Organics Blood Orange Italian Soda

There is something really gross about the name "blood orange."  I guess it's because I'm a wuss and don't like blood.  But really, even if you're okay with Discovery Health or slasher flicks, does that really mean you'd want to drink something with "blood" in the title?  All my True Blood watching fans are saying "yes" right now, and "no" to me using so many quotation marks.  So we'll move on.

The last Organics brand drink we did (which, if you recall, is a Walgreen's brand) was a delicious pomegranate, in fact a pomegranate I'd gladly have again.  Let's find out how this...orange-type beverage fairs.

First of all this is, just like the pomegranate, very natural.  Organic blood orange juice, organic sugar, black carrot juice...very nice.  No HFCS, no sodium benzoate.  The scent is fantastic, it smells just like an orange slush puppy, if you know what that is.  The taste though is like carbonated orange juice for the most part.  That's not really a bad thing, but it does hurt the refreshness level.  I mean, orange juice isn't very refreshing.  The flavor makes the drink kind of "heavy" so to speak.  The carbonation is fairly mild, but the natural orange juice gives it weight.  Refreshness?

If you like orange, bloody or not, this is one for you to try.  It's very natural, but the heaviness takes some points off.

-Mike

Reed's Raspberry Ginger Brew

So, like, remember that Reeds drink we had a few weeks back?  You know, the one with, like, apples in it that was, like, really good?  Well...this isn't that, but I can use it as a basis for explaining it.

Similar to Reed's Spiced Apple Brew, a beverage we loved, this is a unusual blend of ginger with fruit.  Unusual in a good way, of course.  No surprise, it's filled with lots of natural ingredients, as a Reed's beverage usually is, such as ginger root, raspberry, apple, pear, lemon, etc.  

As you can see, the ginger comes before the raspberry, whereas in the Spiced Apple Brew, the apple comes before the ginger.  This means you're going to taste more ginger and there's just a hint of raspberry flavor.

This is another one of those ginger drinks where it smells and at first taste seems like it's going to be powerful like a ginger beer, however it doesn't end up that way and has a mild, but bold taste.

I felt this ends up in a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese situation where it shouldn't be called Raspberry Ginger Brew but Ginger Raspberry Brew, because it really is more of a ginger drink with a hint of raspberry.  It's decent, I just wanted more raspberry.

-Mike

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Reed's)

Hot Lips Apple Soda

Way back when I reviewed Hot Lips Pear I said that I thought they should do an apple instead.  Well, here it is, and it's as delicious as I expected.  

The best part about Hot Lips products are how simple they are.  Carbonated water, apple juice, sugar and lemon juice.  That's all it takes to make something delicious.  

The flavor can be summed up as "carbonated apple juice," but of course the added sugar and lemon give it it's soda-like zing.  

This is a simple product so I guess that's why it's such a simple review.  I wish more folks did this.  Simple can be better.

Verdict:  Buy stock in the company!

-Mike

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Hot Lips)

A “Twist’s Choice” Recipient

China Cola

Our journey around the world to find the greatest sodas on the planet brings us to China!  Wait...nevermind.  It's just called China Cola, it's not actually from China.

It is, however, from Reed's, which is always a good sign.  So why is it called "China Cola" you ask?  Well, it's made with Chinese herbs, or at least the label says.  Let's take a look at the ingredients.

Raw cane sugar, szechuan peony root, cassia bark, Malaysian vanilla, oils of lemon, lime and orange, nutmeg, cloves, licorice, cardamon, caramel color.  Yep, it's definitely from Reed's.

I have to say, where it packs a punch in ingredients, they don't necessarily translate into flavor.  Maybe the ingredients were psyching me out, but overall the flavor was very light, with with just touches of each flavor coming through.  The most powerful of them all would have to be the szechuan peony root which did add a bit of spice, but nothing on a level of a ginger beer.  Trust me, this is coming from a guy who grew up with no salt or pepper on the dinner table, if it was the tiniest bit spicy I'd know.  It's just enough for flavor.  Don't get me wrong this is a very good cola, the flavor was just a little too light for me.

I'm going to name names here and say that Virgil's Real Cola (also a Reed's product) is still king for me, in colas and overall favorite soda, although I'd award this a very close silver medal with some others in company like Cricket Green Tea Cola and Natural Brew Ginseng Cola.  I think it would have been up there if it was just slightly more bold.  This was a close one.

-Mike

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Reed's)

Reed's Spiced Apple Brew

Let's go straight to the ending, Tarantino style:  the aftertaste of this is apple pie.

Think about that.  Now let's go back to the beginning.

A couple weeks ago we had a pretty disappointing apple soda.  In fact all around apple sodas are hit or miss.  We thought that Jones' had a pretty decent apple soda, one of the better "higher tier" apple sodas, if not the best.  Aside from that we're both fans of Manzanita Sol, which is "lower tier" I guess you'd say.  

I had been hoping for a Virgil's Apple, or Apple Cider, and while that is still a pipe (or bottle) dream, we do have a product here from Reed's, who makes Virgil's products, called Spiced Apple Brew.

First of all the label has a little story of the days before soft-drinks when non-alcoholic beverages were made at home.  It then goes on to suggest that they brew and age their beverages at the same level of quality, with the same level of quality ingredients.  I completely believe it because this is delicious.

When you taste this, without knowing anything in it, your immediate reaction would be "spiced apple pie."  It's liquid apple pie.  You taste the apple, you taste the cinnamon, and it has a ginger spice to it.  Also part of the ingredients is lemon, and when you know it's there you can get a hint of it but that's all, nothing too distracting.  

Everything we've reviewed up until now has been "fun."  Even some of the best drinks we've reviewed have been "fun," while still being high quality.  Virgil's Bavarian Nutmeg Root Beer was a finely crafted beverage for a soda, but it's still a root beer.  It still has that familiarity that goes with a pizza or a cookout.  Spiced Apple Brew takes it to a new level.  This is a drink you really appreciate.  There was obviously a lot of work put into this and you can taste it.  One of the folks at Reed's compared it to a fine wine where you savor it and appreciate all the flavors, and that's a perfect way of putting it.  Again, not to say that some of the other beverages we rated highly didn't have a lot of work put into it them, because we know there was, and they were delicious.  This is just taking it in a direction no one has yet, and it really legitimizes the soda industry as something serious.

Did I mention its aftertaste is apple pie?

-Mike E.

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Reed's)

Hot Lips Pear Soda

This is the first in our series of reviews for Hot Lips beverages.According to the bottle (which, by the way, are all as bland looking as this one) it seems that they have Hot Lips pizza restaurants as well.Seems to be a good way to get people into your shop, make your own soda.All the drinks we’ve been given to try are fruit flavored, and that’s literal.They’re all made with real fruit juices, carbonated water, cane sugar, lemon juice and vanilla.As weird as it sounds to have lemon juice mixed in with these flavors, it actually makes sense for most of them.

Pear is our first trial (Northwest pear according to the ingredients) and man is it good.I’m a little surprised that it’s not apple though.They have similar enough flavors and you figure you could market apple a little bit better than pear, but either way this tastes delicious.It tastes exactly like taking a bottle of apple juice off the shelf and carbonating it.The lemon juice adds a little pop which gives it more of that soda-like zing and also makes it refreshing and a little less heavy.

Being a huge fan of apple/pear drinks, juices, ciders, etc., this is easily going high up on that list of those drinks and general fruit flavored beverages.

Addendum:  A little over six months later and after all our Hot Lips reviews they all held one thing in common:  too much lemon.  Well, the good folks over at Hot Lips realized something must have been up so they sent us some new batches with different lemons and, voila, the bold taste of lemon was replaced with a kick that didn't taste lemony at all.  Although in this particular flavor I was cool with the lemon, it didn't feel right in the other flavors, but those reviews will have their own time in the sun.  Either way there was an improvement in flavor, with the pear coming out much stronger.  In this situation I'm going to stick with the original verdict of buy a case.  One other side note, I did get my wish, there is a Hot Lips Apple and we'll be trying it soon!

-Mike E.

(Note: This beverage was provided to us from Hot Lips)

Oogave Mandarin-Key Lime

So according to the sign at our local Whole Foods-esque grocery store, Hubble & Hudson, Oogave products are exclusive to them.  Now I don't know if that means here in The Woodlands, in the state, or what, because it's bottled in Denver.  According to the bottle if you stop by they will give you a free soda.  How nice.

Before we get to the rest of the bottle, let me tell you, this is the cleanest, most crisp, most refreshing drink I've ever had.  Surprisingly it tastes more lemon lime then the (mandarin) orange (key) lime that the bottle promises.  It's just sweet enough, almost dry.  I hate to use this word but I kind of have to as it tastes closer to this than anything else:  Sprite.  Way better though.  It's like all natural Sprite.

According to the bottle, "Oogave may increase your desire to stop drinking other beverages."  For a second I took this seriously and then realized it was a joke.  "Oogave is not intended to cure or treat any illness, other than dissatisfaction with traditional sodas."  Something unusual, the ingredients are purified, carbonated water, organic agave nectar, citric acid, natural flavors, beta carotene (for color).  The unusual part is that the drink is pretty much clear, so if they added anything for color, it's hard to tell.

If you collect UPCs from all their flavors, you can send them in with five dollars and get a "free shirt."  Not exactly free, but I won't dock them points for that.

Overall this is really refreshing.  The flavor doesn't give a big impact, however it's still good in it's own special way.  I'm sure over the next couple months I will try the rest of their flavors because this is a great product.

-Mike

Virgil's Cream Soda

Can't get enough of these Virgil beverages, eh?

I'm not a fan of cream soda, but I don't hate it either. I guess that makes me indifferent to it. One of my main complaints of cream soda is that it always has a stickiness. Thankfully, like all Virgil's products, this is a very clean, crisp soda. Meaning no stickiness. In case you didn't pick that up.

The bottle boasts "micro brewed with real vanilla beans," and that comes through abundantly. It's a very potent vanilla flavour. This is an extremely sweet beverage to the extent that the best way I can describe it is that it literally makes me smile as I sip it.

-Mike

Virgil's Real Cola

I don't think either of us would deny the fact that we have a strong like (maybe love) for Virgil's products. They obviously have the belief that there should be soda beverages made to a higher quality, in the same way that there is cheap wine and fine wine. Virgil's is the "fine wine" of sodas, which is why any time I find out about a new product from them I get excited. I always wondered what a cola would taste like from them, and now I know: it's the greatest soda I've ever had.

Now at one point this might have seemed ridiculous. I was torn between different flavours. There's the sweet fruitiness of Stewart's Key Lime, which I should note is so good I haven't even reviewed it yet, I always down it too quickly when I get a bottle, or, another Virgil's product, their Root Beer. But I've always been a big fan of colas, and this one tops them all.

The smell of it after it's opened tells you that you're in for something awesome. It's very sweet and potent with a vanilla and spice scent. The Cola, like their Root Beer, is very smooth, not too carbonated, just enough to give a tingle. You really can taste everything in it; the vanilla, the clove spices, the cinnamon. It even contains orange and lime, and there is a delicate hint of it in the background.

It's fantastic. The message on the back of the bottle ends with this line: "We decided to make a cola that would rival the super premium quality of our root beer." Mission accomplished.

So as much as I rave about this you'll see the score below and wonder why it's not higher. It's not perfect by any means, nothing has been so far and I don't believe anything will be, but of course in the mission to seek the greatest sodas ever you hope to find it. Also the price of drinks has always been a factor in our reviews, and at two dollars a bottle, while that's a fair price for a premium product, that is something that has to be considered. Normally I don't preach about scores versus review text but I think in this case it had to be said.

-Mike

Virgil's Black Cherry Cream Soda

I'm not going to create some build-up for the inevitable, so here it is: it's good.

This is the first soda I've had that tastes like it came straight from a fountain, that's how perfect a level of black cherry syrup this has in it. I can also tell why it's called a cream soda and not just straight black cherry soda, because this is creamy and not crisp like you would expect something so sweet to be.

I might as well mention as well, just like their greatest root beer in the world, it uses all natural ingredients.

I really don't know what more to say about this one. If you like black cherry, this is it right here. Black cherry syrup, carbonation. There you go.

Oh, and per their instructions on the bottle I did not put this over ice at any point.

-Mike

Cricket Green Tea Cola

This had to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing packages I've seen, which is honestly part of the reason I picked it up. That and I actually wanted to enjoy the beverage of choice this week so I played it safe with cola.

My theory was correct as I found another winner. The box exclaimed "Cane Sugar. Kola Nut. Green Tea." How could this not be good? In fact, it also stated "Expect this to be good." Sold.

This cola, in comparison to the ginseng cola I reviewed not too long ago, is more of a Coca-Cola rather than an RC, which is okay, although between those two I'd prefer RC. It's hard to explain but there's almost a lemon-tea flavor going on in the background. I guess that should be easy to notice considering lemon cola exists, but honestly I think it's just the crispness of the cane sugar along with the subtle green tea in the background. Green tea is the third ingredient, even above that "less than .5%" of kola nut, so this is more of a green tea soda than a cola, so you will taste it. Being a green tea fan, that's a very good thing.

Whatever it's boiled down to, it's delicious. Easily as good as ginseng cola, but quite different.

-Mike