Thirsty Dudes :: Flavor

Jolly Rancher Cherry

Day two of candy based sodas. Jelly Belly came through with something that turned out to be delicious. Jolly Rancher, not so much. First off as a hard candy Jolly Ranchers are gross. I know a lot of people enjoy them, but they rub my taste buds the wrong way. The soda didn't do much better. What can you really expect when the bottle happily boasts, "artificially flavored soda." I like the word artificial as far away from anything I'm consuming as possible.

When you open the bottle the scent of cough syrup hangs heavy in the room. I blame the medicinal companies for ruining cherry for me for years, then I had some drinks flavored with actual cherry juice and I realized that it's just the artificial garbage that they ruined. I personally am okay with that. It's helps increase the gap between them and myself.

This doesn't even taste like store brand cherry pop. It's like they took a syrup and didn't cut it properly. It tastes so heavy and if that consistency had a flavor it is present in this drink.

I say stay away from this unless you're attempted to make a child not like soda by associating it with medicine.

Website: http://www.hersheys.com/jolly-rancher.aspx

Country: United States

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Categories: Soda Pop

Rating: 2/5

Reviewed By: Jason Draper on 10/6/2011

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Buy Now: Jolly Rancher Soda, Cherry, 1 Liter

Bug Juice Wicked Sour Cherry

I got made fun of for buying this drink. I gave the excuse that "I had to review it", but my friends didn't care. They argued that there were plenty of other drinks in the gas station that I hadn't reviewed yet. The real reason why I picked this up is because I was hoping it actually was "wicked sour". I love sour things and have been searching for a good sour drink. Seeing as this is marketed toward kids, I thought it might actually be sour.

Once again I was let down. Squirt is sourer than this "juice". I use juice in quotes because there is no juice in this at all. It's just sugar water. I love sweet things, but I could only get a couple sips of this in before I had to dump the rest. If I had a kid, I would never give them one of these.

Website: http://drinkbugjuice.com/

Country: United States

Sweetener: High Fructose Syrup

Categories: Juice

Rating: 2/5

Reviewed By: Derek Neuland on 12/21/2011

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Buy Now: Bug Juice Wicked Sour Cherry, 10-Ounce (Pack of 24)

Marburger Farm Dairy Cooler Cherry

Tea is wonderful. Tried and true, it has been perfected by some to a T. Those people did not make this tea. When I saw this tea in Derek's closet of drinks, I wanted it. I didn't tell him, but I wanted it. A nice sweet tea with cherry? I'll take it. When Derek was shedding weight for an easier move, I got this. Stoked. Today, to quench my thirst I could wait no longer.

I should have known that it wasn't going to be wonderful from the start. The first ingredients are sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, and instant tea powder. That's a slew of garbage if I've ever heard it. I enjoy sweet tea. As a matter of fact, I love it. This, friends, is not sweet tea. This is cherry juice with tea powder in it. Maybe tea powder with cherry powder in it. This is a drink. It's not classifiable, to me at least, as a tea or juice. It's just a drink. It tastes like bad instant tea mixed with bad cherry flavoring. It tastes like something you would make at home as an experiment, not like, and promptly throw out because it just didn't work like you expected it to in your head.

I understand you have a creative mind, Marburger Farm Dairy. I appreciate it. I really do. I have drunk hundreds of drinks and I have never had a cherry iced tea. After drinking this drink, I can unfortunately still say that.

Website: http://www.marburgerdairy.com/

Country: United States

Sweetener: Sucrose

Categories: Iced Tea

Rating: 2/5

Reviewed By: Mike Literman on 3/14/2012

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Xing Tea Green Tea Cherry

I've had Xing Tea before. It was a nice change from the Arizona tall boys to these because of the totally different cane sugar taste. This cherry flavor was unique since I've never had that flavor iced tea before. It certainly was unique but it was so cherry flavored that they could almost remove "tea" from the title and change the title to a juice and get away with it. It's got green and black tea in it but it's so faint that it's almost non-existent.

Look, it was one tasty drink, and I recommended it and would get it again, but now I know to get it when I have the taste for juice and not iced tea.

Website: http://www.drinkxingtea.com/

Country: United States

Sweetener: Cane Sugar

Categories: Iced Tea

Rating: 3/5

Reviewed By: Mike Literman on 9/14/2010

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College Club Cherry

This pretty much tastes like someone carbonated the syrup that was left at the bottle of Maraschino Cherries. It reminds me a lot of a Shirley Temple, but without the slight lemon kick. It's ridiculously sweet. Not something I could drink very often, but I would go back to it every once and a while.

Website: http://www.collegeclubbeverages.com/

Country: United States

Sweetener: Sugar and or Corn Sweetener

Categories: Soda Pop

Rating: 3/5

Reviewed By: Jason Draper on 9/24/2010

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Dr. Pepper Cherry

I wonder why major soft drink companies decided that cherry was the flavor they were going to add to all of their drinks. First there was Cherry Pepsi. Then there was Mountain Dew Code Red. Now Dr. Pepper Cherry. Maybe they tried making Dr. Pepper Orange and it just wasn't good.

This incarnation of cherry infused soda is alright. I like that it's colored red instead of the normal brown that Dr. Pepper is. Some sips taste like cherry soda with a hint of Dr. Pepper, and others taste the exact opposite. It goes down much smoother than normal Dr. Pepper, and doesn't have as much of the usual aftertaste. I got this can for free in downtown Portland. I'm assuming they were trying to get people to be interested in their products, but I doubt I'll ever buy this because it's not amazing.

Website: http://www.drpepper.com/

Country: United States

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Categories: Soda Pop

Rating: 3/5

Reviewed By: Derek Neuland on 9/25/2010

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Buy Now: Dr. Pepper Cherry Soda, 12 oz Can (Pack of 24)

Johnnie Ryan Cherry

This is easily the most flavorful cherry soda I've ever had. It tastes like someone carbonated a bottle of grenadine and added some sugar. It's not as heavy tasting as you might think, but unless you LOVE cherry flavor this might be too much for you. My mouth is going to taste like cherry all day now.

Website: http://johnnieryan.com/

Country: United States

Sweetener: Cane Sugar

Categories: Soda Pop

Rating: 3/5

Reviewed By: Derek Neuland on 12/27/2010

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Buy Now: Johnnie Ryan 100% Pure Cane Sugar Cherry Soda Pop 12oz.

Gamer Cherry

Ah, Gamer Soda, we meet again! In the past you have disappointed me with your bland flavor and lack of caffeine, but I’m willing to give you another try. I do still like that it doesn't have food coloring in it. I appreciate clear sodas that aren't lemon-lime or cream soda.

Now onto the flavor. It's good, but not great. This is definitely one of the better cherry soda's I’ve had, but it's nothing to write home about. It's crisp and flavorful, and most people would think this is a decent soda. I haven't played video games in a while (Mike will probably scoff at me for that), but I suppose this would be a good soda to drink while playing games if we want to get into that discussion. It's much better than any normal fruit sodas you can find at your local grocery store in 99 cent 2 liters.

Website: http://www.gamersoda.com/

Country: United States

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar

Categories: Soda Pop

Rating: 3/5

Reviewed By: Derek Neuland on 8/2/2012

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The Sparkling Alternative Sparkling Cherry

Are you tired of drinking the same old sparkling cherry drinks? Have they become old hat and boring to you? Well do we have something special for you! We're proud to introduce the sparkling alternative to sparkling cherry! It's fruity and sweet and....wait a minute...this isn't right...according to this drink/label the alternative to sparkling cherry is sparkling apple. All that is in this bottle is sparkling apple juice. According to the ingredients there isn't a drop of cherry juice or anything cherry related at all in here. That makes sense since this really just tastes like a high quality sparkling apple juice. There is no added sugar, like all juice drinks should be. It's really delicious, but the lack of a cherry flavor with a name like is has is off putting. I don't know if it's mislabeled or what, but WTF mate?

Website: http://www.alpenglow.net

Country: United States

Sweetener: No Sugar Added

Categories: Juice, Soda Pop, Sparkling

Rating: 3/5

Reviewed By: Jason Draper on 8/20/2012

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Ferrara Pan Cherryhead Cherry

Charlie hated candy. He didn't hate the taste of it, he was just raised to hate candy by his parents who believed that anything unnatural was wrong and raised him on a very healthy diet of all natural foods. He didn't have a McDonald's hamburger until he was old enough to drive to a McDonald's and get one for himself. One day, when he was nineteen, he went to the store and on his way out he saw a candy machine. He decided that he would try it out. He dug out a quarter and got some Cherryhead candies. He ate two or three and his mind was blown. In the middle of the grocery store he dropped his organic eggs, milk, and screamed. He had missed nineteen years of candy and this was his first time ever having it and he was kicking himself for not being able to try it earlier. He ran to a store clerk and begged him to help him find more Cherryheads. The clerk said they only sold the candy in the vending machine but they sold a powder version of the candy that he could buy. He thought that would be perfect because he could just carry a bottle of water out of the house and fill it when he was on the road and his parent's weren't looking. He eagerly paid for the mix, went home, and went to sleep.

The next day Charlie had to go to work. He jumped out of bed, got ready for work, and jumped in the car. He brought his water with him, drove to an empty lot, parked his car, opened his glove compartment and grabbed the mix. Just as he started to pour the mix, he heard a knock at the window. He jumped, spilling some mix on himself. He looked out the window and it was his dad. He rolled down the window and asked his dad what was up. His dad told him that he was driving and saw his car in this empty lot and wanted to know if everything was alright. Just as he said that, he looked over and saw the box of drink mix. He said to Charlie, "Son, it's alright. I've been sneaking candy past your mother for almost three decades. I've hid it in the laundry chute that I convinced your mother was broken but it's really just blocked by my stash of candy. Just hide it from your mother and you'll be fine. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner." He nodded at his father and shook up his drink mix and took a sip. It tasted exactly like that candy he had in the store yesterday. Just as sweet and just as strong of a cherry taste. He was thrilled. He was also very excited that both he and his dad could bond over the fact that over the next few years, they would hide candy around the house together behind his mom's back.