Malta Hatuey

Ok, so this intro is going to be short, and sweet as I really want to try this beverage out. It comes from my Caribbean supplier of drinks. It's called "Malta Hatuey - A Non Alcoholic Cereal Beverage". That alone scares me, and the fact that my supplier hates it so much he told me to drink it from a medicine cup. Well no guts, no glory, so here we go.

Before I take a drink, I noticed the horrible smell coming from the bottle, so I read the ingredients; Fructose, Corn Syrup, Mellomalt, Caramel malt, and Hops. I see this being a one swig review.

Oh wow, that's horrible. This is by far the worst drink I've ever had in my entire life. I couldn't drink this if I had to. I got just a little in my mouth for a taste, and immediately hated it. I can still taste the aftertaste of the little bit that I had. It's like they liquefied cheerios, and added some horrible, horrible flavor to it, because liquefied cheerios weren't bad enough. The only redeeming value of this drink is the labeling, not very often you see a Native American on the label. Either way... it's horrible.

~A

Pink Ting

We're going back to the Caribbean drink collection, out of it comes Pink Ting. First a little history. Here's the rundown from the official Ting website.

"Ting soda brand is more than 25years old and is made from real delicious Jamaican. The demand for Ting soda had been stable for years so the growing of Trees to meet demand was also stable. However the trees were becoming old and diseased as little re-planting took place. Since 2000 the demand for Ting soda brand has doubled in Jamaica which has doubled the demand for the Juice. Since 2000 "TING" has supplied 100% of these uniquely propagated seedlings to Citrus farmers in Jamaica. These Farmers are guaranteed the world grapefruit price in exchange for all the available grapefruit. The trees take 4 years to grow and mature in the rich Jamaican soil and fruit in the Jamaican sunshine. This is why we say "Ting Grapefruit Soda" is a little island sunshine in a bottle. Your demand creates a cycle of events to which culminates in the growing of delicious refreshing grapefruit juice. Please try our Ginger Beer and diet ting soda."

In short, in case you skipped all them crazy words above, Ting is a Jamaican beverage, with natural grapefruit flavors. Pink Ting, according to the label, is a mixture of real Jamaican grapefruit, and natural pink grapefruit. Really there isn't a lot to say about the drink though. It delivers on its promise to the nines.

Pink Ting tastes like carbonated grapefruit juice. There, that's it. If you like grapefruit juice, you'll like Pink Ting. Me? Well I'm pretty impartial to grapefruit juice, but this is tasty. It does claim to be the "Ultimate Thirst Quencher" but I don't really agree with that. Overall I'd say it's a tasty beverage, but not one I'll buy again as I'm not crazy for that good ol' grapefruit flavor. The most negative thing I can say though is about the packaging. It's Pink. Yes I know, it's called Pink Ting, so why wouldn't the packaging be pink? It's a pretty girly package though, and my masculinity was dented in the purchase of it. I exaggerate greatly, but c'mon, even the font is girly!

~A

Sof Drink Kola Champagne

Another drink in the 'what my co-workers give me' file is Kola Champagne. The bottle is pretty plain, the drink a light orange, but the cat mascot sipping the named product is fantastic. Upon opening this I realize it smells a lot like cream soda. I was told it's a sugary drink, but lets find out.

It's not nearly as sugary tasting as I thought it would be, but it is pretty sweet in flavor. The bottle claims the drink has it's 'Original Jamaican Flavour' and I can't argue that it doesn't, as I'm not sure what that was. Kola Champagne has a cream flavor about it, with a nice little buzz of carbonation. I'd even go so far as to say it has a hint of citrus in it. It does leave your mouth feeling pretty clean, doing an excellent job of removing the flavor of whatever food you may be eating. You mouth does have a bit of a sugary flavor though after every drink, this could get annoying to some.

I like this drink, quite a bit actually, but I can't seem myself seeking it out. I prefer a standard cream soda to this, but it's nice to try something different every once and again. Kind of like Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream, you enjoy it, but you always go back to Dr. Pepper.

~A

Mike Update - 09/01/10

Combining two things I've reviewed recently, this is kola champagne from Sof Drink.  Unlike the kola champagne from Ginseng Up, this one has HFCS and sodium benzoate instead of Korean ginseng tea.  Goodie. 

Drinking it I can also tell you another difference:  this is horrible.  My brain did this when taking the first sip "okay this is kinda like cream soda too...okay now it's like dirt."  I think I'm going to keep this one short.  I mean, do I really need to go on?  I just compared it to dirt.

Old Jamaican Ginger Beer Twist

Here is another drink review from the same man that gave me an Ironbeer to try. I loved Ironbeer, but this time it's something a bit different. Time to review a Ginger Beer... TWIST!

I've heard Mike talk about Ginger Beer before, and how this will burn my mouth when I try it. I like Ginger Ale, but I know not to expect that when I take my first sip. Lets open the bottle. OK, so it smells like Pine-Sol... almost exactly. That's a bit concerning, but never the less let's take a swig. Well, it's doesn't taste what I would think Pine Sol tastes like, but Mike is correct that it burns. It's not a horrible "OH THE HUMANITY" burn, but it's definately felt in the back of the throat. Looking at the ingredients I see why it smelled like a floor cleaner, lime juice. I feel kind of stupid now, because looking at the label for any amount of time will show you that there are limes all over it. I'm talking the border of the label is comprised of limes, and nothing else. Now I'm a big fan of the lime, but I'm not sure I'm enjoying it to the fullest in this drink.

The more I drink this the more it reminds me of pine-sol and fire. I'm to the point where I don't think I'm going to finish this. It's not that the heat that I'm feeling from the ginger is so over powering I can't physically finish it. It's the fact that I don't like the back of my throat burning every time I take a drink of something that supposed to be refreshing.

On to the bottle. It's in a glass bottle, which is always a plus. The drink is viewable from the outside, and looks like a kind of limeade. As an added bonus the glass is green, I always like the green glass bottles the best. It makes no attempt to hide what it is. It's obviously a ginger beer, as it has pictures of ginger on it, with lime. As I said before the label is covered with limes. By it's own regard it says that it is a "Naturally & Artificially Flavored Carbonated Beverage"... no fanciness here. All in all if you can get past the burning of the throat, which is slight but annoying, I think you'd probably enjoy this drink. Me personally, I cannot overlook it. If you're a fan of ginger related items, then pick it up and give it a try.

~A

Iron Beer - Original 1917 Flavor!

Recently a co-worker of ours learned of our beverage review site, and brought me 3 sodas of foreign origin. The first that I will review is IRONBEER. For those who are unfamiliar with Ironbeer, it's not a beer; in fact the ingredients read as follows: Carbonated water, fructose, caramel color, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors. So it seems that the drink will taste pretty bland to me, but that's ok because the can art has already scored this beverage at least a 0.5.

Opening the can now. Wow! It's much sweeter than I thought it would be, and has a good combination of flavors. The combination seems like Dr. Pepper, Rootbeer, and a strong Red Cream Soda. It also goes down very clean, with very little aftertaste. The can boasts that what you are drinking is the 'Original 1917 Flavor!' and if this is so, I can see why it's been around so long. I'm going to conduct a cold pizza test, and see how it compliments a cold pizza (toppings: Cheddar Cheese, Pepperoni, and Green Olives). Very impressive, the Ironbeer flavor washes away 98% of the pizza flavoring from your mouth, and still leaves it very clean feeling. Overall I'm very happy with this drink. It's not the best drink in the world, but it's one I wouldn't mind owning a few 12 packs of.

Btw, I spoke of the can art earlier which is displayed below. The origins of Ironbeer are also on the can, and are as follows.

On a summers afternoon, in 1917 a mule-drawn, wooden wagon arrived at a popular cafeteria in Havana, Cuba. It delivered the first four cases of a new soft drink that would soon be called "The National Beverage". Now more than 80 years later, IRONBEER is still enjoyed for its refreshing flavor with just a hint of island spices. A lot can change over the years - but not the original flavor of IRONBEER!

~A