Soda Pop (992 reviews)
Mello Yello Citrus Flavored Soda
About a decade ago my friends and I had a tradition of doing a scavenger hunt every Halloween. A friend who had moved out of town would make up a list of about 25 things we needed to get/do that were all fairly ridiculous. Thirsty Mike participated the one year and he can vouch for how much fun it was. The list changed yearly with things on it like: take a picture of yourself nipple deep in Lake Erie (you can’t comprehend how cold that is), steal a table pager from a specific restaurant, break into a pet cemetery and find the name of the gorilla buried there, video tape two teammates dumping a gallon of milk down each others pants, have two team members kiss with tongue (yeah my mom walked in on me kissing Jerid “The Hammer”…awkward), drink BBQ sauce out of a condom and various other dumb things. One thing that was on the list every year was to get a single can of Mello Yello. You see these were the times when Mellow Yello was scarce. Coke had replaced it with Surge and that had gone the way of the Dodo. No one ever got points for that one. My team went so far as to drive to Canada (okay it’s only 15 minutes away) because someone said a store up there had it. They were wrong.
Since I haven’t been in Buffalo for Halloween since 2005, and my mother was the “Mistress of Ceremonies” the hunt was called off. Every year no matter where I end up being I always wish I were back in Buffalo doing dumb things with my friends. I found this can of Mello Yello a few weeks ago, and I knew I had to save it for today. That’s right, my team would have won if the game were still on.
I can’t even remember the last time I had a taste of this soda. I can tell you that it doesn’t taste like I remember it at all. In my mind it was just Coke’s version of Mountain Dew and that’s not it at all. It tastes like orange and lime sodas were mixed together. You know what that’s what citrus soda should be, screw lemon. Who needs lemon-lime soda when you can have orange-lime? I mean this isn’t mind blowing or anything, but I do enjoy it. Of course I also have that stupid song stuck in my head as well, “I’m just mad about Saffron…”
- Website
- http://www.melloyello.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 10/31/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Faygo Draft Style Diet Root Beer
Mike scored some free tickets for us to go see Insane Clown Posse tonight. Now we both think that they resemble nothing close to good musically, but the whole culture is ridiculous and interesting. Mike compared us to Jane Goodall. We were going to interact with the "apes" in their natural habitat. All I can say is holy was that worth going to. As soon as we walked up to the club the ground was littered with empty Faygo bottles. We tried our hardest not to laugh and upset the natives. We got there right before ICP went on and took our place in the balcony. The show was complete insanity. The music was bad, but I didn't realize how much they ripped off 90's radio hip-hop beats, so that made it tolerable. The show was more than I ever could have expected. There were two huge tubs full of two-liters of Faygo (which creepy clowns kept coming out to refill) and Icp kept grabbing them to pour on the audience. Violent J had his move down. He held the mic with one hand, rapping, and with the other he would open the bottle of pop and shake it up spraying it on the crowd. He had it worked out that his thumb covered the hole, so after a few shakes he let go and the thing shot off like a goddamn rocket. Even in the balcony Mike and I got hit by flying Faygo. I can't imagine cleaning up the club after that. There was Faygo everywhere. They had to have gone through at least 200 two-liters of it. I'm not even exaggerating. I remember reading that Faygo doesn't work with them at all, so they are paying for all that soda, and that's ridiculous. On top of that there were streamers, confetti and feathers (who's going chicken huntin'?) everywhere. One great thing is that with all the "meth mouth" that was in the audience you would expect it to smell terrible at the show. Instead of horrible breath and body odor the entire place reeked of root beer. How great is that?
Twice during the set there were "Faygo Breaks." During this time an army of clowns came out and just poured buckets of Faygo into the audience and tossed out two liters like they were nothing. There were accompanied by an insane strobe light, carnival music and the creepiest chant of "Get some Faygo" that I have ever heard.
I grabbed a stray bottle of diet root beer as it flew by, took a swig and passed it to Mike. He did the same and passed it to the gentleman next to him in the 5XL hockey jersey who had more face paint on than anyone ever should. The dude pounded the rest of the bottle smiled and just said "FAM-A-LY" (yes they pronounce it "A" and not "I"). I can't make this stuff up. The root beer itself was better than I expected. It had a general generic root beer flavor and it didn't taste overly diet.
On our way out we grabbed a 1/4 full bottle of cola and got a video of some down Juggalos chugging it and pouring it on each other. This is a night that we shall not forget, especially since we're legally changing our names to Mikey 2 Dope and Violent J Draper.
Thirsty Dudes. ICP. FAM-A-LY.
- Website
- http://www.faygo.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Aspartame
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 10/29/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Canada Dry Cranberry Ginger Ale
Frankenstorm. Is that what they're calling it? Frankenstorm? All of the Thirsty Dudes are from Buffalo and we know a thing or two about storms. "The October Storm" is a storm that locals refer to as "The October Storm" but in actuality happened like six or seven years ago. We still call it that. I know there was "The Blizzard Of '77" but that has a year attached to it. "The October Storm" hit like nothing anyone has ever seen with warm, then melt, then flash freeze and then it just rained branches and snow simultaneously.
Canada felt a little bit, too, I bet, being so close an I know that some people were stuck in their homes. One thing that can survive without a fridge is Canada Dry. I don't know why, but it's always carbonated. Industry secrets. I guess if I was hunkered down in some iced over bomb shelter Canada Dry as the refreshment wouldn't be too bad. One step better would be this cranberry variety. It's a nice blend of the classic taste and a new, fruity twist. It's not too sweet so when you're in your temporary concrete, windowless retreat, you aren't bugging out with too much sugar. I'm not sure why, but I'm thinking that the shelter is set up like one of those church rec rooms with all old, used furniture, dark, wood paneling, and just decks of pinochle cards and not a "regular" deck of cards at all. That decor mixed with cranberry Canada Dry is defiantly better than some have it, but it's only half ideal. It makes you wish you took that winter vacation to the Florida Keys like you were planning. Hindsight is twenty twenty my friend.
- Website
- http://www.canadadry.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 10/28/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Capone Family Secret Cream Soda
I’ve been a big fan of the other two Capone sodas I’ve had, and while this is not bad by any means it leaves a bit to be desired. The vanilla and sweet soda flavors are both there, but they are both just kind of … separate. They don’t really blend together the way I want them to. It is certainly better than any sort of store brand cream soda, but for what I was expecting from the ginger beer and root beer it’s just not quite there. I’m guessing that everyone out there will probably enjoy this a great deal. Comparison and expectations will just be the death of me.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 10/27/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Jones Pure Cane Soda Red Apple
Rumor has it that it's been a rough year for apples. It was a blisteringly hot summer and that's not good for any sort of trees, plants, fruits, vegetables, and everything in-between. I assume the orchards aren't just throwing away bushels of lesser quality apples. I hope that there will be an influx of apple goods like apple cider, apple donuts, apple bread, something. I like apples. I like certain apples more than other but I like them all. Apple juice is good but companies as of late have been really nailing that apple flavor and not just apple flavoring things.
This pop is apple. Red apple. Not apple flavored. It says "natural and artificial flavors" but I'm thinking that's a misprint. It's a really good flavor. It's sweet but it's pop. If you've had Jones before they are a little guilty of over sweetening their pop. It's real sugar though so over sweetening with cane sugar versus artificial sweetener, in my opinion, is way more drinkable. I'm just saying they could cut back a bit.
Autumn, apples, cider, hoodies; it's all happening now, for a limited time. Fall is a short season because you take summer for every day but as soon as snow hits, it's mentally winter. That's the frigidly cold truth. I'm not telling lies over here, just truths.
- Website
- http://www.jonessoda.com
- Country
- Canada
- Sweetener
- Inverted Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 10/26/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Doc 360 Diet Cola
I'm thirsty; can you bring me a bottle of Dr. Pepper? All you have is a generic Dr. Pepper? Alright, I guess that will do. Why did you...ok, I guess you opened it for me. Thanks! But why are you carrying a vile of battery acid in your other hand? Seriously??!? You're going to skateboard the bottle over to me!? Deny it all you want, I saw some of that battery acid splash up. Ugh, I wish I wasn't so thirsty. Sure soda isn't the best thing for thirst but it's the only thing available right now.
UGH... yup, some battery acid definitely made it's way into the bottle. It's not THAT bad, but still nothing I would go out of my way of experimenting with again.
- Website
- http://www.drinkdoc360.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Aspartame
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 10/24/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Powell's Raspberry Pear Soda
Powell's is my favorite bookstore in the world. Sure, I haven't been to EVERY bookstore in the world, but it's my favorite of the ones I’ve been to. It is literally impossible for me to go there without walking out with a book (or 5). If you're ever in Portland, OR, do yourself a favor and go to their store downtown. It's huge (4 stories, and a full city block), and their used book selection is incredible (which are shelved right next to the corresponding new book on the shelf).
Last week when I was in the downtown store, I saw this bottle and my face lit up! This is a limited edition soda (made by local soda company Hot Lips Soda) made to commemorate Powell's 41st birthday. They picked the perfect flavor combination because this is incredible! I never thought raspberries and pears would go so well together, but they do. I used to dislike how little carbonation Hot Lips soda had, but I’ve come to love it. The lack of bubbles, and the fact that it's sweetened naturally by the fruit, really makes this taste great.
Books and soda, two of my all time favorite things together at last!
- Website
- http://www.powells.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 10/22/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
White Rock Ginger Ale
Sometimes you find yourself on tour with a bunch of your friends. You (they) play a bunch of shows and it's fun and awesome and everyone has a good time. Sometimes you don't have as place to stay at the end of the night and that is a bummer. Sometimes while you're standing around trying to figure out what you're going to do you get a call that friends are playing a show down the street, so you go to check it out. Sometimes you wind up on Lagwagon's tour bus at two in the morning. Sometimes you get handed a drink and you would normally turn it down because you don't drink, but then you look at it and you realize it's a ginger ale that you haven't reviewed on your dumb drink review website.
It was a fun night, and even though I don't particularly care about the band, everyone who was around was really nice and we had a good time. The ginger ale was fairly standard. It tasted like pretty much every no name ginger ale out there. If you've had a ginger ale in a restaurant or at a family party you know what this tastes like. The can is graphically appealing though. It's got a nice logo and a pleasant color scheme.
- Website
- http://whiterockbeverages.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 10/22/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Polar Premium Root Beer
Deep in the not so frozen tundra of Worcester, MA there is a factory where the locals have imprisoned a team of polar bears and they force them to make soda pop. They originally made their own beverages, but they realized that they weren't quite up to snuff. So traps and snares were laid and polar bears were transported to the north east of America. Hence he Polar premium line was born. Those bears worked tirelessly on different formulas and recipes until they had created a surprisingly dark root beer with a huge head on it (due to the addition of quiaia extract). It has a nice vanilla flavor, and you can taste bits of caramel in the aftertaste. The problem wasn't making the soda. It was getting people to give it a try. You see, their old line was seen by people as more or less on par with store brand. It was cheap and available everywhere. They knew it would take some time and some marketing, but once people tried the soda they would be hooked, or so the bears told them. As we all know, bears know best. They whispered in my ear what to write in this review. It probably just comes off as the ramblings of a mad man, but who am I to argue with some gigantic polar bears?
- Website
- http://www.polarbev.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Cane Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 10/21/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Canada Dry Vanilla Cream
I just spent four days traveling across Canada searching bodegas high and low for new drinks. It wasn't until days later in a pizza shop in Philadelphia that I came across some bottles of Canadian Dry Vanilla Cream. I had never heard of such a flavor existing, and I would never have expected top find it in as sea of cheesecakes and peanut chews. Myself and everyone I was with, were super pumped for a vanilla ginger ale. Think about that for a second. How incredibly awesome of a soda would that be? Unfortunately Canadian Dry didn't have the vision to make such a drink. This is nothing more than a cream soda. It's on of the best HFCS sweetened cream sodas I've ever tasted, but it's still just a cream soda and the lack of ginger is a disappointment.
It has quite a strong vanilla smell that reminds me of vanilla extract. The flavor is about the same, but it is pretty thick and syrupy. If this was sweetened with cane sugar it would probably be through the roof good. Dear Canada, America has stolen your company and used inferior sweeteners. You should stand up for yourself.
- Website
- http://www.canadadry.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 10/21/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment