Tina's Jamaican Caribbean Restaurant Mama Tina's Cucumber Ginger Beer

If you ever find yourself in Providence, RI, stop whatever it is that you were planning on doing and head directly to Tina's Jamaican Caribbean Restaurant, or the Whole Foods where I found this. Get yourself some of the spiciest food your human form can handle and cool it all down again with a bottle of cucumber ginger beer.

I have to be honest here; while this was an amazing drink, I wouldn't consider it a ginger beer, as it was not carbonated. If it had been I don't know if I would have been able to handle the sheer joy it would bring me. What it actually consists of is cucumber, ginger and lime (a very, very light lime) in a highly sweetened water base. It's so sweetened that it has the pseudo grittiness of a southern sweet tea. Actually that is the best description I can think of. Think of a sweet tea, minus the tea and add cucumbers and ginger. There is not enough ginger to give it a slow burn, but the flavor is very much present. As for the cucumbers, they taste earthy in all the right ways. It's not the crisp cucumber flavor that Mr Q Cumber has, but a slightly dirty flavor like the ones you would find in raw juices.

This would have gotten a perfect rating, but the lack of carbonation in relation to the name, and the fact that I find it to be a bit too sweet the more I drank, made me deduct a bottle. I assure you it is still an amazing drink that you should not pass up if you are ever in that area of the country.