Goose Island Spicy Ginger

Let’s use our imaginations for a moment.  Picture yourself on an island with a saucy redhead, either sex works, and you’re looking around at all the flora and fauna.  Suddenly you hear a noise in the distance, a cacophony of honks and flapping.  You and your redheaded friend look to the horizon and see millions of geese flying your way only to watch them land all around you.  You didn’t know the name of this island before this moment, but it wouldn’t even matter if you had because from here on out you’ll refer to it as Goose Island.  You’re stuck on Goose Island with a Spicy Ginger and that’s what we’re reviewing today… Goose Island Spicy Ginger. 

I’m not sure why I drew out telling you the name of the beverage in such a way, maybe I was just feeling saucy myself.  Immediately I’m worried by this bottle of Goose Island Spicy Ginger because it says it has “natural flavor”.  Yes it’s sweetened with cane sugar, but I can’t seem to find the ingredient “ginger” listed anywhere.  If there were actual ginger used in this concoction then I’d assume (thus making us both asses) they’d list it on the bottle and not just “natural flavors”.  At least Canada Dry says it’s “made from real ginger” even though it has “natural flavors” in the ingredients.  Ah well, it’s the taste that’s important right?  Not the fact that up to this point I have to assume you made a ginger flavored soda and nothing more.  Onward!

There we go.  The scent at hand reminds me of a ginger beer which is stronger than I expected.  Again I must go back to the label which doesn’t specify if this is a ginger beer or a ginger ale, something I feel is fairly important.  Is my throat about to be burned or am I going to quell any queasiness in my tummy?  I guess the only way to find out is to drink it.

Eh, it’s alright.  Have you ever been on Splash Mountain or at least know what the concept is?  When you pass it by at Disneyland/World you watch people go over a large waterfall into a “briar patch” below.  So you know that when you get in the log you’re going to eventually take a giant fall, pose for a camera, and go home after having fun family adventure.  You see Disney knew that you’d be expecting that great fall so they added a couple of fake falls just to mess with you.  The buildup is there as you climb higher and higher, but when you reach the top you’re subjected to a tiny dip only teasing you for what is yet to come. 

That is a perfect, yes I said perfect, analogy of what Goose Island Spicy Ginger tastes like.  As soon as it hit my tongue my split second reaction was “Spicy Ginger Soda Town, here I come!”  After that split second had split I was left with sugar water with ginger flavoring.  It’s not gross by any means, but it’s boring.  At least Canada Dry has a strong enough carbonation kick to keep it “saucy”.  “Why do you keep bringing up Canada Dry?” you might be asking your computer screen.  I keep bringing it up because to me it’s the baseline of all ginger ale.  It’s the mass produced version that many of us have tried and if you can’t beat it then who cares.  If Goose Island Spicy Ginger could keep that initial “buzz” then it wouldn’t even be a contest and I’d recommend it immediately.  Sadly that’s not the case here, but the imagery at the beginning of the article was fun right?

~A

Twist was once Prince of Goose Island until the takeover