Derek Neuland - 489 Reviews

It has a slight cough syrup smell. This kind of excited me because I have yet to review a drink that tasted like medicine. Sadly, the time for that is not now. It's really hard to identify the flavor of this. It kind of tastes like cream soda, mixed with a little weak ginger ale. It's not necessarily bad, but it's not phenomenal or memorable. As Monet says, it's strange enough to keep on drinking it. This is so true, but the more I drink it the less I'm able to identify a true taste to this.

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.

I didn't know what to expect with this. Upon first sip, it tasted like soymilk with an extra flavor to it. Then Monet reminded me of the mung bean dessert balls you get at Thai or sushi restaurants. That is EXACTLY what this tastes like. Even though we followed Jason's instructions to shake this prior to opening, the tapioca balls still stayed at the bottom. The tapioca balls are much smaller and less chewy than those I'm used to in bubble tea. Sadly, these would not be as effective if you were to spit them.

Monet's four-word review: dirt, leaves, metal, and banana.

This smells sweet, but as we know smells can be deceiving. I definitely get a strong banana flavor, which is weird because it's not marketed as a banana drink. I've never had basil seed before, so maybe that it the slight dirt/leaves taste I'm getting that Monet was referring to. This is alright, but nothing I really want to drink. I feel like this would be a good drink to give a kid who loved bananas but you didn't like. They would initially be excited about the banana flavor, but then the dirt aftertaste would kick in. Congratulations, you just made an enemy for life.

I enlisted my friend Monet to help me drink a few of my more interesting drinks. I am about to move back to Buffalo, NY and need to get through my big backlog of reviews.

Upon first trying this, Monet thought it tasted like a melted pink Otterpop. About two minutes later, a heat wave of vinegar rose up from her stomach. She immediately took back her previous statement.

Since I had tried a couple flavors of this before, I knew what to expect. Maybe it was mean of me to not inform Monet of the 2 minute wait time of the vinegar kicking in, but I wasn't aware of it the first time I drank this so I opted to let her experience it for herself. This is alright. The peach is nice, but the vinegar still doesn't sit well.

This soda intrigued me because I had no idea what it was going to taste like. I have never drunk a soda with guarana in it before. I know it's a common ingredient in energy drinks, but I've never seen a guarana flavored drink before. Even though the good folks at Real Soda make this in the USA, they make it with the same ingredients as the traditional Brazil soda.

My thoughts? It's alright. I don't think it's anything special. It tastes like ginger ale without any ginger, or maybe a bland lemon-lime soda. It's not bad. It just has no personality to it at all. This is the Ann Veal of sodas. If I could add a caption under the photo, it would say, "not pictured".

Simpson Spring makes a good soda. They have yet to disappoint me. This orange soda was no exception. It's good, but not great. It reminds me a lot of San Pellegrino Aranciata, but with more sugar. It's a good simple orange soda that is definitely better than Crush and Sunkist. Also, I love the shade of orange this had. If I could, I'd give this a 5-bottle rating in the color category.

Given that the company who makes this soda is based out of Wyoming, they're really going after that "olde time western" feel. Judging by the label, I feel like I should be watching an old Clint Eastwood movie as I drink this. Sadly, I don't have a copy of The Outlaw Josey Wales (which is my favorite western of all time) so I'll have to do without it for this bottle.

By now, I've tried enough different ginger beers to be able to smell it and know how spicy it's going to be. This has a light ginger smell, so I knew it wasn't going to be too intense. With little sips, there's barely any burn. Big sips you get a nice burn, but it's not overwhelming. This would be a perfect entry-level ginger beer for someone who doesn't want to burn their throat just yet. What makes this ginger beer unique is the sweet after taste. It's not in the ingredients, but a brown sugar sweetness lingers a little after some sips. It's a really nice contrast to the ginger.

Jason is on his way to Hawaii right now. I mention this because this drink is made in Hawaii, but I found it in a local Asian super market. I'm sure he'll be coming across all sorts of flavors of this brand.

It's been a while since I've drunk juice. I decided to forgo my usual morning coffee today, and instead drink this. Usually when I see the word nectar, I think "thick". I was pleasantly surprised that this was a light juice. It has a really great taste as well. The pineapple and orange are mixed really well. But at the end of the day, this juice isn't amazing. Can you really call something that is only 20% juice, juice?

While I can't be in Hawaii with Jason, I feel like this juice brings me a little closer.

It is over 60 degrees today in Portland and it feels great! The things I love about warm weather are all the delicious cool drinks there are for me to drink to help 'beat the heat'. One of my favorites is lemonade. Now I have had my fair share of lemonades over the years, and Natucket Nectar ranks up near the top. It had been a few years since I had drank a bottle so finding this at the Alberta Co-op today was a treat.

If I had to describe this in three words, it would be 'smooth, tart, and refreshing.' I can't find anything wrong with this. It's the perfect summer time lemonade. The lemon tart is perfect too, not over or underwhelming. Just perfect.

Hosmer Mountain has two different cola's, red and blue. The red is their take on Coca-Cola and the blue is supposed to be like Pepsi. Seeing as I am a bigger fan of Pepsi than Coca-Cola, I opted for the Cola-Blue.

Imagine Pepsi, without the harsh bite and less syrupy. That's pretty close to what this taste like. It's really a no-frills cola. I don't know if I like it better or worse than Pepsi, but it's definitely different. I don't think they were aiming to clone the Pepsi flavor, but use that as a starting point to make this cola.

If you like basic colas, this is a really good one. I think this would be really great with some spices in it like nutmeg or anise.

Looks (and preconceived notions) can be deceiving. Thus far, Simpson Spring has output mostly mediocre soda. So when I found this in my box to review I had a feeling it was going to be a very generic root beer. While this isn't the most complex ever, it's far from bland.

The smell threw me off because it didn't smell like run-of-the-mill root beer. It was a familiar smell, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As soon as I took my first sip, it hit me: birch beer. This starts off as a normal root beer, but has a really nice crisp birch beer aftertaste. It's a really good 1-2 combo with a really good bite. Much like the combination of root beer and sarsaparilla, I would have never thought of this pairing but it makes sense. I love it! Now I challenge a company to make a Root Beer-Sarsaparilla-Birch Beer. If there has to be a holy trinity, my vote goes to them!

While this pouch lacks a straw, it still reminds me of Capri-Sun. I never got them in my lunch box. I always had the cheaper Hi-C "juice" boxes in my lunch as a kid. Was I jealous of those who got Capri-Sun? Sometimes. If someone had put vinegar in Capri-Sun pouches, they wouldn't have been as popular.

These drinks are deceiving. On the first sip, you can't taste the vinegar at all. It's just normal pineapple juice. But then a few minutes later, your stomach is full of vinegar and it burns! I like vinegar, but not enough to drink it.

I have 3 more flavors of this to review. Not looking forward to them.

I love the classic look of this bottle. It has the short and stout shape of a 12 oz bottle, instead of the traditional taller shape. Some may see this label and think it's old and boring, I think it's classic and really fits the taste of this soda. As the label suggests, this has a very rich vanilla flavor and I love it. It's a traditional cream soda taste that really makes my mouth happy.

I just got excited/confused on the last sip I took. I thought I was getting a taste of a campfire and it threw me off. But then I realized it was the smell of a grill outside that wafted through my window and into my nose. Now I'm disappointed and want to find a drink that has a campfire aftertaste.

We here at Thirsty Dudes have a strong appreciation for aloe drinks. They're refreshing, delicious, and good for us. When I saw this cute little bottle I couldn't resist giving it a try. It's a very basic aloe drink. It has a moderate amount of chunks, and a nice white grape aftertaste. Not the best, but FAR from the worst. This seems like the perfect drink (size and taste) to keep in your bag "just in case".

This is a very average tasting grape soda, run-of-the-mill, if you will. Middle of the road, mediocre, vanilla, acceptable, standard, garden-variety, so-so, conventional, unexceptional, passable, second-rate, unobjectionable, common, decent, ordinary, satisfactory, or humdrum could also be used to describe this.

I think you get the point.

I'm not a big fan of fermented drinks. I have never drunk beer, my tongue hates kombucha, and the few fermented soda's I've had so far haven't been so great. Despite this being fermented, I was actually excited to try it due to the flavor. Sadly, the orange taste is not very prominent. It has a strong ginger taste, but not a spicy ginger. As far as ginger drinks go, this is VERY mild. I suppose that would be good for someone liked the taste of ginger but not the spicy part of it. Not me though, up the spice! Once again I am reminded that fermented drinks and I don't go well together.

When I saw this in the cooler at New Seasons, I thought it was a gift from the soda gods. Two of my favorite sodas, root beer and ginger beer, combined!? But then I realized that it was a diet soda sweetened with stevia. My excitement died down, but I still had to try it. This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It's a lot smoother that I was expecting. It's also very carbonated which surprised me. The root beer taste hits first, and it's a very light root beer. The ginger comes shortly after and sadly wasn't that intense. I was hoping this was going to be sweet with root beer, but with a spicy ginger aftertaste. Sadly this was not the case. As far as diet sodas go, this isn't that bad. I just wish the ginger taste was stronger and the root beer didn't taste watered down.

What's worse than a gross energy drink? A gross diet energy drink. Going into this I knew this wasn't going to be good. The initial taste isn't bad. It has a generic orange soda mixed with red bull taste. But as soon as it goes down, the usual battery acid energy drink feeling kicks in, which is intensified by the Splenda in the drink that make it "low-carb". Yuck.

Also, did you notice the warning at the bottom? "Caution: May Suppress Appetite". This is kinda messed up. I highly doubt people are worrying about having their appetite suppressed. This is obviously a clever way to market this to people trying to lose weight without putting the dreaded word "diet" on the can.

Hansen's makes a damn good soda. There are no questions there. In the past, I haven't had the best luck with "natural" energy drinks. They always taste bad, but not in the normal energy drink way. Bad in the "now I know why companies load their drinks with sugar to mask these flavors" way.

I'm happy to say that Hansen's knows how to make an energy drink! This is really delicious. It almost taste like a less syrupy grapefruit soda with a splash of Mountain Dew. There's no battery acid taste, which is great. As far as the energy portion of the drink goes, I've been dancing in my chair to Kanye West while writing this whole interview so I think it's working. Good work Hansen's!