Italian Soda - 13 Reviews

Dear Italy, Why have I never graced your shores? I feel like I have been nearby several times, but we never made the leap into the birthplace of pasta and organized crime. You are the home to many great things, and I think you deserve for me to visit and show some respect. I promise I will do so in the next few years. We'll have a quiet little date. We'll eat some real deal homemade pasta and sauce and you'll sip on a nice wine while I down glass after glass of the soda that is your namesake. I have to say that I may actually enjoy the soda more than your conversation. You know I don't speak Italian. I understand you're trying to make a point, but when I don't understand a thing you're saying the meaning you're trying to convey is lost. How about you just give in and speak English, just for a little while. The soda on the other hand speaks a language that everyone can understand (well except diabetic). It's the language of flavor. You Italy are more intelligent than most. You may have been the first to carbonate your juices, and didn't give up on the practice. You kept right on trucking. I assume that red oranges are the same as blood orange. If not they sure taste the same. It has a tarter, bolder orange flavor. It's the top of the evolution tree of oranges. They aren't going to get better than this. You took this miracle fruit and added just a little bit of sugar and some nice bubbles and you have something close to perfection.

It might be the soda talking, but you're looking pretty good tonight Italy. Oh you have a little bit of sauce on your cheek. No, not that side the other side. Down a little. To the right. Okay it's gone. Now you have some basil in your teeth....

It had been a long day in the studio. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band we're hard at work recording their "come back" album The Rising. Today had been particularly hard. The Boss was being a real taskmaster and was laying it really heavy on Little Steven. You see all of the music was done being tracked, and now they were working on vocals. Being the professional he is Bruce hit all his parts in one take. When I say one take I mean it. He sang all 15 songs in a row with no breaks, one time through. He didn't even wait for the Brendan O'Brien to load the next track. It sang them all a cappella while the tape ran. It was truly a sight to behold. After he was done and the tracks had been added to the proper song is when the problems started. Little Steven went into the booth to sing his harmonies and he just couldn't hit them because of a dry throat. Bruce just kept telling him to drink some water, but Steven protested. You see he was under contract with HBO for his work in The Sopranos. Part of that contract was that he could only imbibe Sopranos brand soda. Normally he would sneak water and no one would be the wiser, but in the studio they were filming everything for a documentary. He would obviously get caught and sued. Things got so bad that Clarence had to drive all the way out to Newbridge, NJ to pick him up a couple of bottles. Since the show was wrapping up production of the soda had stopped and all the store had left was the amaretto flavor. Little Steven downed a bottle of this strange fake liquor soda with its almond flavoring that is far too strong to seem natural in a soda. Seriously I feel like it's supposed to be mixed with something like the actual liquor. Little Steven loves almonds and it was still hard for him to get through an entire bottle, but he is a champ and he did it. He then marched right into that vocal booth and I'll be damned if he didn't give one of the best performances of his life.

You don't believe me? Watch the video footage it's all in there.

PS. Tony totally dies at the end of the series. I don't care what anyone else says. The screen goes blank like when he got shot before, except this time the music cuts dead instead of fading out. Deal with it.

It's been a hard day is New Jersey. Your wife has been nagging you to quit your job at the pizza place, your kids have been getting in trouble at school and your Honda CRX needs new tires. I know!! Sure they're $30 a piece and you know a guy who can get them cheaper than that because they fell off a truck. Honestly, that guy must just drive behind trucks all day, ready to jump out at a moment's notice in case something falls off. I've never been behind a truck that dropped anything. My friend Ian once drove behind a truck and a rocking chair came out of the back and within a week, a sheet a drywall fell out and he said that it exploded. That must have been awesome. So you've had a hard day. You come home and...oh seriously...the cable is out? You thought you paid it? Yeah, they probably messed up, not you. So what's a boy to do? Open up that fridge baby and grab out some officially licensed product from your and my dad's favorite show, The Sopranos. It hits so close to home. You drove the same streets as those glorious gangsters. They've got family and you've got a family. You love the movie "The Godfather" and they do, too. Same wavelength.

This HBO created show which has won so many awards has created an equally award winning drink, and I wouldn't use that phrase lightly. Myself, not being one who drinks, doesn't know what actual Chianti tastes like, really enjoyed it. It's a light, fruity flavor and actually has less bite than most Italian soda. It was calm and cool, just like you when your spinning those pies. That's when you're at your best. Throwing pizza in the air with the greatest of ease is what makes you happy. You're good at it and you know it. Don't let your nagging wife or dumb kids let you forget it.

Often times, nay, most times, I am surly. I've always got something to say about everything. I am not awful to be around, but I can get tiring. I know people worse than myself, but I'm man enough to admit it. I enjoy the company of others who complain, but to a certain point. I like to think that I complain in a humorous, reflective way, where others just don't know how to have a good time. This drink had good intentions, but as far as I'm concerned, it's just a good orange pop. Like the great Paul F. Tompkins once said, "The best barbecue is only good barbecue." Orange pop is alright if you're at a party or if you're nine. I guess it's also alright if you're going to have blood orange so you can call yourself "worldly" or some garbage, but this to me just tasted very medium. I've had an excellent blood orange Frizzante before, but this doesn't do it. Orange pop is just orange pop to me.

It's 1991. City of Compton. Rough, rough streets. Kids killing kids over things you and I would laugh at. They don't laugh, they kill, as I mentioned before. Not a day goes by where you don't hear a gun shot or at very least, a domestic dispute. These are hard times. Hard times turn people to drink. Alcohol. 40's. Big alcohol. 40's are like the party sub of malt liquor.

Here's my proposal. Let's go back in time and instead of having overpriced bodegas sell 40's of St. Ides, carry the 40(ish)'s of Archer Farms Wild Berry. People could have been in a bad mood because of financial times and street warfare, but they also could have been upset at the fact that they were drinking a clearly low quality beverage. Archer Farms Wild Berry Italian soda is a bright, clean, and crisp drink. So many flavors roll across your tongue with every sip, like elderberry and blackcurrant to name a few...and it's more than affordable.

Cleaning up the streets is a rough job and since it clearly can't be left in the under-capable hands of O'Shea Jackson, leave it up to the Archer Farms Italian soda lineup.

Once in a while, it's fun to eat extreme things. Oh, what do I mean by extreme things? I mean things that are so flavorful that it actually hurts. Super sweet cranberry juice that tarts up your cheeks, overly hot-sauced chicken wings that clear your sinuses, and sour apple Jolly Ranchers. All three of these are like an exclamation point to your taste buds. Problem is, you only want a little bit at a time before the novelty wears off and you are wondering why you're torturing yourself.

This sour apple pop tastes like a seemingly endless sour apple Jolly Rancher. It's good at first but then, quite promptly, it overstays its welcome and leaves you with the decision of what to do with a perfectly fine 3/4 full bottle of pop. I shared mine with friends and the best they could do was bring my percentage to 50%. This was simply too much for me.

Go to your gramma's house. Go in her candy dish: old M&M's, old Reese's Pieces and old Werther's Originals. Also found in said candy dish are those strawberry hard candies wrapped in strawberry looking foil. That candy is exactly what this pop tastes like. It's very sweet and very potent of candy strawberries. It's not bad, but it's a bit overwhelming and ambitious if you planned on drinking the entire bottle.

I will say that it has been my favorite Romano's beverage I have had thus far. I know a lot of people would like this so if you like those candies, or just want to try another strawberry pop that isn't just sugar and strawberry flavor, try this. It's smoother than "standard" strawberry pop, hence the "creamy" prefix.

This tastes a lot like an orange creamsicle but with a hint of that long lasting Splenda sweetness. You can refer to my non-diet review and basically append "tastes a little diet" to it. It's one of the better diet drinks I've had as it's not uber-sweet and doesn't have that tooth-curdling linger. Speaking of linger, this drink stays with you. I took a sip probably about two or three minutes ago and I can still kind of taste it. If you like that, that's great. I personally don't really like a lingering drink.

I don't know of many drinks that have such a true orange creamsicle taste so if you are feeling nostalgic or just like orange cream try this. Unfortunately, I don't know where to get Romano's stuff. On their site you can get a list of cities and states their products are sold in.

I really want to get one of those machines that let you carbonate anything. How great would that be? I would carbonate the dumbest stuff, just because I could. Carbonated chocolate milk? Sure it would be gross, but I'd still do it.
This tastes like it was home carbonated, and I mean that in a good way. I know it's just some sort of syrup in carbonated water, but it's great. I feel like I'm drinking it in a little cafe somewhere in Italy.
Now bring on the carbonated soup.

Go back in time to when you were in second grade. Don't think of the future. After all, you're 7. What do you care about the economy, career, marriage, responsibility, or basically anything? There is one thing you care about...

It's time for lunch. You and your class walk down to the lunchroom and wait in line. You get a boiled hot dog, chocolate milk, apple and one more thing. You go over to the ice cream freezer and get an orange creamsicle. You eat everything on your plate and then you silence the world around you as you eat that creamsicle.

Do I need to say that Romano's Orange Creme tastes just like that? I hope that I don't.

Even though I have an extreme hatred for Ray Romano, I still really enjoyed this beverage (which I assume he has absolutely nothing to do with).
It really tastes like something you would order in a coffee shop. I mean let's be honest coffee is disgusting, so why order that at a coffee shop, especially when you have bubbly fruity goodness to chose instead.
I learned something new today when I learned that marionberry is a type of blackberry and not just the former mayor of DC who was arrested for use and possession of crack cocaine. Yes, he still won future elections with the slogan "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Perfect for D.C."

I'm not that familiar with Italian sodas, but this one is delicious. It's one of the strongest vanilla flavorings I've ever tasted in a soda. This is like a cream soda with extra vanilla flavor. I'm excited to try the other flavors Romano's makes.

Archer Farms is Target's store brand. Their products always seem to be on the higher end of quality. This drink does not disappoint. It's a very fruity flavorful Italian Soda. Orange is definitely the front running flavor, but the others are present as well. It also has a strange flavor that reminds me of banana Runts. When I first drank it I swore there was some banana in it. I actually wouldn't shut up about it. I later checked the ingredients and discovered I was wrong. Strange. Even with the phantom banana flavor, it's still better than 90% of the Italian sodas out there. Even those that are made in fancy coffee shops.