Sparkling - 501 Reviews

Sometimes you date a girl who lives across the country and you go visit every other month. Sometimes things don't work out and you end up splitting up right before you leave from a visit. Sometimes your flight gets delayed and you turn around and said person is standing there asking if you want to get food. On top of that sometimes pizza and great soda can mend the relationship (for a couple more months at least).

Portland, OR's Hot Lips is a diamond in the rough. Well, not a diamond in a sea of bad food, as that city has obscene amounts of awesome veggie food (Vita Cafè I'm looking in your direction). It's a special place because it is a place where you can get a decent slice of pizza on the west coast. For the most part I don't even tough pizza past Wisconsin and even that is really pushing it. Hot Lips was great for its pizza, but even better for it's soda. They take local fruit and add sparkling water and a little cane sugar. If you've ever read Tom Robbins' “Still Life With Woodpecker” you know that blackberries run rampant in those parts. This is so simple and so wonderful. It tastes light lightly sugared blackberries, because that is exactly what it is. Why anyone would mess with a recipe like this boggles my mind. Okay, I understand that they want to save money, but they end up with a product that is not even close to this in quality, those big dummies.

I was always under the impression that this soda was only available in Portland, but my ladyfriend (of three years, not the previous ladyfriend which I mentioned above) found it in a health food store in North Carolina. I really hope Hot Lips expands their reach and takes over the country with their quality soda.

On our great Canadian drink adventure about a month ago Mike and I came across theses sodas in a Shoppers Drug Mart. I called dibs as quickly as I could because it's a soda with pineapple and passion fruit in it. I'm pretty sure that if Mike would have tried to grab it for his own I would have drug him out to the parking lot and we would have had to put up our dukes. The idea of Mike and I in fisticuffs is absolutely absurd. I can't even envision it in my head without the visions of us putting our fists up like an olde timey movie and erupting in laughter. Luckily, it never came to that, as Mike knows my taste buds and gave it up happily.

You might ask yourself, if I was so excited to an extent that I would have been willing to pummel one of my dearest friends, why did it take me a month to drink it. The answer is simple. The night was the first night of a tour I was on and Mike and my ladyfriend brought the drinks I purchased back home for me. This bottle was lost in the shuffle and it just resurfaced. What a glorious day it was.

All of my expectations of this drink were not only met, but they were surpassed. It's sparkling water, fruit juice and nothing else. The folks at Nativa were smart enough not to gunk up the mix by adding sugar. It tastes like some one blended up some pineapple and passion fruit, squeezed in a spritz of mango and strained out all the bits. Then they poured the remains into some sparkling water. The fruit itself is sweet enough to overcome any potential seltzer flavor. It's the perfect fruity soda. I've never had one that was better.

It turns out that this is the beverage version of an M Night Shyamalon movie. It turns out the soda has been dead the whole time. Wait, that's not right. It turns out that this wasn't made by some specialty soda company. Nativa is actually the Shoppers Drug Marts' store brand. Now that is true magic.

Would you look at that bottle? Seriously, just look at it. It's a work of art. This is the type of bottle that draws me into the fancy beer section even though I don't drink. Now Mike hands me a sparkling cider (that is pumpkin flavored no less) and tells me that it's safe for consumption. Well I am one happy camper. My letters home to mom won't be full of tears this time around. The kicker is that Mike found this in the most unlikely of places: Aldi. That's right, a budget, cost effective store has the fanciest bottle of cider I have ever set my eyes on.

When I popped the top, oh and how the top popped, I took a big sniff and was concerned to note that it smelled of Worchester sauce with some spices in it. My expectations fell through the floor. I had a friend smell it as well and he said he had a similar reaction. Oh well, down the hatch it went. I felt weird drinking this from the bottle, as I felt like I should pour it into a fancy glass, but you do what you have to do, and I had to try this instantly. Luckily the scent had nothing to do with the flavor at all. It's labeled as a pumpkin cider, but it's really just a nicely spiced apple cider with a tiny bit of pumpkin flavor mixed in. It's probably for the best, as I could see too much pumpkin being over powering. The best part of the flavor is that cinnamon isn't the prime spice like it normally is in cider. It's there, but it's not the all-powerful Oz or anything like that. If I had to pick a prominent “spice” it would have to be ginger. There's no burn to it (oh god that would have been the best. Simply the best. Better than all the rest.) but the flavor of ginger is there and I love Nature's Nectar for it. I also love them because I would expect this to be around the $4/$5 mark, but I looked online and it's only $2. I'm going to have to pick a couple up before the season is over.

Who doesn't love Lemonheads? I know I do. They're one of the best candies you can get that has a good lemon flavor. I didn't know what to expect until I looked at this wine shaped bottle and saw the stuff at the bottom. The stuff on the bottom? Pulp. The lifeforce of a lemon or other rined fruit. I think you can see where I'm going here but this tastes like Lemonheads. It's got a great lemon flavor but a nicely candied, still sour lemon. I don't know where these came from. Jay got them for me among his worldly travels. Wherever it came from, you should find it and get some. Get it for yourself and get some for your kids that like little candies. It's not terrible and if you're into health food you will enjoy the sensation that your tooth-rotting child is drinking something organic. I am not into health food and I wouldn't give this to my kid but my kid is under two and he shouldn't be drinking pop. Your kid can drink pop. I don't care. I'm not his dad. Am I his dad? I thought I was in the clear. Have my new found son call me. They've got some catching up to do and I've got a kid to inevitably disappoint.

I just got back from my second camping trip of the week. I'm exhausted, hungry and filthy. I decided to put stuff away before I took care of my previously mentioned issues. As I was unloading the food and drinks that I brought, but didn't consume, I dropped with bottle of sparkling apple juice on the floor. I was glad that it didn't shatter, but when I picked it up the cap had come loose and juice was spraying out. Drinking this so it wouldn't be wasted took top priority.

I found these beverages at a natural food store in Richmond, VA. They were on sale, so I purchased the whole line. I'm glad I did, because they are superior beverages to most. Sometimes I get a need for soda. I just need it or I feel like I'm going to explode. It's not the flavor, but the bubbles and they way they feel going down my throat. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but too bad you can read it again. Sure I could stay healthy and just drink seltzer water when I get this itch, but I just can't get down with the weird flavor it has, no matter how often I try. Sonoma Sparkler's may not be as good for you as seltzer water, but it's apple juice that has been carbonated. There are no sweeteners or anything like that added. As a bonus the flavor is great. It obviously tastes like the sparkling apple juice non-drinkers like myself down on new years eve, except it's way better because it's just juice with no sugar, and it's still ultra sweet. Nature, she knew what she was doing when she made fruit. She also knew what she was doing when she made animals hide from me. I spent a bunch of time in the woods and I didn't see a single bear, beaver, bobcat, porcupine or otter. I feel cheated.

If you think that all of the research that the United States government is of the nuclear genre then you my friend are a damn fool. Truth be told only 3% of the money the government ponies up is actually spent on working to harness the power created by nuclear fusion. The other 97% is given to the V8 company in order to create superior beverages. You see the United States realized that the original V8 was absolutely disgusting, but that was because tomato juice is revolting by nature. In order to help it's citizens the government started giving the company money to make a line of beverages that rated from decent to great.

With their latest grant the V8 company decided to experiment with adding some bubbles to their juices. They did a fine job of it. They took normal seltzer water and mixed in a healthy amount of fruit and vegetables. They did it in a ratio that the drinks taste more like fruit juice, and the vegetable flavor is at a minimum if it is there at all. The problem with it is that they tend to have a general fruit flavor and not like the specific fruits the flavors are names after. A can of tangerine raspberry is quite delicious, but it doesn't taste specifically like those flavors. The addition of the apple, grape and orange juice is to blame. It really does taste more like an apple orange drink than tangerine raspberry. I like it, but I would really enjoy more clarity in the flavor.

Also, they added some stevia extract to the mix. I don't believe it was meant as a sweetener. I think they added it to enhance the natural flavors, as more and more companies seem to be doing. I've said it before and I'll say it again; stop it. The juice has enough flavor on it's own and it doesn't need stevia added to it mucking up the works.

I don't know what's happened. I used to hate seltzer water. My mom would drink it all of the day and I would take the occasional sip and just make a face. It was just so bitter and terrible. I don't know if things have changed in the wide world of seltzer or what but all of a sudden, I get these hankerings, brother. I see it on the shelf and I think, "Yeah, dude, black cherry seltzer sounds like something I would like." and then I buy it and think, "I used to hate this stuff."

So here we are. Black cherry seltzer. I've got to say, it's pretty good. Zero calorie, sparkling, and pretty flavorful. It tastes like a diet black cherry drink but with no bad ingredients because there are no actual ingredients. Water and natural flavor. That's it. That's all. If you like flavor but don't like sugar of any kind, aren't or are on a diet, are male or female, and like black cherry, this is the drink for you. Basically, that complex conditional could be rewritten as "If you like black cherry, you will like this." I write conditionals all day every day so it was easy to write and then optimize. It's my life. It's what I do.

Here's a warning for the world. If I'm ever in your presence and you are eating blackberries, never offer me any. Within two minutes you will be looking at an empty container where a heaping pile of berries once stood. When it comes to this fruit I have zero self control once someone opens the floodgates. It's the same thing with chips and salsa, but no one is going to make a drink based on that flavor, so that knowledge has no place here.

I was skeptical to try this drink because of my distaste for seltzer water. My love for blackberries won over and the next thing I know I am pounding a container of the previously mentioned chips and salsa and sipping on a bottle of this sparkling goodness. Lucky for me, and the world, the blackberry flavor is fairly strong (for it being unsweetened) and the seltzer zing is at a minimum. This isn't sweet in the least, but it has flavor and that's all you can ask for in a drink like this. It's light, it's clear and it's slightly fruity. There's just a hint of fruit as the name would suggest. These folks are no liars.

Twenty years old. Twenty. Arizona is one year away from being able to drink its own alcohol line. It can vote for your local quarterback as the president of the United States. It can go to the casino and win six dollars playing penny slots. It cannot rent a car without having some sort of authorization from his or her daddy. It can buy cigarettes but it's is also smart enough to know that is not a wonderful decision.

Arizona is almost a full-fledged adult and what better way to celebrate than with a drink fit for a youth? That's right, and cherry lime Rickey. I feel like this is the sibling or close cousin to the Shirley Temple. It's a little bit of cherry with a little bit of lime and a lot of bit of sparkling because that's what you do when you are twenty; you sparkle. You shine your shoes, you walk out the door, and you feel like a million bucks. You've got your ability to perform as an almost adult but while having a drink in your hand that makes you feel young.

This is a limited edition flavor with a timeless taste. Having never been to Brooklyn, I don't have the nostalgia behind this flavor but that doesn't mean that I cannot appreciate it. What am I? An ignoramus? I am not, sir, and I take insult to hear that from the likes of you. Insulting me after all the nice things I said about you. It makes you look like a real turd, you know that?

I have a vision in my head. Come with me. There are two groups of kids. One side has oranges and one side has mangoes. These kids are all the pitchers from local little league teams, armed with a seemingly infinite amount of fruit. At the signal, they throw fruit at each other over a big pipe. There is a piece of clear plexiglass in the middle so when the throw their fruit, it hits the glass and slides down into a juicer. All the juice goes through the pipe and gets mixed with carbonated water and canned and the solids are spat at the opposing side leaving the kids covered in a fruity pulp. It's all for fun. Kids have fun and they help out the company.

This tastes like just carbonated orange and mango. It's not too sweet and isn't terrible for you. It makes it better when I imagine where it comes from rather than where my educated mind tells me it's from. Remember that scene in Blues Brothers where the people threw beer bottles at them in the bar? That's what I'm imagining but with fruit and not hooch. That's much better and appetizing than a clean factory filled with hairnets and adults.

Camping. Well, almost camping. Jay, myself, and I went almost camping. He slept in a tent and I slept in a rodent infested cabin. You know what? I would do it again. I always have fun there. We set up a zip line, made s'mores, hiked, stole corn from a cornfield, explored an abandoned barn, ate food, and shot at cans, bottles, and corn with a .22 rifle that was made to shoot cans, bottles, and corn.

We stopped at the store and got some food and drinks. I decided I was going to go "calorie free" and get this seltzer. I think that I made a pretty good decision. It was flavored just enough to cover up that rather terrible "soda water" taste that I actually don't like. It just tasted like carbonated raspberry water. I couldn't really get a lot of lime out of it but some might be able to.

If you don't like seltzer but have a knife pointed at you in seemingly the world's most violent grocery store, you can pick this and get out sans air hole. Seriously, if you are ever in a grocery store and someone has you at knifepoint making you pick out a seltzer, anyone will do. For around a dollar, you can be a good Samaritan and save your life and the need for a rather graphic cleanup on aisle twelve. You might also want to make a mental note to go to a different grocery store next time. That place you go to sounds rough.

You put the orange in the mango and you drink them both up…€¦wait…€¦that's not right. Oh well they are already mixed together so I might as well go with it. I mean I already checked out and the cashier gave me the weirdest look because I was singing. I didn't really want anything coconut flavored anyways.

Okay, now that I've tried this I'm pretty happy that I messed up. It tastes like tiny mandarin oranges were juiced and then filtered through some mango puree. The flavor starts off completely orange and by the time the aftertaste has faded away it had gotten to a point of pure mango. Somewhere in the middle it tastes like someone spritzed in a little lemon juice, you know the way you add limejuice to guacamole so it doesn't turn brown. No one wants their sparkling juice to turn brown, so make sure you add a little lemon.

As an after thought what the heck was Harry Nilsson talking about? Who wants to have lime and coconut mixed together? It just seems like it would curdle and that is way gross.

Once again Mike and I are on the same wavelength. We both randomly drank and reviewed Sonoma Sparklers today. We know each otherâ…‚¬…„¢s bodies. He said his raspberry was pretty tasty, and I can verify that the natural peach flavored one is out of this world. It tastes exactly like Looza peach nectar if it were carbonated (and not so thick). Itâ…‚¬…„¢s out of control good. Itâ…‚¬…„¢s like someone took the worldâ…‚¬…„¢s most perfectly ripe peach and injected it with a syringe full of carbon dioxide. Itâ…‚¬…„¢s apparently mostly apple juice with peach concentrate added, but I really only taste peach. There was no need to add sweeteners, so they didnâ…‚¬…„¢t. When I say Iâ…‚¬…„¢m in love you best believe Iâ…‚¬…„¢m in love, and I am 100% in love with this sparkling juice.

Jimmy loved the Fourth of July. He loved both the holiday and the Soundgarden record. When he rode to his aunt and uncle's house every Fourth, he would see how long he would be able to listen to that song on loop before he couldn't take it anymore and turn it off. His record is nine.

When he got to his relative's house, his aunt said that she had some sparklers for him. Now Jimmy was nineteen and didn't get the same kick out of sparklers as he once did. He went to go get some pulled pork and corn when he saw his aunt coming out with a small box. She handed him the box and he asked her what it was. She told him that it was a box of sparklers. He looked inside and there were small bottles of a carbonated drink that was all fruit and no sugar. Jimmy was pretty psyched because it was either this or off-brand colas.

He sat down to talk to his grandpa about what each other have been up to and cracked open the raspberry Sparkler. He was pretty excited about how good it was. It tastes like carbonated apple juice with crushed up raspberries in it. He then went through all his relatives at the party and told everyone to drink some. They all liked it. He was more than happy to have this box of drinks to share with his entire extended family. He doesn't really have a lot to talk to a lot of them, even the ones that he sees outside of the annual reunion. Now that he had this drink, that wasn't going to be a problem for at least two years.

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?

The McCulley family had taken thief life savings and used it to purchase a farm. They were sick of working for “The Man,” and since they were getting older they decided it was time to do something for themselves. The previous owners had planted a huge orchard a couple of years ago and this was to be the first year the trees were to yield a useable fruit. They had such plans for all of the apples they would be harvesting in the Fall. The amount of juice and cider they were going to produce would be mind blowing.

Finally the seasons began to change and the fruit started appearing on the trees. The problem was that these trees weren't apple trees like they had expected. They were pear trees. Mr. McCulley was furious, but there was nothing he could do. You see he had never asked the realtor or the previous owner what kind of trees they were. He had just assumed they were apple trees because that's what he had in is mind, and he thought that assumption was going to end up being his downfall. What was he to do with so many pears? No one wanted pear juice, and there was only so much pear jam you could push in the market.

He had accepted that he had ruined his family's financial well-being. He was standing out in the orchard fighting back the tears, trying to decide how to tell his family that they were ruined when his wife walked up. Very quietly she just said, “Pears, huh? Looks like we're going to be making a bunch of sparkling juice.” How could he be so blind? Adding carbonation to any juice instantly gave it a slightly different flavor that was appealing to a great deal of people.

Once the harvest was ready they made up their first batch of sparkling pear juice. All they did was juice all of the pears and add sparkling filtered water to it, and they were good to go. Mr. McCulley gave it a sip and was pleased. It certainly tasted like pears, but it wasn't very overpowering like pears can be. It was very sweet, even though he had added no sugar to it. He hesitated to say it, but after a few more sips, he was sure that it was actually really good, great even. His family was saved! He sold off his batch to the R.W. Knudsen company and used the profits to invest in the stock market. There was no way that could be a bad investment for his family.

Hotlips does it again. They have managed to make a delicious fruit soda that isn't sweetened with any sugar. I had to look at the ingredients three times just to be sure. And you know what? It tastes great. I'm not one to eat a pear normally, but this is delicious. It's really juicy and flavorful.

My only complaint (and this goes for all Hotlips sodas) is it's only lightly carbonated. I like my soda to be moderately fizzy, but you barely notice it here.

Sometimes water needs a little boost. I'll say it. I drink a lot of water. Probably not enough, but when I'm home, I drink glass after glass. Back to the original issue at hand, sometimes water needs a boost. Carbonation is one thing but, for some reason, it makes it taste different. To me, that specific "different" is not good. "Soda water" as it is affectionately known is gross to me and won't travel down my gullet.

Oddly enough, if you just add a little natural orange flavor and it's a different animal. It still feels good for you because there is no sugar, doesn't taste like there is sugar in there, and doesn't taste too strong that they're trying to surprise you with secret ingredients. It's just like a carbonated water with an essence of orange. That's it. You have to carbonate it yourself and add the ingredients. You are like Jesus except instead of wine you are making carbonated, orange flavored water. Less impressive since you didn't magically perform any sort of rapid fermentation process, but impressive nonetheless.

I'm going to make some enemies with this statement, but I don't care: I don't like cranberries. It's true, I've always hated cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and most cranberry juice/drinks I've had are just gross. That was until I had this soda.

Now I'm not saying "I LOVE CRANBERRY" now. I'm just saying that this is the best cranberry drink I've ever had. That being said, I'm still not crazy about it. It's nice that it's naturally sweetened (no real or fake sugar), and yet still tastes sweet. The cranberry taste is strong yet not overpowering like straight cranberry juice.

Kristall makes nothing but quality fruit sodas. I have loved every flavor of theirs that I have tried, and this one continues their streak of awesomeness. I was at a backyard going away party today and I drank way more pop than I normally do. I also ate nothing but chips and salsa all day (it's my curse) and now my stomach regrets it. This was my ladyfriend's drink of choice for the day, and she was kind enough to share it with me. We drank it early on in the party, so my taste buds were fresh and my stomach wasn't bloated. Lucky me.

Let's face it, 7Up and Sprite don't really taste anything like lemons or limes. Maybe there is a slight hint, but if you squeezed the juices from those two fruits, added them to some sparkling water and then mixed in a bunch of sugar it would not taste anything like those brands. Just ask Mitch Hedberg. That mixture would taste very similar to what is in this bottle. Kristall was able to capture with essence of those citrus fruits without the sourness. Good job guys.