Soda Pop (999 reviews)
Faygo Gold Bubbly Sweet Ginger Soda
Detroit is one hell of a town, and by that I mean it’s kind of hell. It’s a burnt out city (not unlike Buffalo), but it doesn’t have the nature side to it that my hometown does. It’s just endless neighborhoods that look like they should appear at the end of some apocalypse movie. I’m not one to generally feel unsafe in my surroundings, but I’m always looking for an escape route in any given situation in that city. On top of that it has the most torn up highway that I have ever experienced, but I guess that’s most of Michigan and not just Detroit-centric.
A shining light through the dreariness that is the Motor City is that it is the home to Faygo. Now I know this company gets a lot of bad press outside of Michigan, because of the culture that has co-opted it, but let me tell you there are certainly some gems in their lineup ad Faygo Gold is one of them.
The company has a long running ginger ale in their repertoire, and it is not that bad. It’s a general ginger ale like you would find in any generic brand. This though, this is something different. They don’t even call it ginger ale. Instead it is “bubbly sweet ginger soda,” and I can think of no better description. It’s not exactly a ginger ale, it has more of an actually ginger taste to it. It’s also not a ginger beer because it’s not intense. It has a subtle burn that it greatly appreciated, but it also has a very specific sweetness, that just does it for me. This is way sweeter than I normally like my soda, but something about the little bit of burn and the amount of sugar works perfectly. Faygo has done well in giving hope to the citizens of Detroit. Now we just need Robocop to clean up the city so civilization can begin anew.
- Website
- http://www.faygo.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper 1 week, 1 day ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Jones Turkey and Gravy
Ahh, a bottle of vintage. I'll never forget those days, going to the grandparent's farmhouse during the hot summer months. Working with grandpa bailing hay, cutting dozens of acres of lawn, milking cows, and putting shoes on horses. The later was for fun. It wasn't actual horseshoes. It was my sister's shoes that she brought in case there was some sort of ho down at the town square that she needed to get all gussied up for. Imagine a pony wearing mid-sized heels. It's a treat to see. After a nice, moderate ten hour work day with pappy, he and I would go inside and talk about things like Bill Clinton, Atari, segregation in schools, apples, and the like. We would discuss these topical issues over a nice bowl of turkey caramels until it was time to go to sleep. Ahh those caramels. Nothing is quite as refreshing as sugar free turkey caramels. It just hits the spot after you have a nice turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and peas. You know how awful it is to eat a meal and then wash it down with something that doesn't taste like what you just ate. Oh, I hate it. If I just ate a hamburger, I wish there were some sort of hamburger ice cream that I could eat to keep my palate just where it was.
Pappy, if you're reading this, I don't miss those days and although my friends say that I was missing my youth, I thought that there is only one way to have such course, calloused hands and strong work ethic at ten. Those kids that were spending their youth playing football, having sleepovers, listening to pop music; those kids are soft. We, you and I, we are strong independent men who can take care of ourselves with the lay of the land. Animals? I'll milk 'em all of the day. We're men, pappy. All because of our talks and those delicious salty turkey caramel filled nights.
- Website
- http://www.jonessoda.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sucralose
- Categories
- Other/Weird, Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 1 week, 3 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Capone Family Secret Strawberry
In the summer as a child, you eat hundreds of freezie pops: three per day every day for the whole summer. Quality is no issue, as you have to beat the heat with whatever you and your friend's parent's have. That being said, I don't know if I've ever had a bad freezie pop. Why do I bring this up? Well, I tee'd this thing up pretty obviously but if you can't do the math, this thing tastes like a strawberry freezie pop.
It's pretty sweet like those old people strawberry wrapped candies that are wrapped to look like strawberries and when unwrapped still look like strawberries. Come on, you don't know what I'm talking about? Grandma's and grandpa's have these lining the halls of their homes. For every five Precious Moments dolls there is one glass candy dish filled with either Werthers Originals or those strawberry candies. Go visit your grandparents if you can. They put out that candy for you and trust me it's getting dusty. They don't eat candy. It would take out their dentures.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 1 week, 6 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Dad's Old Fashioned Orange Cream Soda
Sometimes you find a really great pop from a popular brand and you are surprised. "What is this company doing making that other crud when they clearly have the ability to make stuff like this?" you ask yourself when you find it. Well? This could not be further from that scenario.
This tastes like perfume cream soda and is pretty downright revolting. Normally "orange cream soda" tastes like a creamsicle but this tastes like a bottom of the barrel orange pop that's just kind of weak and flavorless.
It's a shame that this is such a large bottle and 70% after sharing will meet its demise with the kitchen sink. Sorry starving African kids I think of every time I put food in the garbage or drink in the sink, but not even you would enjoy this gross drink.
- Website
- http://www.dadsrootbeer.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 2 weeks ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Bawls Guarana Cherry
Okay class, let’s get the giggling out of the way. Yes, this drink is called Bawls, but you are in seventh grade, and you should be mature enough to be able to handle this lecture as well as the one on V-Blast that I have planned for this afternoon. It’s 2013, you all lost your virginity at 11 right? Ugh, that’s a gross thought. Kids, the internet is ruining your childhoods. Go outside. Explore. Cause some mischief. If you do those things you’ll have a much happier life. Don’t be in such a hurry to be an adult. Look at your parents and your friend’s parents; do any of them look happy? Of course not, being an adult sucks. Responsibilities suck. Stay a kid, the things you have to worry about are nothing compared to what you’ll have to deal with when you’re older.
Okay back to the lesson. In the beginning there was Jolt. It was cola with excessive amounts of caffeine in it, so that kids like you could stay up late, sneak out and cause trouble. It was something, but it was nothing compared to the Red Bull craze of the 2000s. In between the two Bawls rose to modest fame. It was/is an energy drink that is powered by guarana and caffeine. More important than what the drink was is the fact that it came in these rad glass bottles with little nubs on them. They feel interesting in your hand, and it’s just fun. Eventually they expanded their line. One of the flavors they expanded with was cherry.
Most guarana flavored sodas have a bubble gum style flavor like kola champagne. Luckily with Bawls that is not the case. The flavor is there a hint, but it’s not overly sweet and overpowering. This tastes like someone made a Shirley Temple with an the original Bawls instead of ginger ale. It has a more maraschino cherry flavor than a cherry soda flavor. The result of it all is that it is wonderful and will give you a little energy boost without all of the weird chemicals that most modern energy drinks have in them.
There’s the bell. I will see you all after lunch when we will continue our history of beverages section of the curriculum.
- Website
- http://www.bawls.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Energy Drink, Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper 3 weeks ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Arizona Sparkling Soda Chocolate Fudge Float
I am in Jersey for a wedding. I was just at an Italian restaurant for three hours. Do you know how long that is? It's a long time. It's a long time to sit there. Three courses. That's an hour per course. One hour dedicated to a Caesar salad. One hour dedicated to a small amount of pasta. The food was fine at best but the dessert was a wonderful chocolate mousse cake. Don't tell anyone, but I ate some of the cake from the girl that sat next to me because she wasn't as crazy about it as I was. She got up and left and I ate some of her cake. I talked to her. She's in the wedding party. It's fine. Well, the girl who sat across from me needed some medicine so I walked out to a 7-11 and got some. Being who I am, I also stopped at the drink cooler and checked it out and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw and basically had to buy.
I had to wait for another hour and a half to drink this, and I offered it to a nice girl in the elevator who politely declined, but here I am, sitting on my hotel bed watching an awesome episode of Seinfeld, drinking this rather awkward drink. Awkward? Yes. I said awkward. It's got chocolate, that for truth. Bosco, another Seinfeld reference, is chocolate syrup they used. The fudge I think they might be grouping into the chocolate. I don't know if there is an additional ingredient. The float? There might be an element of cream in there. It's got an almost sparkling chocolate seltzer taste to it. It's not bad.
I like that this is another Brooklyn treat and I am so close to enjoy it. Now if only that nice elevator girl would have enjoyed it, too. She missed out. Not on much, but she missed out regardless. I take a little offense that people don't drink my drinks when I offer them up. Don't you people know who I am?
- Website
- http://drinkarizona.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 3 weeks, 5 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Jones Soda Poutine
There comes a time when mankind makes something that is not needed/wanted. Jones fulfilled this prophecy by creating this monster of a soda.
*Editors note: in the beginning of the video, Mike thinks I say it's in a can but I was trying to say that it was an exclusive to Canada but I don't know how to talk on video because I get nervous.
Without further adieu, here is a video of us drinking this collection of fries, gravy, and cheese curds in a bottle.
Jones Poutine soda was easily the worst soda I've ever had. It's been hours since I drank it and my stomach still hurts and I still feel like I'm going to throw up. I appreciate that Jones sent this to us, but on the other hand I feel like they played a huge elaborate prank on us.
- Website
- http://www.jonessoda.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Categories
- Other/Weird, Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 3 weeks, 5 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Push Orange
Friggin' hot dogs, man. I love those guys. Jay and I used to have fantastic barbecues that would fill our entire front yard with punk kids who just wanted to have a good time. We lived in a nice, family neighborhood and these kids that were with us did not blend in. Nicest kids in the world, but not something you would expect to see in that place.
At the barbecue we would have hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie and non and an array of drinks. This is pre-Thirsty Dude so we didn't have the greatest stuff. Usually boxes of Gregory's, the straight edge box wine. One thing we did was get orange pop. Hot dogs are properly washed down with orange pop. I don't know what it is. It's probably the same thing that makes Papaya King make so much sense. This would have been a fantastic accoutrement to those parties because it's a good orange. It's a standard orange but it's pretty crisp and not too sweet.
I would love to ask the new residents of that apartment if we could have a little cookout for old-time sake but I don't think they would like all those bikes in the front yard and Depeche Mode blaring on the stereo. I would though, brother. I would.
- Website
- www.http://pushbeverages.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 5/17/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Dr. Wells
What higher educational institutions do you think all of the doctors in the soda world got their degrees from? I mean there can’t be that many colleges that offer programs in the carbonated arts. I wonder if they just paid for some bogus online degree, just so they could legally get the word “Doctor” on their driver’s license. In full disclosure I have seriously thought about doing so, and went so far as to see if there were any of those “colleges” that would allow me to get a doctorate in parapsychology, so that I could be in the company of Venkman, Stantz and Spengler. If you’re thinking of doing the same, don’t waste your time; none of them would give such a degree.
While they may have gone the internet route I am willing to bet that our DR. Wells here spent a few years up in Olympia, WA at Evergreen State College. At this mysterious educational center students can name their own majors. I’m pretty sure more than a few hippies for degrees in hacky sack.
As I imagine it Dr Wells has been around since the 30s, but in 1987 the Monarch Beverage Company (the home of Dad’s root beer) purchased him. They were none too pleased that Senior Wells was going around claiming to be a doctor when in fact he had no degree. So the ole’ Monarch shipped him off to Washington and Wells was put smack dab in the middle of the whole twee/riot grrrl scene there. By day he studied flavoring and carbonation like a true scientist, but at night he hung out at K Records, and he was always at Calvin Johnson’s parties. He was a big hit in a scene that wasn’t all to huge on alcohol.
At his classes he learned that he and the other Dr sodas (you know like the Pepper and Thunder) are actually known as spicy cherry pop. He never thought that name really fit, but was he to argue with his educators. By the time he graduated he had learned a whole lot about himself and the soda pop world. He realized that he was basically just a clone of Dr Pepper, and with some help of a school counselor he came to terms with that. He also saw a ton of rad bands that no-one ever believes an old geezer like him would have watched. Damn kids!
- Website
- http://www.dadsrootbeer.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 5/15/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Nu South Peach Lemonade
I've been around for thirty years and I still don't remember when it gets warm. We in Western New York get spoiled once in January with a fifty-degree day and a little bit in May with near tropical temperatures then it drops back down. To psych myself out and make my dumb body feel like it's summertime, I cracked this bottle of vintage open. Vintage because it's been over a year since I've had this on me and have been, well, dreading drinking it. It gets a little more credit than I've given it though because it's not too bad. It's not too bad for a melted Popsicle, if I were twelve. I'm thirty. This takes me back to a lot of fun times as a kid and just being dumb. If you want to get dumb again, drink some of this with some friends you went to junior high with and play some street hockey, listen to Michael Jackson "Dangerous," and live it up. When this drink is done, you have to get in your sedan and get back to your desk job. The last fifteen years have sucked in hindsight, right?
- Website
- http://www.ubev.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 5/13/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment