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