be all over it, but something gets lost in the translation when you mix carbon dioxide, tea and fruit flavors. Something especially seems wrong when a zero calorie sweetener is brought into the mix. Look, I've made my peace with stevia. I don't love it, but I know it has its place and I've even been known to enjoy it in some drinks. In this bottle of Sotea it's blended with real sugar, so it should be actually decent, but it mixes with the peach flavor in a way that just makes the whole thing taste artificial. The ingredients say nothing about the peach juice, but “natural flavors” is listed, so I'm assuming it has something to do with an actual peach, but it just doesn't taste authentic. I was excited to try this line when I came across it, but it really is just not for me and my taste buds.

Mexican hot chocolate; one of those items on a menu that I cannot not buy. I've spent money on Mexican hot chocolate that I would be skeptical about buying an actual meal. You know the phrase, "If you have to know, you can't afford it." That does not apply for Mexican hot chocolate.

I spent around $12 on two boxes of this anticipating the spicy hotness of chili and cinnamon. I was let down. Why? This hot cocoa is chililess. Sans-chili. Unspicy. If you ordered this at an Indian restaurant and they asked you how spicy do you want this, you would say, "No spice."

Sure there is an adorable grandma on the box. I do not believe for a second that she made this for you or me. She would have made it with some zip. She would have made it the way they made it in the "old country." It's fine, though. It's got a little cinnamon and might be less chocolatey than a hot chocolate that you're used to. More milky with a cinnamon taste with a medium to light amount of chocolate. It's good. Not spicy but good.

I just realized that this whole time I made a mistake. I like "Aztec Hot Chocolate" not "Mexican Hot Chocolate." And you consider me a professional. I suck.