Soda Pop (992 reviews)
P.F. Changs House-Made Ginger Beer
I found myself at P.F. Changs a few days ago. The food was mediocre, and the service was horrible. But this review isn't about how the waitress brought out our appetizer 1 minute before our meal or how she brought us the wrong check. Nope, this is about their homemade ginger beer.
How have I gone this long and not heard that P.F. Changs makes their own ginger beer? I blame myself for not being friends with people who frequent the establishment.
Unlike most ginger beer's I’ve had so far, this has a very strong lemon taste to it. Based on the description, it's mixed with lemon juice and you can definitely taste it. As far as the ginger goes, it's mild at first but has a nice sharp after taste. Another interesting/unique aspect of this ginger beer is that it was served with a mint leave in the glass. I couldn't really taste much mint, but maybe if I had submerged it in the glass it would have been more abundant.
P.F. Changs: bottle this ginger beer and you will sell a lot.
(Note: All my photos of the glass didn't come out so I opted for a photo I took of the menu listing).
- Website
- http://www.pfchangs.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Pure Cane Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 12/18/2012
- Comments
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Jones Zilch Black Cherry
Black cherry; the most goth of all fruits. You want to meet up with them? They sleep until noon, work at a bookstore that sells nothing but books on murder, cats, and unlicensed Robert Smith biographies, and go to clubs that are in locations you thought were closed down for a decade. They don't get along with people because they feel they are on the outside looking in. Looking in on all the squares, sellouts, poseurs, conformists, and zealots making fools of themselves on a day-to-day basis. Black cherry listens to Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and scoffs at your record collection regardless of how much you like it. Black cherry is one with the dark arts.
Recently, black cherry has put on a little weight and needs to slim down a bit. Torrid is fine and essential to black cherry but some things are stretching a bit and it's becoming a health issue that your mom is getting concerned about. So you add a little sucralose to the mix. It's alright. Sure, it "diet's" you up a little bit and makes you feel like you are trying to be one of those blonde bimbos that swarm the schools like bees to a hive. There is a big difference between anorexia and teenage obesity. You still taste good, like you are supposed to, but there's just you can just tell that you are trying to lose a little weight and use artificial sweeteners. It's fine. You are beautiful no matter what the "cool kids" say. Now head on over to your black Volkswagon Jetta, pop in that old Bauhaus record, and think about what sweet kick moves you are going to do at the club tonight in front of yourself in the mirrors.
- Website
- http://www.jonessoda.com
- Country
- Canada
- Sweetener
- Sucralose
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 12/16/2012
- Comments
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Hotlips Real Fruit Soda Raspberry
Get yourself a quart of fresh red raspberries, put them in a cheese cloth (one with a small rip in it) and just smash the hell out of them. Gather the juice and the few chunks that found their way through the hole into a cup. Fill the cup up the rest of the way with bubbly water and mix in a bit of sugar. What you will have created is essentially what is in this bottle. It’s strange how much it tastes like raspberries. I know it’s supposed to taste like them, but normally any fruit flavored pop doesn’t actually taste like the fruit, and if it does you usually have to concentrate to find the flavor. This tastes exactly like you’re eating raspberries, and the little mushy chunks do nothing but help it.
This is the first time I have ever said this about a soda, but I think it could do with a little bit more sugar. There is something about it that is just the tiniest bit off from making it absolutely perfect. I think a bit more sugar would balance things out and give it the little boost it needs to stand tall at the top of the soda pop pyramid.
- Website
- http://hotlipssoda.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 12/13/2012
- Comments
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Rio Grande Cola Champagne
To paraphrase the popular children’s song/game: “Bubble gum, bubble gum in a bottle, how many mouthfuls will you swallow?” The answer sadly is not many. I love bubble gum. When I was a kid I thought I was going to die when my dentist told me that I wouldn’t be able to chew it anymore once I got braces put on. Guess what I did it anyways. I’m also a fan of bubble gum ice cream. My point being is that it is a wonderful flavor, but it just doesn’t need to exist in soda form. Something about it is just all wrong. I doubt the makers of cola champagne were shooting to make a bubble gum flavored soda, but that’s just what happened with the ingredients they used. This version by Rio Grande is worse than most. It tastes like someone rubbed a piece of gum into a pile of various spices.
I understand that this drink is very popular in the Puerto Rican culture. I guess that if it were something that you grew up with it probably wouldn’t seem so bad. On the other hand, this is the same culture that embraced the undrinkable swill that is Malta Goya, so I have my suspicions about their tastes.
- Website
- http://www.riograndefoods.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sugar And/Or High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 12/13/2012
- Comments
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Faygo St. Nick's Cola
I have been duped. I walked into my local convenience store today and saw this 2 liter of Faygo in the cooler. While there were lots of flavors to choose from that we haven't reviewed yet, this one caught my eye because it has holiday packaging so I assumed it was a limited edition flavor. Limited edition flavors are what we love to find because: a. they are usually a weird flavor a company is trying out and b. they aren't around for a long time so it's best to review them ASAP.
When I saw this I immediately thought of Pepsi Spice. Sadly they stopped making Pepsi Spice before we started Thirsty Dudes, but it was basically Pepsi with nutmeg in it. They didn't have any small bottles of this St. Nick's Cola. I really didn't want a whole 2 liter, but I needed to try it in hopes it was like Pepsi Spice.
Boy was I disappointed when I tried it. It tastes exactly like the normal Faygo Cola. After a quick search and reading the bottle, it turns out Faygo makes "St. Nick" versions of some of their sodas and money from the sales goes to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. On one hand I'm sad this didn't taste like Pepsi Spice, but on the other I'm glad it's going to a good cause.
- Website
- http://www.faygo.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 12/13/2012
- Comments
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Jones Pure Cane Soda Lemon Lime
Lemon Lime: The illegitimate child of sodas. Everyone pretends to love it, but in reality it’s normally the only soda left over after the family get together. I’ve never met a single person in my life that had lemon lime as a go to pop. Sure it mixes well with other drinks, alcoholic for some and for others such as myself it works well with cranberry juice, when out at bars. On it’s own it’s just a bland soda by nature. I mean how can it not when one of its key ingredients is lemon, the most meaningless of all fruit. Lemonade is amazing, but in all other forms I could do without the golden citrus king. I wonder if lime will forever feel cheated in this arrangement. A straight up lime soda aka a Lime Rickey is a thing of beauty. It’s just too bad that on most days it’s held back by its cousin the lime.
Now that I’ve expressed in detail the mediocrity of lemon lime pop, I will say that Jones has made a version that is better than most. It’s no surprise that the reason for it’s spender is that it tastes more of lime than lemon. The use of cane sugar helps a lot as well, but it’s the lime that makes this pop worthwhile. If this is what this flavor of soda always tasted like, I feel like there wouldn’t be anything left in the coolers at the end of the party and that everyone would finally come to accept and truly love this soda made out of wedlock
- Website
- http://www.jonessoda.com
- Country
- Canada
- Sweetener
- Inverted Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 12/11/2012
- Comments
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Grace Island Soda Grapefruit
I don't think that I've eaten a grapefruit in well over two decades. I just remember them being super tart and/or bitter. I've had things that are grapefruit flavored with no additional sugar that are quite awful. People eat it with tons of sugar on top. If you have to put sugar on your fruit, you're defeating the point of fruit. "Nature's candy", right? Isn't that what they say? "Nature's candy." You don't add sugar to candy. You're not supposed to. If you do, you don't really understand how candy works. If you add it to fruit, you don't understand how fruit works.
This drink knows how grapefruit pop should work. It's not terribly sweet and not wildly punchy like a lot of other ones. Squirt is good, right, but it's really sweet. This drink is more grapefruit and less pop. It could be the real sugar versus the corn syrup, which can kind of wipe out a lot of flavors. It's got a good smell and is not as strong as, say, Ting, but it's still good. If this is how they do grapefruit on the islands, as their moniker of "Island Soda," then I might have to frequent these islands. Maybe get a coconut so that I can drink this pop out of. It's how they do it. I hate feeling like I'm not a local.
- Website
- http://www.gracefoods.com
- Country
- Canada
- Sweetener
- Sugar/Glucose-Fructose
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 12/11/2012
- Comments
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Maine Root Mandarin Orange Soda
The rocky coasts of Maine are a wonderful place. It’s blustery and the air is salty. There is no other place on this Earth (that I have visited) that makes you feel more like a sailor. When I’m there I constantly feel like I should be wearing waders and smoking a pipe, telling tales of Old Gregg.
While it is a wonderful place that makes me feel connected to the vastness of the sea, there is one thing that could not possibly grow there: oranges. I believe that is why this soda lacks a little something. The ingredients in here are carbonated pure water, organic cane juice and spices. There is no mention of fruit of any kind. I suppose ground up orange rind could be considered a spice, but to me that is not orange flavored.
To me this just has a general sweet soda taste with some flavoring in it that tastes more of orange holiday spice than and actual mandarin orange. It’s also not consistent from sip to sip either. The bottle says settling is normal, and to roll it to help mix it up, but there is only so much rolling you can do with a carbonated drink, and I believe I reached that point without achieving consistency
In it’s own way it’s a decent drink. Just be advised to not go into it expecting a standard cheap orange soda, nor a carbonated orange juice. It is neither of these things, nor does it fall anywhere between them. It is its own entity, forged in the caverns of Maine. After you try it, tell me one thing: “What did it mean to you to drink that?”
- Website
- http://www.maineroot.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Juice
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 12/9/2012
- Comments
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Guarana Antactica None
On a recent trip to Antarctica, Frank was visiting his friend who was a scientist. His friend had lived up there for a couple years and knew the lay of the land. Not much goes on up there outside of polar ice cap research and daily penguin feedings. His friend was explaining to him about how a couple years back, the president of Brazil, Sir Angelico Velasquez, made a deal with the people of Antarctica that if he comes down to their lab, he can crash on their couch so he doesn't have to spring for a night at the wildly expensive Holiday Inn. In exchange, he brings in a case of their famed Guarana drink and he named it after them. Sure, he made the same deal with his own people but Velasquez is not the type of man to stay at a place like the Holiday Inn, not because he's cheap and not because he has anything wrong with them, just because if anyone wants him dead, as people often do, it's much easier to find him at the lone Holiday Inn or Red Roof Inn than if he's staying at one random, lucky person's house.
Frank took a can of the drink after that long history lesson and took a big sip. At first he didn't see what was so special about it. It just tastes like carbonated, sweetened water. Shortly after there was a wave of subtle, tropical fruit flavor. It was right up Frank's alley. Not too sweet and not too strong.
A few days later, Frank headed towards the airport to go home. Once inside, he saw a bunch of large men with guns surrounding a tiny, frail man. Frank knew that was Sir Velasquez and yelled, "Hey Angelico. Have a nice stay." Angelico, without missing a step yelled back, "Hey thanks, buddy. Have a nice flight." Good guy, that Angelico.
- Website
- http://www.guaranaantarctica.com
- Country
- Brazil
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 12/5/2012
- Comments
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Grandpa Lundquist Scandinavian Julmust Christmas Soda
Dear Grandpa Lundquist,
I know we haven't seen each other in many, many years, but I needed to write you about something important. Despite being family, I think it's important that I am completely honest with you. I found a bottle of your "Christmas Soda" in the basement last night and drank it. Well, tried to drink it. Mom said it's called Julmust in Sweden and you used to trick her with it when she wanted a treat. I wish she had warned me before I took a big swig. If I knew it had barley and hops in it, I would have never taken it off the shelf. To quote a friend who I let try it, "it tastes like cough medicine, flat beer, and diet coke". While I’ve never tasted beer myself, I agree completely. My question to you is why would you make something so gross?
Thanks for the proverbial lump of coal.
Your disgusted grandson,
Derek
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Pure Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Other/Weird, Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 12/4/2012
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment