Sparkling (35 reviews)
Rubicon Sparkling Lychee
I recently started a new job designing/developing websites. I have been freelancing for a while so getting this job was a nice change. Seeing as I do a lot of reviews in the office, my co-workers have taken an interest in the drinks I bring in. Our project manager Carly mentioned that she liked lychee in the past so I knew she was going to be excited about this drink. Given the track record Rubicon has been having with us lately, I had a good feeling this wouldn't be disappointing.
First thoughts were it had a nice lychee smell to it, but there was something else in there that I couldn't put my finger on. It has a sour after taste, in a good way. Carly said it tasted like grapefruit and I totally agree. It really works well with the lychee, though mysteriously is not present in the ingredients. Keep up the awesome work Rubicon.
- Website
- http://www.rubiconexotic.com/
- Country
- India
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 4 weeks, 1 day ago
- Comments
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Louisburg Cider Mill Sparkling Apple-Cranberry Cider
One of my favorite things about traveling/touring is finding and trying regional beverages. Recently I found myself in a crappy little grocery store at 2am in Kansas looking for something to satisfy my hunger. There was no “natural” section to speak of, and hardly any vegetarian selections except for crappy chips and actual vegetables that I had no means to cook. Things were looking grim, and then I stumbled across a little display of these sparkling ciders. My night started to look up, but I left the store with a bag of flavored rice cakes and this bottle of cider. Sure I went to bed hungry that night, but I had a good taste on my tongue.
This is not a spiced cider, and I can only assume that they grow a different breed of apples in the Midwest than in Buffalo, so it ended up tasting more like a sparkling cran-apple juice than sparkling cider to me. I’m okay with that. It was still delicious. Basically if you give me a bottle of any juice that is carbonated with no added sugar, I am going to love it. The cranberry juice isn’t very strong, so the apples do most of the work. Apples: The backbone of America.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 4/10/2013
- Comments
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Bibbs Sparkling Blackberry Lime
Ladies and gentlemen, steal them from seafood restaurants or from your children, but do whatever you can to get yourself a bib, because we're in for a wild ride. Welcome to the 4th annual Westminster Chug-A-Thon, where literally dozens of people come to compete to see who is the national chugging champion. Due to legal issues, we can no longer use beer as our chugging liquid of choice, so this year we have a treat for everyone with some nice Blackberry Lime soda from the appropriately named Bibb company. We have a tanker truck full of the stuff, and that is about 8,000 gallons people. That's a whole lot of liquid, which means there is a good chance we're going to need the paramedics that we have on hand. It's also guaranteed that our contestants are going to be hurling the contents of their stomachs all over themselves, hence the bibs. There's only so much liquid the human stomach can hold, and they are going to need to empty their "tanks" several times if they are serious about winning. It's really a shame though, as the soda we're using is quite delicious. Actually, I feel odd calling it a soda, as it's more of a sparkling juice than soda pop. It's just blackberry and limejuice mixed with carbonated water and a little sweetener. With only 13g of sugar per serving, it looks like no one will be getting diabetes during this contest, which is good because we can't afford another lawsuit. Seriously though Bibbs has a great blackberry base with a strong lime flavor added to it that is nice and present without making you think that it should be called lime blackberry instead. It really is a shame that such a tasty drink is going to flood the streets in the form of regurgitation. With 8,000 gallons in the trunk there is sure to be enough leftover for everyone in the audience to enjoy a glass or two as well. So you're welcome and enjoy the event. Please put on your nose plugs though as we don't want another Stand By Me scenario this year.
- Website
- http://www.drinkbibbs.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Evaporated Cane Juice
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 4/9/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Spindrift Sparkling Grapefruit
I found this in a bar in Boston a couple weeks ago. I went along with my friends as they bar-hopped around Cambridge, drinking nothing but water and Diet Pepsi. Finally, at our last stop they had this fine beverage on the menu so I obviously ordered it. There's only so much Diet Pepsi I can consume in one night.
I am a fan of Squirt, so whenever I find a different grapefruit soda I have to try it. I have never been disappointed with a bottle/can and this was no exception. It was very sweet, which surprised me since a lot of sparkling drinks are lightly sweetened. It also had little chunks of grapefruit, which was pretty awesome, and a great surprise.
I apologize for the crappy photo. Bars aren't known for their stellar lighting as you might know.
- Website
- http://www.spindriftsoda.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Raw Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Sparkling
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 4/4/2013
- Comments
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Crystal Beach Sparkling Loganberry
This ain't your grandma's loganberry. This, my friends, is the first carbonated loganberry drink. It was hard to avoid loganberry as a kid growing up in Western New York. It seemed like every corner store and restaurant had one of those continuously flowing glass loganberry dispensers next to the soda fountains. I know I would drink a tall glass of the insanely sugary drink easily as a kid, but I wouldn't even dare to do so now. I recently came across some in a fountain and found the flavor nostalgic, but the drink to be too thick with sweetener.
When I heard the news of a sparkling loganberry drink hitting the shelves at Tops this past weekend, I was expecting it to be a loganberry soda. To my surprise when I picked up the 4-pack, I noticed they used pure cane sugar as a sweetener instead of high fructose corn syrup that is usually in loganberry. I wanted to drink a bottle on the way home but I resisted so we could all try it together when we recorded a podcast with Buffalo Eats later that evening.
Was it worth the wait? Most definitely! While this is a sparkling drink, it's very lightly carbonated which is really nice. The cane sugar also makes it very light and lets the loganberry flavor shine through. All my life I've been drinking loganberry that was drowning in corn syrup, so it's nice to finally be able to taste loganberry for what it is. The light and fruity taste reminds me a lot of Izze drinks, or HotLips soda.
I think this drink has a little something for everyone. If you grew up on loganberry, you need to try this. If you've never liked loganberry because it was too sweet, pick up a bottle and see if you like this because it's much different that any loganberry you've ever tasted.
- Website
- http://www.loganberry.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Other/Weird, Sparkling
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 3/12/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Rubicon Sparkling Mango
Good things come in small cans. That sounds like some tagline for drink company X that ended up on the editing floor. I imagine Bob thought of the tagline on the way to work after days of emails that yielded no good ideas. He was probably so excited and couldn't wait to get to work for the first time in 20 years. He gave hints to his co-workers before the 9:30 meeting that he had a great idea.
The problem was he built it up so much that when they heard the mediocre tagline, they passed on it. He was devastated and always told the story over drinks with friends.
I almost forgot that I hadn't reviewed this drink yet. It's delicious is what I was trying to get at. It's really light and crisp and full of mango flavor. If it weren’t so full of sugar I would drink these all the time.
- Website
- http://www.rubiconexotic.com/
- Country
- Malaysia
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 2/12/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Rubicon Sparkling Guava
Dear Rubicon, I wanted to tell you that you’ve come a long way, but then I remembered that I actually loved the juices you sold in juice box form. I had expected them to be overly sweetened and watered down versions of the pure fruit, and while they did have extra sugar added to them, they were fairly spectacular. Any slight reservations I had about your juices have been thrown out the window by the addition of a few tiny bubbles. This actually tastes less sweet than the juice version, and I am fine with that. It’s guava puree spiced up with a little sugar and some carbonated water. It tastes like real guavas, which makes it automatically better than 90% of the drinks in the world. Rubicon, you have proved yourself yet again and I can’t wait to see what you have planned next.
- Website
- http://www.rubiconexotic.com/
- Country
- India
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 2/4/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Bibbs Sparkling Blackberry
This is one of those beverages that walks the line between a soda pop and sparkling juice. I really don’t even know how I make the differentiation any more. I guess if there is no sweeteners added it is just sparkling juice by default. It could also be said that if it is sweetened with HFCS, or has an overabundance of sugar in it, it is classified as a soda. This has sugar added to it, but it’s evaporated cane juice, and it falls under juice on the ingredients list. I’m just going to proclaim that it is both, as in the larger scheme of life it does not matter at all. What does matter is that it is delicious. Just this morning my girlfriend pulled out a container of blackberries that she had been hiding from me in the fridge. I can’t blame her, when they are put in front of me I can’t stop myself and I just keep eating them until they are gone. Case in point I think she ate 2 or 3 today and I ate the rest of them. I would say I was a glutton, but it’s fruit, so does that even count as gluttonous? The important thing is I have the memory of the actual fruit fresh in my mind, and this drink is not far from it. The berries they used taste like they weren’t completely ripe, but I know that is actually how a lot of people prefer their blackberries. It’s just a little more tart than one would expect from a berry soda. That is helped by the low amount of sugar that is added to it. There are only 13g of sugar in this bottle and in the world of non-diet sodas that is like nothing. This is a beverage that tastes great that you don’t have to feel guilty about drinking.
- Website
- http://www.drinkbibbs.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Evaporated Cane Juice
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 1/13/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Rubicon Sparkling Passion
Look at Rubicon stepping up their line and their image. They have given the contents of their juice boxes with some carbonation and packaged them in these fancy little cans. Seriously it’s the same juice, just carbonated and it’s glorious. For those of us with dreams of passionfruit, mango and guava sodas that actually taste like juice and not some weird bastardization of it, the dream has become a reality. Sure this is pretty sweet, but so is the actual fruit, and it’s pop now, so it’s supposed to be sweet. Don’t complain, just be grateful that they actually did things right and it tastes like you’re eating fruit, and not like fake flavoring or seltzer.
- Website
- http://www.rubiconexotic.com/
- Country
- India
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 1/11/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Martinelli's Sparkling Apple-Cranberry
Another New Years Eve has come and gone, which means that so has another bottle of sparkling juice. As you may or may not know non-drinkers like myself celebrate the obligatory times in much the same way that children do. I think I get the same enjoyment out of it as well. This year I decided to get a little fancier than my typical sparkling grape juice so I went with cranberry juice…cran-apple. I hear that it is just about impossible to get out of sheets from Santa Fe, so I took care not to spill in on any of the fancy gowns that surrounded me, and by that I mean t-shirts and jeans. I don’t hang with an upscale crowd much.
First thing to note about this is that it is not a twist cap. I had to pry off the cap on the side of the stage of the club I was DJing at like a savage, because unlike a Boy Scout I am rarely prepared. The effort to open it was worth it though, as this is one delectable celebratory beverage. It’s just apple and cranberry juice mixed together with some bubbles added. The apple juice sweetened it enough to take away the bitterness of the cranberries, but their flavor was still present. It’s basically a higher quality carbonated version of Ocean Spray. I will definitely have to pick up more of this for my next soirée. Oh yeah, remember: Nothing changes on New Years Day…remember when U2 was a great band? I certainly do.
- Website
- http://www.martinellis.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 1/1/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
