Red Bull Cola

Alright, so I hadn't found any decent drinks to review until I was walking through the grocery store today and saw Red Bull Cola. Since I figure 50% of it's purpose is to energize you, instead of doing my normal recap of my opinion after I drank it, this will be written over the course of an evening.

It smells like cola syrup, like what you'd get at a pharmacy to calm your stomach. Now regular Red Bull tastes like bubble gum and fire, which isn't a bad thing, I actually enjoy Red Bull, so let's see what this is like...

This is decent, no bubble gum and no fire, maybe really far in the aftertaste but not instantly noticable. It's kind of got an RC thing going on.

Okay now that I've drank about a quarter can I am tasting the bubble gum flavour, again, not too bad.

I will say this about my little experiment, I desperatly want a nap right now, so I'm pretty tired. Let's see how energized this gets me.

Alright, it's been 3 hours since I started this. I'm going to say it's not really that powerful in regards to an energy boost. The taste is good, but being that it's Red Bull it's also expensive, $6 for a 4 pack.

Now a little update, over the last week I drank all 4 cans, two early in the morning after waking up and two late afternoon after coming home from work. It was more effective in the morning, however not as effective as a regular Red Bull. That and it's pretty awkward drinking soda first thing in the morning.

-Mike

Kutztown Root Beer

"When you're bad for something mighty good, reach for a foamy mug of Kutztown Root Beer. Tastes chust like old-fashioned, 'cause you know we make it that way. Drink 'til you ouch, there's more back!"

I swear this is what the back of the bottle says.

I bought this thinking that my Pennsylvania brethren would get their act together and produce a quality product. Nope.

The first ingredient on the bottle is "triple-filtered carbonated water," which makes sense because that's what you taste the most, water. It's a very dull root beer flavour going on here. In fact the best way to describe it is A&W from a fountain with too much water, not enough syrup. Sad.

Another negative is that the sweetness (supposedly provided by "pure cane sugar") is a little off tasting. Not as off as that Root Beer Float thing reviewed earlier, but still strange.

One positive I can say about this is that "triple-filtered" must me "not really that carbonated water," which is nice. A lot of root beers are just way too carbonated.

All in all though, it's not horrible. If this was cheap or on sale I could see myself buying it...but it'd have to be a heck of a sale.

I've been to Kutztown before, I'm not sure why, but I'm sure I'll never be again. If someday I do end up there, I'll be sure to hang my head in shame.

-Mike

Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale

So a coworker mentioned that during the little hurricane we had down here, she went to the local grocery store to stock up on whatever everyone hadn't already hoarded for no reason whatsoever. Anyhoo, she stumbled upon Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale, which as soon as I heard those words I knew I had to seek it out considering it contains three wonderful things: ginger ale, green tea, and Canada.

Thankfully it's really good. Crisp and refreshing are the two words that come to mind when I drink it. It's very lite tasting, and I don't mean in a sense of low in sugar or diet, I mean the flavor is lite; there is no heavy ginger ale taste, it's milder, and I'm really enjoying the change. Of course there is green tea flavour, and that too is mild but balances well with the ginger ale. I'd say in comparison with the previously reviewed Cricket, the green tea in this is on par, possibly just the tiniest bit less. The sweetness is at a perfect level with the ginger ale and green tea tastes.

Unlike the usual crop of sodas we review, this is not chock full of natural ingredients, like, ya know, sugar. We get good ol' high fructose corn syrup here, but again this is already very lite tasting, so it doesn't have the high level of sticky flavour that HFSC gives. The unique ingredients in this one are, of course, the green tea, but there is also 100% of your daily value of vitamin C per can, which honestly, seems to be in everything now. That along with the green tea provide 200mg of antioxidants.

Being that it's sold with the "mainstream" sodas, the price is on par with Coke, Pepsi, and other normal soda products. I really hope this sticks around, I like it a lot and would make this my ginger ale of choice easily. From the miracle of the internet it seems that this is also available in 20oz and 2 liter bottles.

-Mike

Carver's Ginger Ale

This is going to be a lame review, but this is ginger ale. I bought it for 99 cents for four bottles. It's "unique" property that makes it not just a regular ginger ale is that real sugar is used instead of corn syrup, which does give it a slightly better flavor than regular ginger ale. There you go. Oh, and it's made by Coca-Cola, which now has about 4,000 ginger ales world wide.

-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

IBC Cherry Limeade

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Yeah, I guess this is more of a mainstream beverage maker, but I had to try it since I'm a big fan of cherry limeade.

IBC's version of the drink doesn't disappoint, but it doesn't really impress either.

To me the drink is more cherry than lime and tastes pretty much like a cherry soda, a good cherry soda, but still just cherry. After having the real deal from Sonic and Dairy Queen, basically limeade with lots of delicious cherry syrup, it's hard to find a substitute, but for the money it's pretty darn good. Being it a little more mainstream it was only 4 bucks for a six pack, which isn't bad compared to other drinks I've reviewed.

This is one of the most appealing looking drinks I've seen. It's a bright red in a clear bottle which shows it off nicely. I don't know why I'm mentioning the appearance since I usually don't do that, but it just looks delicious. This is something you'd want sitting in a bucket of ice during some kind of outside get together. If I ever went outside I'd consider this.

-Mike

Natural Brew: Ginseng Cola

I'll get right to it, this is delicious. A really good, smooth, crisp cola. The closest thing I can compare it to is RC, but much lighter, less carbonated, much more refreshing. Lots of adjectives for this cola I guess

Of course the gimmick here is ginseng. Honestly I don't feel any of ginseng's benefits by drinking this, but then again I never have with anything else either, at least not to my knowledge. The other bonus ingredient that you're not going to find in a normal cola is bourbon vanilla. The flavor is evident, but not overpowering, just enough to give you the essence along with the cola flavor.

I'm not sure if there are any spices in this, but there is quite the hint of spices in this cola.

Overall very good, I really don't know what to say yet there's so much to say about it. Worth a try, not an everyday purchase but worth it for now and then running about about five bucks for four 12oz. bottles.

-Mike

Reed's Premium Ginger Brew

I don't know if you've had actual ginger beer, but generally they taste like your common ginger ale, and then with a hit of "help me, my mouth is on fire." As soon as I popped the top of this one and took a whiff, I was pretty worried. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Reed's is a fairly strange brew, however. At first the taste is a little weird but then becomes very refreshing. This is one of those drinks where you need to know what you're getting into before taking a sip. Before the main list of ingredients it states "strong ginger bite," which, like I said, this is not as strong as a ginger beer, though it does boast 17 grams of fresh ginger per bottle.

After that the variety of ingredients gets really interesting and surprisingly really works. The first ingredient (after the sparkling filtered water) is a list of the sweeteners, starting with "Canadien white water clover honey (very mild) and pineapple juice from concentrate." I really felt the honey was a bit too much, then I realized it wasn't the honey, but the lemon and lime juices it also mentions at the end.

I don't have a buffet here next to me to test, but I feel like this would go well with some kind of food, I'm just not sure what. (I later tried it with pizza, which works well)

The drink is very, very sweet, and though I'm not one to complain about too much sugar or any kind of sweetener, I am a dry ginger ale guy. Aside from that, though, I can't really deny this too bad of a score because it is so unique and is one of those drinks that, if I enjoyed going to the beach, I'd probably take with me. Or maybe not. Either way, this is a one time buy for me, but is worth experiencing once.

-Mike

Sprecher Orange Dream

Orange drinks are some of my favorite, so it was hard to pass up on this unique looking beverage, Sprecher Orange Dream. How can you pass up a bottle that has a picture of a cow using a straw to drink straight from an orange? Answer: you can't.

Luckily this is a really good soda. As soon as you open the bottle you can smell that your suspicions are right, this is going to be creamy. This review won't be finished unless I include a particular word, so I'll do it now: dreamsicle. Yes, it does taste like one.

Unlike our enemy, the A&W Float, this is a soda, with carbonation. The orange flavor is very good. Some orange sodas can be a little unsweet, like older Minute Maid orange. This one is sweet like a Crush or Sunkist, thankfully. The creaminess, which comes from honey and vanilla, is very subtle, which I'm fine with because I'm not the biggest fan of...wait for it...dreamsicles. It is abundant enough to set it apart from an average orange soda and make it something special.

The aftertaste is a little off, which is my only complaint, it's almost like the vanilla and honey stay but the orange doesn't, which is a little awkward and, if you haven't eaten or aren't eating, can end up being a little metallic, so don't drink it right when you wake up. Also when trying the drink in ice, it just tasted like a standard orange, you couldn't notice the creaminess at all, so if you need ice, just go for the Crush or Sunkist, otherwise enjoy it straight from the bottle for maximum effectiveness.

This one wasn't too pricy so it's worth a try

-Mike

A&W Root Beer Float

I'm a big fan of the root beer float, especially blended. Give me a glass of root beer with some ice cream and before taking one sip I will spend minutes stirring until it's one complete mixture. Thank goodness for Sonic, the only place I know of that does it for you. The idea of the root beer float in a bottle has always been a dream of mine since I was a kid, so I had to take a chance on the new A&W Float.

I say I was taking a chance because you're getting four bottles for about $8. Unfortunately, it's not worth a buck. First of all, there's no carbonation to this drink, and when you blend root beer and vanilla ice cream, there's still the tingle of carbonation. Second, the texture. It's like they wanted to get the thickness of a blended float but alas that's something that you just can't duplicate in a bottle, so they ended up with a syrupy mess when they really should have went with the crisp texture of the root beer instead. Finally, the vanilla flavor. This is where the drink truly fails. It just overall tastes really rancid, almost like it was made with milk that sat out for a while. All this leads to a horrible aftertaste.

The bottle promises "Rich, creamy, and so delicious you won't believe that it comes in a bottle." Well, they missed all three of these points. It's hard for me to find a soda beverage that I don't like, but this is it. I haven't been able to finish one of these. Still I hope that someday my dream of a root beer float in a bottle will come true. I will say that the only redeeming thing about this drink is I have a feeling that the awful vanilla flavor may work with the sister drink to this, the Sunkist Float. Also nice bottle.

-Mike