Cricket Pomegranate Raspberry Enhanced with Green Tea

Mike enjoyed the Cricket Cola he had so much, and spoke of the Cricket brand so highly, I decided it was time for me to try it as well. I went with Cricket Pomegranate Raspberry Enhanced with Green Tea. The bottle design is great, I really enjoy the style Cricket uses in their products. The label also claims to be "All Natural", and I'm sure you know by now that usually equates to higher ratings in our book. The ingredients are as follows: Sparkling Filtered Water, Invert Cane Sugar, Brewed Green Tea Concentrate, Citric Acid, Natural Pomegranate Raspberry Flavor, and Fruit and Vegetable Juice for color.

That is a very impressive list of ingredients, it may not go to the ends of the earth like Virgil's Root beer, but it doesn't need to. Also on the bottle they make sure you see that there is an equivalent to two cups of Green Tea in each bottle. I personally have no hatred, nor fondness of green tea. It works in some situations, like we are about to see. In others it's a bit odd, like in Steaz Green Tea Root beer.

The mouth feel of this is very light, slightly bubbly, and just enough flavor. You can taste both the Pomegranate and Raspberry very easily. It tastes healthy, and I don't mean that in a V8 kind of way. It's so light, and has just the right mixture of fruit flavoring that it couldn't be bad for you. The green tea flavoring makes an appearance at the end of you drink, a bit strong for me, but still needed. Never does your mouth feel syrupy, which is nice. If I had to make any improvements on it, I'd probably move it a notch or two in a stronger flavor direction. The only problem with that is you begin testing the balance of flavor, and light mouth feel.

~A

Goya Coconut Soda

Time to take a trip to Mexico, and try out an unusual Goya flavored drink. Stepping up to be reviewed is Coconut Soda... let's give it a try.

The first thing I can tell you is that the flavor is very, very light. If you thought you'd be over powered with coconut, you'd be way off base. I actually have to pause for a moment to make sure I even tasted anything. I'm on my fourth gulp and it's only in the aftertaste that I'm even beginning to taste this. It does taste like coconut, but I think even those that hated coconut would be fine with this beverage. The ingredients do not impress me either: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Artificial Flavors, and Citric Acid. Are those not the most boring flavors ever? I can say that it is kind of refreshing, but I'd still like some flavor with my refreshment.

The bottom of this beverage begins to taste a little sickly sweet. I'm not sure if the very light flavor has slowly built up in my mouth, or if it's just the bottom of the bottle. Every time I burp I keep expecting some sort of remnant of what I just drank, but no such luck. I would normally write more, but this has no taste, and I can't keep saying that even though I have.

~A

Topo-Sabores Orange

We have an orange soda for today's review, Topo-Sabores Orange. I've never had a soda from Topo-Sabores, but I do enjoy Jarritos, and it seems to be very similar in style. To be honest with you I bought this because of the Lion on the bottle. My expectations for this are average at best, as it's hard to set yourself apart in the Orange Soda market. Here we go.

I enjoy using a bottle opener to open my bottles, for some reason it just feels kind of 'Old Timey' to me. The smooth bottle top also works better when you're drinking from the bottle. Hey, I was right, this is your average orange soda. It does have a bit of a bite to it, which I enjoy in my orange soda's. I'm going to finish it before finishing this review though, I've learned that many orange soda's get better as you drink them. While I've finished this beverage, it's still no more than a solid orange soda. It's not that sweet, and the carbonation is just right. I am still left waiting for an orange soda to blow me away. Love the lion though.

~A

Boylan's Grape Soda

I love grape soda, and I'm anxiously waiting for one to blow me away with its awesomeness. I picked Boylan's Grape Soda because it's sweetened with pure cane sugar, and I like the old school simplistically designed bottle. I'm even looking forward to it even more because apparently the Boylan's Brand has been registered since 1891... if it can withstand the test of time it must be good right? Here goes.

This is your average grape soda. I could stop right here, but since I like to put a few words with my review, I'll do my best to do so. It's a grape soda, but not one with a lot of bite to it. It's smoother than other grape soda's, but not to the point where you'd set it above the rest of them. I'm disappointed in my choice now, but I probably hyped it up to much in my head to be honest with you. I love grape soda, so of course this tastes good to me, but I'm not going to recommend it over any other grape soda's out there.

~A

IZZE - Sparkling Blackberry

Today's drink review installment is not so much a soda, as a sparkling water. I'm counting it though, as it is a carbonated, flavored, non-alcoholic, beverage. As the title says, I'm reviewing IZZE Sparkling Blackberry. Before we I start this I must say that I really enjoy their logo, I would happily wear it on clothing.

According to the label this is 70% pure fruit juice, which is a nice change from the normal 10-20% that other drinks might have in it. I'm especially thirsty right now, so hopefully this helps quench as well. I haven't liked flavored sparkling water in the past, but I must say this is a pleasant surprise. The blackberry flavoring is strong, but not so strong it over powers your tastebuds. It leaves your tongue fizzing for a few seconds after you've drank it, and the flavor of blackberry definitely stays with you. The label also states that each bottle is equal to two servings of fruit based on the USDA's 2005 Dietary Guidelines.... but to eat whole fruits as well.

I'm very happy with the honesty, and simplicity of this company. It's a carbonated fruit juice drink... and it does that job very well. The after taste stayed with me longer than I'd like, but it's not something that would keep me from buying it. In fact I look forward to trying other flavors in the brand.

~A

Materva - Yerba Mate Soda

Alright, now hopefully this next beverage is a little better than Malta Hatuey. It kind of has to be since vomiting in my own mouth is better than Malta Hatuey... it's called Materva. Actually, it's called Materva Yerba Mate Soda. I don't know what Yerba Mate Soda is, but hopefully it's good.

Thank you, whoever makes this! The most simple way I can put it is this, it's a sweet apple soda. I haven't tried many apple soda's in my lifetime, but this one is tops thus far. In fact this is one of the smoothest apple soda's I've ever had as well. Wait a second, hold that thought. After reading the packaging, there is no apple flavoring in this. The only extract that is in Materva is "Extract of Mate". This has piqued me into doing some research. One moment please.

Ah! A Yerba Mate is a species of holly native to subtropical South America. Apparently the extract of mate is quite a positive thing, with what some believe to be health benefits. Well, either way it still tastes like a sweet apple soda to me, but if it's holly, let it be holly. I would definitely drink this again, the packaging is a little bland, but I really don't mind. I now understand what the cup and twig are on the front, thanks to my good old fashioned research.

~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

Orangina

I really enjoy this site sometimes, people bring me new drinks to try; Orangina is one of those drinks. First off the bottle is awesome, it reminds me of a $4 lemonade I purchased a few days ago... hopefully it tastes better.

I was told by the bottle to "shake it!" with emphasis on the exclamation point. So now that it's shaken, let's give it a whirl. This is definitely not a soda, of course it doesn't claim to be either. It claims to be a "Sparkling Citrus Beverage with Natural Pulp" then to the left of that gives me some fun percentages. I love percentages. Orangina is 12% Juice (I can only assume Orange) and 2% pulp. After looking at the ingredients, I'm only surprised by one... lemon juice. This literally tastes like orange juice and carbonation. I can barely tastes the lemon, but I think I'm happier because of it.

I'm eating soup while drinking this, and what I've learned from this is that Orangina, to me, is a breakfast drink. I could see myself grabbing a bottle of this the morning of a road trip somewhere, we'll say Florida just for grins. It's like an orange juice with pep, because of it's bubblies it'll wake you up a little faster. It won't ever replace orange juice for me, as it doesn't have enough vitamin C for the label to claim. All in all, Orangina is a pretty good drink. I probably won't buy anymore, unless I take that morning road trip to Florida, but that doesn't mean it's not worth trying.

~A

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

Manzanita Sol - Refresco de Manzana!

Original Written Review from Aug, 19 2008 below. Video Review from Jan, 9 2025

I don't like apple candy, it's never been one of my favorite things. Sour apple to me is for those that can't handle their lemon, and lime candy. So when I was at Epcot several years ago and had a chance to taste apple soda I was skeptical. I was horribly, horribly, wrong for being skeptical as I loved it. I really enjoy apple soda, and was saddened that I could only have it at Epcot. You see, apple soda is more popular south of the border, in Mexico (not so much the US, or so I thought).

On my last drink excursion to HEB I found a 12 pack of Pepsi's version of Apple Soda (the one I had tried at Epcot was the Coca Cola version). The name of said Pepsico drink is Manzanita Sol. The "O" in "Sol" is made to look like a sun radiating heat onto the juicy apple below. I was so excited to have found apple soda that I purchased a 12 pack, and went on my merry way.

Manzanita tasted a lot like I remembered Lift (the name of the coke apple soda) did, but we're going off of 8 year old memories here. If you've never had an apple soda, it's kind of like a lighter carbonated apple juice with a little bit of a kick. While I don't enjoy apple flavored things, apple soda seems to work very well with my taste buds. Apparently Jarritos makes a pretty good apple soda as well, which I suppose I should eventually try.

This is a solid drink, so much that I've since purchased three 12 packs of it so far. By no means is it perfect, as I'm starting to tire of it. It also leaves a bit of an after taste, but nothing to horrible. If you've never tried apple soda, this is a good one to start with. It's inexpensive, and available in 12 pack form. The downside is that is doesn't actually have any apple juice in it, so there goes any health value it might have had. On the upside though is that it has no caffeine, for those who's health does not allow them to have it. Try it out, if you hate it, send it my way.

~A

Spritzer Jamaican Lemonade

Today's beverage of choice is from the R.W. Knudsen Family, I know this because it says so on the can in banner form. Above said banner reads the following words, "EXCLUSIVELY Fruit Juice Sweetened". The previous sentence is actually what got me to buy SPRITZER Jamaican Lemonade. I love lemonade, just love it; so when I saw it in a 'Jamaican' variety I thought a good thing was about to be improved upon. The ingredients are as such: Sparkling Water, White Grape, Apple and Lemon Juice Concentrates, Natural Flavors. Now, even for someone that has never had LEMONade in their life, they could probably tell that Grape, and Apple are not of the Lemon variety. Here's where my skepticism started seeping in.

The picture on the front of the can consists of 3 lemons, no grapes, no apples, just three lemons. What is the R.W. Knudsen Family trying to hide from us here, I understand that the other fruits are probably what is sweetening the "Lemon"ade, but give them some picture or something.

Upon opening the can it smells a bit alcoholic to me, take that information for what it's worth as I don't drink alcohol very often at all. Even drinking it tastes like the fruit they used to make it became fermented. In fact this has no lemon taste to me at all. I'm not saying it's a bad drink by any means... it sits down, and finds it's spot easily in the 'Average' area of drinks. I just think that anything that uses three whole lemons as the picture on the front of the can should be lemon flavored. The apple, and grape, jumble up the lemon flavoring. But wait... this is in fact "Jamaican Lemonade" so maybe those crazy Jamaicans use apples, and grapes in their beverage. Lets look it up. Oh here's a recipe for Jamaican Lemonade.

1/3-1/2 cup Sucanat (Sucant is unrefined cane sugar btw)

1 cup lemon juice (approx. 4 large lemons)*

5-6 cups water

So we got 1/2 cup of cane sugar, 1 cup of lemon juice, and 6 cups of water...no mention of apples, or grapes. Other than making me really want some REAL Jamaican lemonade, this recipe has shown me how off the target the R.W Knudsen Family was in sweetening with fruit juice. Sadly the thing that hooked me to the can in the first place was it's down fall.

~A

Pomegranate 7up

Ok... so I was in HEB the other day looking for an interesting drink at the end of the isle. I came up with China Cola, but on my way back down the isle a maroon colored 7up bottle caught my eye. I picked it up and it was labeled 'Pomegranate 7up' with little snow flakes all over it. All I can assume from this is that it was a holiday release and my store realized they had an extra so they stocked it. Well I have a glass of it right in front of me so I can do a more accurate review. From here on out the reviews will be with drink in hand, not that the last few weren't accurate... it's just more fun this way.

Ok first sip. For starters it has the bite of a 7up, no more no less... which I think works for this drink. The maroon coloring is very nice as well, and if not carbonated it could almost pass for a wine. I'm having a hard time discerning if there is actually lemon, lime, and pomegranate in this, or if it's just pomegranate (a really long word to type) soda. Since the taste isn't jumping out at me as something radically different from regular 7up I guess I would say it's a combination of the three flavors. It does have a slightly different taste, a very slight hint of fruit (the pomegranate I'm sure) but it's certainly not overpowering.

While I like this drink just fine, it's just not different enough from 7up. Granted 7up is my favorite of the clear sodas, because of taste and the fact that they use all natural ingredients. This soda also uses natural ingredients, and I give them props for that. The best way to describe it is this... take a glass of 7up, now take a pomegranate and cut it in half. Drop half of the pomegranate into the 7up, now quickly take it out. Make sure you put in some food coloring for style. This drink, while very pretty in it's labeling and appearance is ok at best.

I'll continue to drink this 2 liter bottle with no problem, but no longer will I brag about having Pomegranate 7up because then I'll have to shoot down their hopes of a fantastic new flavor. This bothers me because it's a seasonal drink, and seasonal drinks are supposed to be a bit 'wacky'. The only wacky thing about this is that it's packaging is shades of maroon instead of shades of green. Personally I'll be awaiting the green and red M&M bags next holiday season before I'll be waiting on baited breath for this.

-A