Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Poppi Cherry Limeade
Poppi Grape
Poppi Strawberry Lemon
I like the scent from this can. It's very much like fresh sliced strawberries. Unfortunately, the taste isn't very pleasant to me. While I'm picking up the lemon, the primary taste I get is more "green", sort of like chewing on the green leafy part of a strawberry top that wasn't removed. After this passes I'm just left with a bitter lemon juice flavor in the mouth. So... not a great first experience.
Monday, July 8, 2024
Olipop Dr. Goodwin
Olipop Vintage Cola
Gut Health Sodas - What are they?
There's been a lot of marketing, and growth of store shelf space, the last few years by a variety of drinks, including sodas, labeled "prebiotic" and "probiotic" With the growth of the kombucha trend also came probiotic yogurts, and pre- and probiotic sodas and teas. It's probably time I review at least a few of these but before that I thought I'd discuss... What's the difference between prebiotic and probiotic drinks?
Both prebiotics and probiotics are aimed at improving your gut biome, which supposedly provides the benefit of enhancing your digestion and immune system.
Probiotics contain live bacteria to aid in food digestion and provide vitamins. The human digestive system contains so-called "good" bacteria like these that replicate and grow to continue helping you but the health of this bacterial biome can be damaged. Ingesting probiotics is designed to help bolter the health of this biome by replenishing their numbers.
Prebiotics, on the other hand, contain fiber with carbohydrates that feed the "good" bacteria in your digestive system. The fatty acids that result from the bacteria breaking down these carbohydrates purportedly help with bowel movements, controlling blood sugar, and absorbing minerals and vitamins. So the general idea is that prebiotics feed your bacteria and help to keep them healthy, while probiotics replenish their ranks.
Sunday, July 7, 2024
Sprite Ginger
Sprite Ginger has been discontinued, but I feel it's death was premature. I think it was a bit a of an early foray leading up to Sprite's more recent limited edition flavors. One can contains 34g of sugars and 130 calories.
The drink has the same level of carbonation you'd expect from regular Sprite, which is to say an ample amount. The reason I think its death was premature was that I think it's a good soda. It makes a good compromise between the sweeter lemon-lime and a ginger ale. As a fan of ginger ale I might be a bit biased in that regard. All in all I hope they'll re-release this flavor in the future.
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Fentimans Pink Ginger
It's been too long since I've partaken of Fentimans. If you haven't read my previous posts, they can be found here. I like their products and the old fashioned style they adhere to.
The aroma of this bottle is ginger heavy when opening. I thought this might be a little more like pink lemonade, but the scent is giving me ginger beer vibes. It has nice carbonation, but it has no real pink lemonade flavor and only a tiny hint of citrus. The ginger wins over everything else in this drink and if you've not had ginger beer before, the ginger is heavier than in ginger ales. I enjoy a lot of ginger ale, but don't like ginger beers. At best I have found one or two that were tolerable. This one isn't so harsh that the ginger burns the palate but I think makes a better mixer than a drinkable soda.
Coca-Cola Spiced
I bought this bottle a few weeks ago holding onto it for a bit because I wasn't sure if I'd like it. But being on a recent tear of reviews its the perfect time to crack it open. The scent is unique. I bit cinnamon-like, but there's also this sort of liniment or medicine quality to it. Sniffing it a little longer brings out more cinnamon and pine... reminiscent of the potpourri in a christmas shop. Tasting gives me more of a mixed berry flavor than raspberry as they indicate on the label. Of course there's a complete lack of any indication of what's in it based off reading the label... Coca-Cola gets a wide berth in this realm in the interest of protecting their sacred recipe so all we get is "natural flavors" as an ingredient. It's decidedly less berry flavored than I'd expected and based on the correlations the flavors spark with the holidays its interesting they launched it mid-year rather than towards the holiday season. It also makes me curious if serving it warm would kindle something like some of the European julmust beverages or mulled wine. I may have to try that later with an extra bottle. I think it's a better overall tasting drink than many of the other limited edition flavor released Coca-Cola has had the last couple of years.
Stubborn Orange Hibiscus
Another bottle of the Stubborn brand. I'm picking up more of a ginger scent from this bottle than orange. The carbonation is good, but I really don't pick up orange flavor. It's citrus-y but closer to lemon than orange. Hibiscus is supposedly tart and floral, which I sorta of get. There's an obvious sourness to this soda but I'm just not getting anything I would call floral. Depending on the area it hits on the tongue it feels like a muted ginger combined with citrus.