Since Buffalo has apparently skipped three seasons and gone directly back into winter I thought it would be fitting to review a Xmas themed beverage. When I showed people this soda I was surprised that no one mentioned anything about it causing the drinker to go on a kissing spree. For that I'd like to thank my friends for not being as idiotic as myself, or at least to have the restraint to not say stupid things aloud.

Due to it being a season drink I expected this to have a bunch of spices in it, or to be minty for some reason (I blame the leaves on the label). Neither of those things were true at all. In fact it tastes more like it should be a summer beverage. It has a flavor that is similar to lemonade. It's like someone made a lemon lime soda but actually used lemonade and limeade. Then they decided to put in just a dash of berry for good measure. It's not bad by any means. In fact it's a damn good alternative to 7Up or Sprite. I just don't understand why it's marketed the way it is.

Hosmer Mountain has two different cola's, red and blue. The red is their take on Coca-Cola and the blue is supposed to be like Pepsi. Seeing as I am a bigger fan of Pepsi than Coca-Cola, I opted for the Cola-Blue.

Imagine Pepsi, without the harsh bite and less syrupy. That's pretty close to what this taste like. It's really a no-frills cola. I don't know if I like it better or worse than Pepsi, but it's definitely different. I don't think they were aiming to clone the Pepsi flavor, but use that as a starting point to make this cola.

If you like basic colas, this is a really good one. I think this would be really great with some spices in it like nutmeg or anise.

This is a light entry-level ginger beer. Hey, are you new to the world of spicy pop? Try this on for size. It's got a burn but is masked with that earthy, wet dirt ginger flavor that is more prominent in this than any other ginger related drink I've ever had. The flavor is good, though; bold and sweet. I was surprised to see that it wasn't a cane sugar drink as I thought that all Sioux City drinks were as such. That was wrong of me and I will be the first to admit it. The burn doesn't hit you until the drink hits the back of your little throat where it just stings you a bit, like a trick ginger ale.

One thing I will say is that this label design rules pretty hard. Nothing says America like an eagle and this one is coming right at your face. It reminds me of some awful band T-Shirt but on a bottle it's acceptable.

Looks (and preconceived notions) can be deceiving. Thus far, Simpson Spring has output mostly mediocre soda. So when I found this in my box to review I had a feeling it was going to be a very generic root beer. While this isn't the most complex ever, it's far from bland.

The smell threw me off because it didn't smell like run-of-the-mill root beer. It was a familiar smell, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As soon as I took my first sip, it hit me: birch beer. This starts off as a normal root beer, but has a really nice crisp birch beer aftertaste. It's a really good 1-2 combo with a really good bite. Much like the combination of root beer and sarsaparilla, I would have never thought of this pairing but it makes sense. I love it! Now I challenge a company to make a Root Beer-Sarsaparilla-Birch Beer. If there has to be a holy trinity, my vote goes to them!

I'm backup up on drinks to review. Seriously backed up, like over 100 drinks sitting in my fridge/back hall waiting to be tasted and sub-sequentially have prose written about it. It's getting to the point where it's overwhelming. Even though I have enough drinks to last me for a couple of months, when a package from Prometheus Springs arrived on my front porch I let out a squeaky noise of pure excitement. I tore apart the packaging and this drink shot to the number one spot on my "to drink" queue.

My friend Pat Bolger stopped by to work on artwork for his band's 7". He is one of the most wonderfully insane/brilliant pieces of human meat I have ever come across. Life is always interesting when he is around. Today was his birthday (also the date of the end of the world according to Terminator legend). To celebrate I decided to share this beverage with him.

At first smell it smells like pear juice, but as you pull it away a burning sensation fills your nostrils. I have a problem in that whenever I first try a new drink I take a huge sip. I thought I was fine. It had a mild pear taste while it was in my mouth. I'm not the world's biggest pear supporter (I feel like they are apples with genetic problems), but it's a quick flavor in this drink. It doesn't linger around long and I can enjoy that. The issue was that as it started flowing down my throat the burning started. It's not as strong as the older flavors I had tried from this company, but it definitely burns. I passed it off to Pat, and although he knew it would have a kick I don't think he was prepared for its fury. His face was pretty priceless, and he said he thought it was eating a hole in his stomach. He couldn't get down more than one sip.

The burn from the capsaicin in this is something that can be quite a shock if you're not ready for it. When I first tried Prometheus Springs drinks I thought of it more of a novelty and wasn't a big fan. The more I drink them the more I appreciate it. I now look forward to the burn. It's not a drink that you can chug down, but if you slowly sip it over a few hours it can be really enjoyable.

Oh Alo with your giant chunks of aloe. You treat me so well. Let me tell you all, y'all, a story about going to an Asian market. I went to an Asian market with Jay, Thirsty Dudes editor Dan, and some other friends and we came across an olive juice drink. I wanted to buy it so badly because of two reasons:
1. It would have been potentially gross.
2. It would have been potentially delicious.

I did not buy it because it was expired...by four years. As much as I like the idea of drinking milk that's two weeks old, I will not drink anything that's four years old. Why am I bringing this up? This has "olive leaf tea" in it and I hoped that it would taste like olives. Imagine my face when it didn't. It tastes like a sweet tea with chunks in it. Is that bad? Nope. Would I buy it again? No. Why? If I wanted a tea, I would buy a tea. If I wanted an aloe vera drink, I would buy one. I don't need two drinks in one. As novel it is, it's best not to mix something you're great at with something you aren't great at. I'm not belittling Alo, I'm giving them all the credit in the world for trying. Like I said, I'm not picking, I'm just stating an observation. This is a good drink, but it's like a hybrid car. I want all electric or all gas. I don't want to have to worry about plugging it in and filling it up with gas. I know that's not the same with all hybrids, but you know what I'm saying.

This is one of the better aloe vera companies and when it comes to bang for your buck, this company has some great and really different flavors.

I don't like oranges. Oh, I like the taste of an orange, but I don't like oranges. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I love orange juice with as much pulp as you can get. Does that make sense? Does it make sense that it drives me crazy when people love pickles but don't like relish? Nope-ahh. I don't care. I have my preferences. There is no iron fist making decisions for me.

This drink has pulp and it's big, too. No wuss pulp for Calypso. I like a drink with some substance. Look, we know where some drinks come from, but you know what hammers it home? Seeing some chunks of the actual fruits that were used still in there. Tune down your filters and leave some goodness in there.

As usual, this drink is good. It's actually two servings and the flavor is really good. I enjoy that it's two servings because I know that I have another round of flavor town when I get home. There is a good strawberry taste with a cheek puckering lemonade taste. Every sip is like a flavor explosion. I can see where it might be too sweet or too fruity for some, but if you want a drink with some flavor, here you go.

When you've got a good company, hold on to it. I don't know how they could do wrong.

I've been doing way more research than any one person needs to in order to follow the trail of Ecto-Cooler. If you don't remember it I feel sorry for you. It was a flavor that Hi-C put out in the 80's in celebration of the masterpiece that is Ghostbusters. It's the least they could do for the movie changed the entire world. Well my world at least. Either way it was a green citrus juice drink and it was wonderful. Sadly it was discontinued (although brought back for a bit under the name "Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen"). It's probably the drink I miss the most in the world. I might just be feeling nostalgic, but this tastes like Ecto Cooler to me. The Sweet Leaf Citrus Green Tea had me thinking the same thing. Maybe it's just something with green tea and citrus (this has mandarin juice in it). Even without my history of loving Ecto Cooler this drink is incredible. It's some of the best tasting juice tea combos I've ever encountered. Goji Berry is something that I'm going to have to look into more.

Now I feel like I need to watch both Ghostbusters movies for the 900th time in my life. I'm not complaining.

While this pouch lacks a straw, it still reminds me of Capri-Sun. I never got them in my lunch box. I always had the cheaper Hi-C "juice" boxes in my lunch as a kid. Was I jealous of those who got Capri-Sun? Sometimes. If someone had put vinegar in Capri-Sun pouches, they wouldn't have been as popular.

These drinks are deceiving. On the first sip, you can't taste the vinegar at all. It's just normal pineapple juice. But then a few minutes later, your stomach is full of vinegar and it burns! I like vinegar, but not enough to drink it.

I have 3 more flavors of this to review. Not looking forward to them.

I love the classic look of this bottle. It has the short and stout shape of a 12 oz bottle, instead of the traditional taller shape. Some may see this label and think it's old and boring, I think it's classic and really fits the taste of this soda. As the label suggests, this has a very rich vanilla flavor and I love it. It's a traditional cream soda taste that really makes my mouth happy.

I just got excited/confused on the last sip I took. I thought I was getting a taste of a campfire and it threw me off. But then I realized it was the smell of a grill outside that wafted through my window and into my nose. Now I'm disappointed and want to find a drink that has a campfire aftertaste.

PRE stuff is pretty good, but it's kind of all over the place. The powders are straight Stevia and are pretty good. I've drunk multiple drinks from them and I think that I prefer them to this. This is good. It smells like tea and then it tastes like lightly sweetened tea but then, all of a sudden, at the end you get the cool, Stevia taste. It's fine, but a little strange. They probably did it to keep the calories down, which they successfully did at a whopping 10 per serving (20 per bottle). It's just weird to have a nice watered almost unsweetened tea in the beginning and then WOAH sweetness. Like they were trying to please everyone at the same time.

Like I said, it's not bad, I might even drink it again if I could find it where I live, and the added prebiotics don't hurt matters even though I am (luckily) not a diabetic and don't need insulin in my daily diet.

We here at Thirsty Dudes have a strong appreciation for aloe drinks. They're refreshing, delicious, and good for us. When I saw this cute little bottle I couldn't resist giving it a try. It's a very basic aloe drink. It has a moderate amount of chunks, and a nice white grape aftertaste. Not the best, but FAR from the worst. This seems like the perfect drink (size and taste) to keep in your bag "just in case".

Now back to the wonderful chunky world of aloe drinks. I think Sabila may have this game on lock-down. This is my second bottle of their product and both have been more than awesome. It's the use of actual fruit juice and the lower sugar content that have put them in the lead. When something is supposed to be mango flavored, why mess around with chemicals? Sure they may save you a little money, but you'll have an inferior product. Sabila knows this. Their collective mothers didn't raise aloe-loving idiots.

Buy it. Love it. Share it with friends and see how they react to the chunks. It's delicious and fun, just like aloe was meant to be.

This is a very average tasting grape soda, run-of-the-mill, if you will. Middle of the road, mediocre, vanilla, acceptable, standard, garden-variety, so-so, conventional, unexceptional, passable, second-rate, unobjectionable, common, decent, ordinary, satisfactory, or humdrum could also be used to describe this.

I think you get the point.

Avery. I once dated a girl that lived on Avery. She was nice. She was Italian, and for some reason, she felt like she had some link to the mob. I don't know if it was true, but it certainly never sat right with me. I just thought that she thought that since she was Italian, it was common knowledge. I hope someone comes to see me tomorrow to break my legs for saying that. I won't deny I said it, but I certainly will have a story to tell.

So this girl, Sarah, we didn't date that long, a few months. I was 16 or 17 at the time so I had no idea what a jerk I was going to turn into. Along came Christmas and I bought her a bracelet. Nothing big. I think I got it at a department store for like $20. It was nice, though, thoughtful, at least. I gave it to her and she broke up with me. Why? That's a fun one. She said that her dad got her mom the same bracelet and that she thinks that she meant too much to me so she broke up with me, right on her cousin's porch.

No I'm not regretting anything. I've done a lot of stuff since then and have had a handful of girlfriends, but what if I gave her this root beer?

"Hey, Sarah. I got you this root beer and wrapped it like you wouldn't know what it was. It's named after the street you live on so you can keep it like some cool souvenir if you want. If you don't want to keep it, I understand. Who wants a sticky old bottle? Plus, it's pretty good root beer. Just the right amount of sweetness and flavor to get you through even the hardest days."

Do you think if I gave her that over ten years ago that we'd be together? Probably not, I suck. Seriously. I can't believe I've been in long-term relationships at all. You know what I can believe? I can believe that this root beer is pretty good and I would choose it over a "regular" root beer any day. Barq's? Mug? Supermarket brand? Nope. Avery's? Yep. Just poppin' my "P"'s.

Wow. I can't believe I was able to find one of these. Although I appreciate the wacky word play, I do think that a majority of people would find it in poor taste. Also, no I'm not a Nazi or racist. It's more of something that I would chuckle at the idea of but never expect to see the real thing. In fact when I was DJing the other night three Neo-Nazis came in, and were quickly chased out with bats. Had I not been playing music at the time I would have been helping my friends throw the trash out.

Seriously though the idea is so ridiculous it's pretty funny. The German eagle chugging a bottle of soda = priceless. In German the label says "From the other side of the wall" and "All Clear." Not as funny as the text on the bottle of Leninade, but still amusing.

The soda itself was fairly mediocre. I don't know if it's just in my head but whenever I drink a pop that is normally a different color the flavor just seems weak to me. This just tastes like a weak natural soda. It had no bite to it whatsoever, but it did still have a cola flavor. Not the best, also not the worst. It's a decent tasting novelty.

All I can think of today is pizza. See, Jay, myself, and Thirsty Dudes editor Dan like (scratch that) love to make exotic pizzas. We roll our own dough. We buy all the ingredients. We bake it. Take a picture of it, eat it, and then lay down for a while because it's typically four inches thick. Pizza we've made include but are not limited to General Tzo, Buffalo Chicken, and Thanksgiving. Tonight I don't know what we should make, but after drinking this Pangleheimers ginger ale, I feel like it has to be accompanied by one wicked pizza.

This pop was excellent and just what I needed on such a drab Tuesday. It was just the right amount of sweet and just the right amount of hot to quench my cravings. Also, to those who don't know what "hot" ginger ale, it's spicy ginger ale, not temperature hot. If that were the case, in theory, everything could potentially be hot but would you want it? Seriously? I doubt it. So, anyhow, this funny named ginger ale was good. I would compare it to Blenheim ginger ale.

I wish they sold this by me, as "the team" had to travel to Canada to get it, but it might be worth the trip. The little, what I think is a, Pomeranian is also an adorable spokesperson, too.

100% Juice? Check.
No Sugar Added? Check.
Rad looking toucan on the carton? Check.

We're off to a good start here. This is nothing but mango pulp and apple juice. Apple juice is the great stretcher of fruit juices. Seriously almost every juice has it mixed in to keep costs down and make the central fruit last longer. It's perfectly fine because apple juice is great, and it never overpowers the other fruits. This still tastes like nothing but mango. Remember how there's no sugar added? It's still crazy sweet. I'm talking 27g of sugar sweet.

I'm not a big fan of fermented drinks. I have never drunk beer, my tongue hates kombucha, and the few fermented soda's I've had so far haven't been so great. Despite this being fermented, I was actually excited to try it due to the flavor. Sadly, the orange taste is not very prominent. It has a strong ginger taste, but not a spicy ginger. As far as ginger drinks go, this is VERY mild. I suppose that would be good for someone liked the taste of ginger but not the spicy part of it. Not me though, up the spice! Once again I am reminded that fermented drinks and I don't go well together.

When I saw this in the cooler at New Seasons, I thought it was a gift from the soda gods. Two of my favorite sodas, root beer and ginger beer, combined!? But then I realized that it was a diet soda sweetened with stevia. My excitement died down, but I still had to try it. This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It's a lot smoother that I was expecting. It's also very carbonated which surprised me. The root beer taste hits first, and it's a very light root beer. The ginger comes shortly after and sadly wasn't that intense. I was hoping this was going to be sweet with root beer, but with a spicy ginger aftertaste. Sadly this was not the case. As far as diet sodas go, this isn't that bad. I just wish the ginger taste was stronger and the root beer didn't taste watered down.