Jason Draper - 2709 Reviews

Last week we received an email from Bruce Cost telling us they had some new flavors and that they wanted to send them to us. Moments later I received a message from Mike that simply said, “Bruce Cost. Finally. We've made it.” The man had a point. Bruce Cost makes some of, if not the best ginger ales on the market and getting acknowledged by them felt like we were doing something right. We're nothing but honest here at Thirsty Dudes and we are terrible writers. A lot of the time our reviews have very little to do with the actual beverage we are writing about and more about some tangent that is in our brain. We love doing the site though, so we keep writing, more for ourselves than anything else. When a company we love thinks that our ramblings are worth their time, we really appreciate it. More than that we appreciate a good ginger based beverage, and this is beyond good.

This is listed as a “BC Limited” soda, so unfortunately it looks like it's not going to become part of their regularly available sodas, which is a shame because it is fantastic. Take a base of their flagship ginger ale, which is made with 100% fresh ginger and has a nice little kick to it, that borders a tame ginger beer, and add some blood orange and lemon juice to it. It's as simple as that and there is magic in simplicity. Perhaps they could use a little less lemon, as it takes away a little from the glory that is blood orange juice, but other than that this is perfect. It is first and foremost a ginger soda and the other flavors are there as secondary notes, the way a good ginger ale should be.

At first I thought I was bummed that it wasn't a ginger beer and didn't have more of a burn, but if that had been the case a lot of the flavor would have been lost, and no one wants that. You have limited time people, get out there and scour your local bodegas and stock up. Who knows when you'll come across it again?

I don't know if there will ever be a time where the combination of fruit and mint doesn't throw me for a loop. No matter what my first thought is always, “Wait, am I chewing gum and I forgot?” Luckily with Zpirit, the gum taste isn't really there. The initial thought was, but that was just because I wasn't paying attention to what I was drinking and thought I had grabbed the pear version, which does not contain mint. This is actually one of the better fruit/mint combinations that I have come across. Neither flavor is very strong, due to it being infused water and not “flavored.” There is no syrup being mixed into this drink, mandarin oranges and mint were simply allowed to soak in the water so some of their flavor was transferred. There are even a couple of slices of orange sitting in the bottom of the bottle.

My only real complaint about these beverages is that you can taste the stevia more than I would prefer to. I know they are mixing it with the cane sugar to keep the calories down, but I say if you're going for infused water, leave the sweetener out of the equation completely. No one will really miss it. If they did then this drink isn't for them anyway.

“Gambler. Lawman. Soda Enthusiast.” I'm pretty sure that is the inscription on Wyatt Earp's tombstone (full pun intended). It's commonly known that when the shootout at OK Corral was going on Earp called for a time out, Zach Morris style, then he handed everyone involved a nice cold bottle of sarsaparilla, which they enjoyed until they returned to their bloodbath. No one really knows how he kept the soda cold, or where he had it stored, but everyone involved recalled that it was very thoughtful and it really hit the spot at that exact moment.

The Earp family has now aged a few generations, and have decided to bottle and sell their own sarsaparilla. Their wares are the smoothest sarsaparilla I have ever tasted. It has the creaminess of a root beer and not the quasi-harsh sharpness that one equates to this flavor of soda. The general sarsaparilla flavor is there, but it just doesn't have the bite that I want. I did enjoy the soda, but it didn't blow me away like a lot of sarsaparilla does. I feel like I've typed out that word far too many times now. Sarsaparilla.

Hey kid, come here. Do you like caramel? What? No, I'm not a creepy pervert. Oh man, I just realized how this probably looks; me rolling up in a white van calling a kid over and talking about candy. This is bad. I have no ill intent I swear! I'm just part of the marketing team for Brownie Root Beer. They wanted to start something like the “Red Bull Girls.” You know the ones that just drive around and hand out cans. The thing is that it is way easier to hand out cans of energy drinks from a car with a giant can on it, instead of soda from an all-white van. I told marketing that we needed to put a wrap on this thing to let people know what we were all about, but they said it wasn't in the budget. Now I look like a creep and will probably get put on a sex offenders list or something. I really don't want to go door to door and talk to my neighbors.

Anyway, if you still want some root beer you can have it. The reason I asked you is you liked caramel is that this is a caramel cream root beer. Personally I'm not a huge fan of it. I'm a big root beer guy, but I find the added flavor rather distracting as it's really strong. I'd go as far as to say that this is 70% caramel, 25% root beer and 5% cream. Those aren't great proportions if you ask me. The more I drink the more palatable it becomes, but it's a little rough at first, especially if you're not a big caramel fan. I find it hard to be able to describe how the root beer aspect of this soda tastes because it has been so overpowered.

I really should look for a new line of work, as I seemingly talked you out of accepting a free soda and it looks like you're on your cell phone calling the police. I'm outta here.

Here we are in Buffalo, NY. It's early May and that means the weather went from a potential of snow to 85+ degrees overnight. That's not really an exaggeration either. It snowed like two weeks ago and now I feel like I'm dying of heat. This weekend has been gorgeous outside and I should have been out riding my bike or wandering around the woods, but instead I've been stuck indoors working on my house. Buying a house alone when you have less than rudimentary skills when it comes to fixing things, and doing it all yourself instead of hiring people is probably one of the dumber things I've done with my life, but things are kind of starting to shape up and it feels remotely like a home.

While I may not be basking in the warmth of the sun, I have been sweating away while working and I have been refreshing myself with this ultimate summer drink. Lemonade=Summer. When you add berries and hibiscus to that and you've got the makings for the best summer ever. If I keep drinking this there is no way that my summer won't be filled with late nights, a ton of hikes, exploring, adventures and cliff jumping until my body tells me it can swim no more.

Since this drink is made by Honest that means the sugar content isn't through the roof, which is always appreciated. It's just sweet enough to get the flavor where you want it without feeling like you're going to have a mouthful of cavities. I really can't get enough of this and I need to venture out and purchase more. More companies need to embrace hibiscus. It makes everything better and it blends in perfectly with the berries here to give you just the faintest floral flavor. Honest, you've done it again.

Why do these beverages exist? Does anyone actually enjoy them, or have people tricked themselves into thinking that it is something that they enjoy? It was only recently that I finally came around to seltzer water, but I can now say that I truly enjoy it, well some flavors. Armed with that knowledge it's a safe bet that never in a million years would I choose a carbonated beverage sweetened with sucralose over one with no sweetener whatsoever. Actually that same could probably said about any type of beverage. The sucralose taste is so strong that it nearly blocks out the fake kiwi flavor, which isn't all that great anyway. Something went very wrong in the development of this beverage and it starts with the letter S and ends in “lose.”

I don't know anyone that enjoyed Red Bull the first time they drank it. It has a weird, unusual, quasi-chemical taste that is fairly off-putting at first. That being said I do know a decent amount of people who drank it for its functionality and grew to love it. It has a flavor all its own, and I went from thinking it was disgusting to wishing there was a non-energy version so that I could drink it more often.

When the company released new flavors I was excited because I had high hopes for that original formula with some added flavor to it. Unfortunately that is not what we get. There is no trace of the original Red Bull flavor in here. It's just tastes like the most diet version of Tang you could ever imagine, watered down and carbonated. It was sadly not enjoyable at all. The diet flavor is just too much, and that is coming from someone who prefers the diet version of the original to the sweetened one. Too much sucralose is no one's friend and after trying two cans to see if it would grow on me like it did way back in the beginning, I can assure you I will not be going back for a third.

If someone were to tell me that I needed to try a cherry/cranberry juice I would think, “That sounds delicious, but I bet it's super harsh.” Both fruits are known to be a bit overwhelming in their pure form, so I was fairly shocked at how smooth this juice was. It had no hard edges, and the taste was just ridiculously good. I know this isn't pure juice, as it's part of their Refresh line, but I absolutely loved this. Both flavors are very present but complement each other in a way that I never would have expected. Cheribundi has never been a company to slouch on their quality, but someone must have taken great pride in concocting this mixture.

Like I said before, Positive Energy's lemonade line is way better than their juice line. Both have caffeine from green coffee beans added to them, but the difference is that the lemonades also have added sugar (and stevia), which is really kind of necessary to mask the taste of the caffeine.

It does seem odd to me to add caffeine to lemonade, since in my mind it's a relaxing, refreshing beverage. I never think of lemonade when I'm being active, or need an extra boost of energy. Actually the only time I really think of lemonade is when it's blistering hot out and I've been in the sun (and probably resemble a lobster as a result). Maybe I'm just not as big of a lemonade enthusiast at others.

This has a really strong peach and mango flavor to it, with the lemonade aspect f it coming mostly as an aftertaste. Again, it's not what I think of when I think of lemonade, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. I actually really like the non-lemon fruit flavor that's in here. It covers up the caffeine even more than the sugar, and the stevia taste is all but nonexistent. This is certainly my favorite product that Positive Energy has put out. I wish the others were this good as well.

I really don't know what to think of this soda. Part of me thinks it is gross because it's like drinking unflavored soda while chewing mint gum. Another part of me finds it strangely refreshing. Yet another part of me enjoys that I very may be freshening my breath by drinking a soda. One thing that is for certain is that this is a soda that has a very strong spearmint taste. It's not in the way that some mints burn your mouth, but it's more than just a subtle flavoring. I feel like people's opinions on this are going to be all over the board. Where will you land?

Denver, the home of this soda, has come a long way in the past ten years. When I first visited there was nothing special about the city, and it was not a place that I felt an urge to return to. Now it's a decade later and I was able to visit twice in one month, and I fell in love with that western city. Not only did the city look wonderful, but there were great places to eat, 1Up barcade and one of the best skateparks I've ever visited. As it turns out the guys who run this soda company are involved in skate culture. I wonder if any of them were the dude that I saw do a full flip out of the one bowl at the park. I hope so because that guy was ridiculously good.

Enough about Denver and more about soda. If you're going into this expecting a normal run of the mill cola you are not going to be getting it. This is a new breed, and it's fantastic. It's a cola with both vanilla and a hint of cherry in it. Sure both of those flavors are known to be in cola, but how often do you see them combined? Craft beer seems to be running the world these days, and this is its equivalent in the soda game. There is nothing generic about this cola. It has sophisticated flavors that can either all blend together, or remain separate; it all depends upon how you think about it while you drink it. Someone once told me that if you're eating something and there is a taste in there that you can't quite put your finger on chances are that it contains cinnamon. That person was absolutely right about the mystery ingredient in this soda.

Rocky Mountain Soda Co has given me even more reason to love Denver. I need to head back there soon for a visit where I will eat many burritos, play many games of Galaga, skate until I'm broken and drink all the sodas.

Unfortunately, I have not been a fan of Positive Energy's line of energy juices. The taste of the caffeine from the green coffee is just too strong to my palate, and it takes me away from my enjoyment of the juice itself. Luckily for everyone involved this half and half is a whole different story. The cane sugar they use to sweeten it masks the taste of the caffeine nicely. One top of that the tea taste in here is fantastic. It tastes like tea that was brewed from a bag and not the garbage sugar water that a lot of companies pass off as tea. It's always nice when a beverage tastes real, like it should. The strange thing about this is that it contains orange juice as well as the lemon juice, and it really takes this “classic” drink to a whole new level. I want more orange juice and tea combinations now. I bet they would be fantastic, just like this bottle of liquid refreshment.

It is my understanding that somewhere on this planet there is a black hole of sorts that contains an unending source of Honest Tea flavors. Every time I look at a selection of their products it seems like there is a flavor that I have not tried. I actually bought this bottle for pleasure and not to review. Once I got out of the store I second guessed myself and checked the site; nope we have not reviewed it.

One would think that a raspberry tea would be one of the standards for a company, but I don't remember ever coming across this. Perhaps it's a rebranding of a different flavor. The only thing I do know is that it is delicious and tastes like a better version of the junk raspberry tea that times the coolers of gas stations everywhere around the US. First off, it contains actual raspberry juice, which does not normally occur. The flavor is better for it. Secondly, it only contains about half the sugar that you would get in an Arizona or a Snapple tea. Let's work on getting drinks like this more commonly into gas stations and mini marts. I want better options, and Honest is a pretty big player in the game, so I think they can actually make that happen.

Vichy is seltzer water with salt and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in it. It is weird and seemingly unnecessary. I assume you're meant to drink it when you have an upset stomach. It just tastes wrong to me. It's like something a child would concoct with various things in a kitchen, and it would be a failure. The end.

A Schneider's beverage in a can just seems wrong to me. Actually any of the Pennsylvania tea company's products in cans just doesn't sit well with me. I am so used to them coming in plastic bottles/jugs or cartons and that is how I like them. Those packaging give them an air of cheapness that I find oddly charming. I mean I still drank the contents of this can, but the entire time I wish the packaging was different. I can imagine that anyone not from the area would probably think I was being insane, but I am a fan of tradition and the way things used to be.

This is a very sweet beverage. There are 72g of sugar in this 23.5oz can. Actually I take that back, I just did the math and 24oz of Coke would have 78g of sugar. 72 is still a lot, but not as obscene as I previously though. You probably shouldn't drink all of this in one sitting though. This claims to be 50/50, but in reality it tastes more like 75/25 with lemonade taking up most of the flavor, but neither it nor the tea taste very authentic. It's like they took their lemon tea and just added more lemon to it. I know that shouldn't be much different than a lemonade tea, but there is something different about it, and I'm not a huge fan. It's a perfectly serviceable drink that I'm sure most people would love, but it just wasn't sitting right with me.

Sometimes putting a product in nicer packaging is just not enough. Giving a terrible record a really great looking album cover may be aesthetically pleasing, but it isn't going to help the music suck any less. Now there is nothing inherently bad about this root beer. It's perfectly average, and tastes like a store brand that you would find in a big plastic 2lt bottle. Sure it's sweetened with cane sugar, but that can only take it so far. I appreciate that they put forth the effort to have this in a glass bottle and use a clean, classic, simple look to the label, but again that doesn't make the contents taste like anything special. I would happily drink this if it was served to me, but I just wouldn't go out of my way to purchase some myself.

I read some other people's reviews of this soda, and it seems that they had a very different experience than I did and said that it was an unusual root beer because it had a fruity taste to it. I simply did not get that at all, so maybe I will get another bottle of this after all and see if I notice a difference.

If you were a pre-teen in early 90's you know doubt know that the greatest fictional band of all time is The Beets, from the show Doug. While they might have been meant to be a play on The Beatles, but in reality they ended up sounding like a British version of Men at Work…€¦ weird. Their hit single was called “Killer Tofu” and was about how it's better than junk food. As a child I don't think I had ever tried tofu. As an adult I fully concur with them. The most important thing that the show taught us was that beets are in fact nature's candy; a statement that led me to want to try beets whenever they were available.

While I may not eat beets very often these days, I do enjoy a good beet juice. It has a sweet yet earthy taste that is refreshing. It also has one of those flavors that you just know it's good for you. This company took that wonderful juice and mixed it with yerba mate, my current favorite form of tea. Everything about it is great. It's two earthy flavors that have been mixed together to create something that is not entirely new, but still interesting. Both flavors are very distinct, but somehow the earthiness does not run rampant. That is probably mostly due to the fact that it is sweetened with Hawaiian honey. On top of all of that there is the Hawaiian fruit noni in here. I'm still not exactly sure what it tastes like, but it certainly doesn't distract from the greatness of this beverage.

I did not know what to expect with a brand name like Pop Water. Would it be an unsweetened soda, like seltzer water? Would it be watered down soda pop? Would it be water that exploded in your mouth a la Pop Rocks? Would your mind instantly be filled with images of Pop Art that was created by Andy Warhol? It was all a mystery that I looked forward to investigating.

Truth be told it was a very short investigation. I popped open the can took one sip and realized that there was no mysterious excitement in this can. Its contents fell somewhere between seltzer and soda pop. It is like a lighter version of a diet pop that somehow doesn't taste overly diet, even though it is sweetened with erythritol and stevia. There is 0% juice in here, but it does contain extracts of natural pineapple. Whatever constitutes that is enough for the pineapple flavor in here to be very light, but also very accurate to the fruit.

Before Shepard Fairey hit the streets with his Obey signs/graffiti those signs belonged to one of the greatest movies this world has ever known; They Live. It is John Carpenter's tale of a civilization in which the ruling class is actually aliens in disguise, and they use subliminal messages everywhere to control the populace. Not only it's it ridiculously entertaining, but it also may contain the longest fight scene of all times. The film stars former professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as a drifter who, with the help of a pair of sunglasses, discovers the true nature of the ruling class.

The most memorable line from the movie is “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.” Now you know the origin story of this soda. Someone at Rocket Fizz has great taste in movies, and somehow their legal team cleared the product and now we have it to enjoy. You know what? This might be the only bubblegum tasting soda that I have ever actually enjoyed, and that includes people's precious champagne colas, which are just gross. The flavor of this pop doesn't punch you in the face, like other sodas of this flavor, or say Mr. Piper might if you declined to wear the special sunglasses. Instead it mainly has a general soda flavor with a light, but nice bubblegum flavor. It actually just tastes like you're drinking a flavorless soda while chewing a big hunk of gum. I don't know if that sounds appealing, but if you keep looking at all those signs around you, I'm sure their hidden messages will get you drinking this by the case in no time. They live. We sleep.

Celsius beverages have never been known as a tasty bunch of drinks to me. The thing is that they were functional beverages that had a very specific purpose, so I tended to be a bit forgiving on the flavor side of the review. It is extremely hard to turn a blind eye to the taste of what is created when you mix this packet into water. Nothing about it, including the orange flavor tastes natural. It's as if someone powdered toxic waste and tricked me into thinking that it would help with exercising.

If this were a normal beverage I would never have made it past a sip or two, but as I said it's functional and helps burn more calories in a workout as well as give you a little energy boost for said workout. I'm forcing myself to down the whole glass before I head to the gym. It's the most diet tasting orange beverage I have ever tasted, and it really better work, because you have to suffer through it.