Jason Draper - 2709 Reviews

I made some Indian food for dinner. What I believed to be a nice spinach and mustard curry. Drinking an Indian soda with it just seemed like the right thing to do. As it turns out my meal was insanely spicy. I love spicy food, but it was to such an extent that I ate little more than a dozen bites. Okay that sounds like a decent amount, but if you could see the amount that I made, it was only a fraction.
My food may not have been totally satisfying, but the soda was fairly decent. Lehar is made by Pepsi India. Miranda is an orange soda. It tastes like something between Slice and Crush. It's nothing special, but something I would enjoy if I ever found myself wandering around the streets of India with the thirst of a camel.

Remember when carrot juice started showing up in mainstream consumerism? My first memory of it was in V8 splash. I was shocked because my sister who won't eat anything and has a natural abhorrence of carrots started drinking it all the time. My sister and carrots are like Dracula and Van Helsing, so you can understand my confusion. She claimed it didn't taste like carrots at all, but I could surely taste them in there. I think she would probably ignite as if daylight were touching here skin if she ever had the Bolthouse Farms carrot juice. Now that is straight up liquefied carrots.

So here comes Square with their fruit and carrot combinations. Mike loved their apple & carrot drink, and he told me I should check out another one of their flavors, and here I am. I would have preferred that it was more than 30% juice, but you take what you can get. There is twice as much carrot in here as there is peach juice, yet peach is the stronger of the two flavors. There's a nice subtle carrot undertone, which I appreciate. Maybe it's better off that it's not 100% juice. The carrot flavor may be too overpowering in that scenario.

My only real complaint with this is that sugar is the second ingredient. I get it, people like sweet drinks. That's not my complaint. It's the fact that further down the list they also threw in glucose-fructose syrup. Does that really need to be there? I'm sure it would have been sweet enough with just the sugar.

This is the strongest tasting mate that I have ever had. It's just sparkling water, mate and cane sugar. The first sip is so incredibly bitter. I almost considered not finishing it, but I'm glad I did. The second sip, not nearly as bad. By the fourth or fifth I was really enjoying drinking this. When I expected the bitterness it stopped being a problem, and it became something to look forward to.

I'm of the opinion that sugar does not need to be added to juices. Fruit is naturally sweet and delicious. When companies add a sweetener I assume it's because of one of two things: A. They work for the Dental Association of America, so they want it candy sweet in order to cause tooth rot. This will ensure that dentists everywhere are never out of work. I bet they even have a secret handshake, and those are the coolest. I think we need to make one up for Thirsty Dudes. - or - B. They pick their fruit before it's totally ripe in order to have a quicker turnover, thus creating greater profits. I think my D.A.A. scenario is more probably. Mainly because of the sweet handshake it involves. I don't want to even contemplate that not existing.
Foco does add sugar to their juices. Fortunately they are smart enough to have more juice than sugar. You would not believe how many drinks have the ingredients in the following order: water, sugar, and fruit juice. It's really obscene. Foco, you may have not given us the best possible juice you could, but you did make it a lot better than it could have been. I'm okay with drinking a lightly sweetened mango juice. Especially when they cost fifty cents per can.

Living on the border of Canada has its advantages. One of them is the awesomeness that is Canadian candy. Seriously, they put the U.S. to shame. When I was in high school/college I knew a ton of people that would take trips up to the Great White North to stock up on confectionery supplies, as well as a lower drinking age and strip clubs. Nowadays there are a ton of convenient stores and gas stations started carrying one of those three.

Even though (for the millionth time) I'm not a big coffee fan, I do enjoy Coffee Crisp. This evening some friends and I went up to Canada to eat at Licks Home Burgers. They seriously have some of the best veggie burgers and onion rings I've ever tasted. We stopped at a corner store to check out the beverage scene up there, and my eyes got pretty huge when I saw this in the cooler. It tastes pretty much like you would expect; chocolate milk with a hint of coffee. It's smooth, but it somehow leaves the impression of the grittiness of the candy bar. Okay it tastes like a liquefied candy bar. Fans of Canadian candy and chocolate milk take note.

Juicy Juice the juice that all kids love...juice. Let me rephrase that, when I say all kids, I mean all kids but me. That is unless it's the orange tangerine flavor. I really should like all of their flavors because it's 100% juice. The problem is that it's not just the juice of the fruits listed in the flavor; it's a blend of a variety of different juices. Healthy? Yes. Tasty? Not so much. Fortunate for me, they finally got a blend of juices that is both healthy and tasty. Even though there are three different fruits listed above orange and tangerine it still tastes like its namesake. It's a good, cheap alternative to other all-natural juices.

After I had the Pomelo Alo drink I was on a mission to find an actual pomelo. After a few tries I found some at the local co-op. They are a bit on the pricey side, but they are surprisingly good. They are known as Asian grapefruits, and they taste like a less acidic version of it's Floridian cousin. I can't say I would go out and buy another one (it's quite a bit of work to eat), but it was enough to get me excited for this drink.

This was more like a sparkling juice than a soda. It's made with actual grapefruit juice, and it's not insanely sweet. It tastes like you cut a grapefruit in half and soaked it in sugar water. After a few days you extract the grapefruit and squeeze all of the juice out of it. It has a specific taste of the sugar being added before the fruit was juiced. It leaves it smooth, without any hint of harsh acidity that comes with citrus fruit. I really wish I had more than one can of this.

Bolthouse Farms is one hell of a company. I think I have tried all of their flavors, and there hasn't been a single one that I did not enjoy. The chai in this is present, but not overpowering like it is in some other beverages. It tastes vaguely like a chai latte. Due to the soymilk and spices in this, it also reminds me of a lite version of Silk Nog. The vanilla is pretty great as well. Another nice aspect of it is that it's not gritty like most protein drinks.

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love the design on this can. It may be the best looking packaging of anything we've reviewed yet. It's simple and pleasant. From color to typeface everything is perfect.

I couldn't sleep last night. I blame this on my cat. Earlier in the day I was sitting on my bed reading, and she jumped up and curled into a ball under my arm. I took advantage of this rare scenario and ended up falling asleep. Cut to the middle of the night and I'm still awake after watching yet another mediocre movie. I grabbed this from the fridge and drank it down. It is lightly carbonated with a strawberry taste to it. It's a very specific strawberry taste, not like biting into a big juicy berry. It took me awhile to figure it out, but it reminds me of the strawberry fluoride that you got at the dentist when you were a kid. The thing is this wasn't gross. Yes it tastes slightly medicinal, but was pleasant in a way that I didn't expect.

It didn't work like I had hoped it would. I was probably being impatient though as it was late, and all I wanted to do was sleep. Miracle cures don't exist. Remember that. After awhile (it seemed like forever, but was probably about a half hour) I passed out to a dream filled slumber. In one of the dreams I was on a road trip in a van with a bunch of friends and their fathers. We stopped at a weird rest stop and Mike and I looked at strange drinks. I guess that's not too far from my real life, except in the dream I drove 16 hours straight. Sometimes dreams are just more exhausting than real life.

When I was young, the world of non-chocolate based candy was ruled with an iron first by one Willy Wonka: Everlasting Gobstoppers, Runts, Sweet Tarts, and my personal favorite Bottle Caps. Even though these would be unbearably sweet to me now, when I was a kid I absolutely loved them. The best flavor was the root beer. It was so much stronger than the rest in both flavor and scent. As soon as I cracked open this can that familiar aroma instantly invaded my nasal passages. I knew I was in for a treat.

Normally these Asian sodas aren't the best. If anything I would say they are interesting. This is both interesting and delectable. A sip takes you through a couple of stages. First your tongue is greeted by a flavor of a combination root beer and cola. Then anise is brought into the mix. On the way out, it takes a slight left turn and has an aftertaste that is very much like black Twizzlers. I usually hate black licorice, but it's not strong enough to make me want to vom. It actually feels pretty natural in the spectrum

After some completely gross sauce drinks from Vietnam, it's nice to see that the country finally got one right.

I always knew "classic" soda companies such as Coke and Pepsi sold their drinks in other parts of the world. Until recently I never even considered that they had separate product lines for different countries.
Nimbooz is a beverage that 7Up manufactures for India. It says on the packaging that it is carbonated, but this bottle is not. I don't know what could have caused that to happen. Perhaps the nutritional facts sticker that was put on it (so that it could be sold in the U.S.) is wrong. Maybe something happened in the importation process that caused it to go flat. I'd like to go along with the theory that an irate crewman on board the ocean liner (that this was undoubtedly brought over on) had a vendetta against the soft drink industry. It's my guess that he carefully removed the caps from all of the bottles and let them sit for the duration of the trip. Just before they reached U.S. soil, he snuck below deck and returned the caps to the bottles, thus ruining, what could have been a wonderful treat for U.S. customers.
If it were carbonated this would taste like a fizzy lemonade. Since it was not, it was pretty much just lemonade in a neat little bottle.

See that pickup truck over yonder? I want to be in that truck speeding down some old country roads, listening to music way too loud, while drinking this half and half. In this scenario will I be taking this truck off-roading to do some "muddin'?" Of course I will be. I'm a red blooded American aren't I?
I feel weird that I've been drinking a bunch of half and halfs and lemonades recently, because to me they are summer drinks. It is currently a snowy mess around our parts, so summer is a world away. Maybe I should just crank the heat to 90 degrees in my apartment, light some "freshly cut grass" scented candles, close my eyes and just pretend. While doing that, I don't think there is a better half and half I could drink. Joe's makes their beverage with real brewed tea, cane sugar and real lemon juice. It's as down home on the farm as you can get. A farm where there is a red pickup truck that has recently been covered in mud.

We're now at a cabin in the middle of the woods. There was snow much snow to shovel in order to even get into the cabin, it was ridiculous. I should have drunk this before I shoveled. Like all of the Skeleteens sodas, there is an obscene amount of caffeine in here. I bet it would have taken me two minutes to shovel it all. Cause you know caffeine gives you superpowers. You didn't know that? Wiki it, it's science.

This soda is originally from the mid-90s, and it obviously they marketed it towards the alternative culture. When I was younger I thought it was awesome, but now that I'm older it's pretty cheesy. I can overlook it though because it's an interesting cola. Since it's a Skeleteens it has a butt load of herbs in it, which always give their drinks a unique under flavor. The label says it has HFCS in it, but stamped on the bottle it says Real Cane Sugar. I think they are both wrong. To me it tastes like it was sweetened with pixie sticks. It's pretty awesome. It falls somewhere between an olde timey cola, like Fentimans, and a modern one, like RC.

If this was readily available all the time, I doubt I would get it very often. Since I had to special order it, if I ever saw it, I would probably buy a case.

I've had my eye on the Bossa Nova drinks for a while. It's a little on the pricey side, so I showed some restraint. It's made from superfruits so the cost is to be expected. Today was the day of Bossa Nova. We're on the way to a friend's cabin for a wintry excursion, and I wanted a juice for the road. I chose well. This has such a strong passionfruit and guava taste. Those are two of my favorites, so I love it. It has a thickness to it like you come to expect from higher end juices. It also has a nice tanginess along with the sweetness.

This will hopefully give me the energy I need to fight off the serial killers, monsters and aliens that will inevitably attack us tonight. I think Mike and I will be able to take them. We're two strapping young scientists. Even without this drink they wouldn't stand a chance.

I just booked a vacation to Hawaii for a friend's wedding. I'm planning on completely gorging myself on pineapples while I'm there. I mean to the point where my tongue is bleeding from the acidity. I decided that I would celebrate my purchase and start conditioning my body for all the pineapple intake. Unfortunately, there is no real pineapple in this drink, only artificial flavoring. Due to that it doesn't really taste like pineapple. It does taste just like pineapple Slice used to. I enjoy this a lot. Not all pop is supposed to taste like fruit, and I need to keep that in mind.

This is the first Flying Bison soda that I haven't been completely stoked about. It's not a ginger ale, yet it's not quite a ginger beer. Let me break it down this way, this makes me feel like Flying Bison has a base soda that for each flavor they add something different to. I'm sure most companies do the same thing. This tastes like that base with a bunch of ginger in it. It has a slight burn, but nothing crazy. My problem with it is that it's way sweeter than any other ginger drink I've ever had. The sweetness is very specific and it reminded me too much of their mint sodas (minus the mint). It's okay, but I would just prefer a ginger beer.

Hank's has yet to steer us wrong. I will admit that I've had this bottle of root beer for a decent amount of time. I kept putting it off because, let's face it, diet is pretty gross. It always seems to taste chemical some how.
Hank's must have spent some time in the lab working on this one, because I was actually able to make it through the bottle with little problems from my taste buds. Initially it actually tastes like root beer, and not just that generic diet flavor. That comes as a light aftertaste. When diabetes comes a knocking, and my sugar dreams all come crashing down, I'll make sure to order a case of this.

I believe that in high school every group of friends has a restaurant that they hang out in all the time. For a lot of people it's a local diner or a Dennys. For my friends it was a Perkins. We probably spend almost as much time in that restaurant each week as the average person spends at a full time job. We never caused any problems, so the wait staff would let us stay for as long as we wanted. Since we were in high school we had to act like grown ups and intellectuals. What better way to do that then by drinking insane amounts of coffee? Keep in mind that I don't like coffee, but what is a kid to do? Sure I could have ordered a Cherry Coke, but then I would have had to deal with being mocked by my closest friends for the rest of the night. My solution was I would dilute the hell out of my coffee. I would put four creams and eight packets of sugar per mug of steaming coffee. My goal was to just make it taste like sugary milk, with just a hint of coffee flavor. Oh the lengths one will go to in order to avoid a good ribbing from their best friends. This is exactly what the coffee I used to drink would have tasted like if two of the four creamers I used had been vanilla flavored.

I'm not too sure about this one. It has a strong mandarin orange flavor. It also has a flavor similar to when you have a jug of apple cider for just a little too long, and it's on the verge of becoming alcoholic. That's not something I look for in a drink.

After my first couple of sips I started to wonder if this was supposed to be a mixer because it is called a jigger, and as far as I knew that was a unit of measurement for bartenders. I went to the Fentimans site to do some research. Once there I was informed "Jigger is an old English term for good measure, which we use when we combine the juice of three mandarins and the zest of Seville orange in every bottle. " So it's not specifically a mixer, but it certainly is strange.

The more I drink it the more confused I become by it. Some sips I think it's great, and some turn me off. I will be revisiting this again on my own time, but I still don't know if I really like it.

For awhile we avoided trying Fentimans sodas because they say "Less than 0.5% alcohol by volume." The last time I was on tour in the UK the guitarist in my band drank a ton of this and raved about it. I was so bummed about the alcohol, and that I would just have to let it go. A few months later Martin, a friend of Thirsty Dudes, sent us this link, which shows that our fears were ill founded. Who would have guessed that there was more alcohol in everyday sodas? More importantly who cares? This was the green light we needed and we picked up some Fentimans for the site.
Imagine your typical suburban soccer mom, who guzzles down gallons of Pepsi a day. She hops in her minivan, drops the kids off at the fields for practice and makes her way to the local grocery store to pick up the weeks groceries. She's cruising the aisles, humming to herself. She picks up some ground chuck for dinner and quickly darts to the soda aisle for her sacred nectar; Pepsi Cola. She fills up the entire bottom of her cart with cases of the stuff. On her way out of the aisle she notices Fentimans. She says why not, she'll try a new cola. She cashes out, picks up the kids and makes her way home. She of course makes the little tikes bring in the bags as she puts it all away. Then she starts dinner. While that beef is sizzling, she grabs a Fentimans, opens it up, takes a sip and immediately spits it all over the counter. The reason is this isn't a modern day soda, but a "cola of yesteryear" as their website states. Their recipe is based on days when sodas were considered elixirs and not soft drinks. It has ginger and a mix of herbal extracts that give it a flavor that I absolutely love. I was definitely thrown off on my first bottle. I expected it to a normal cola with some extra stuff thrown in. I was unsure how I felt about it, so I waited to write my review. I'm glad I did, because I don't think I would have given it as high of a rating had I not. It's such a complex flavor. Instantly there is a hint of what most people would think of as a cola, and then an array of other flavors take over and take you on a roller coaster ride. It reminds me of the Taylor's Tonics line of sodas. There is more to the flavor than you would expect from looking at it. This is not for your typical soda drinker, but if you are someone who likes pop that is out of the ordinary look no further.