Malta India

This is the second "malta" drink I've tried out. The first being Vitamalt, here. The genre of malta drinks sits on the fine line between beers and sodas. They often called "children's beer" or "young beer" and yet they generally considered sodas. Though they are brewed like a old-fashioned soda or beer, the primary difference is that maltas are not fermented so they are naturally free of alcohol.

Malta India comes from the Compania Cervecera de Puerto Rico brewery. Founded in 1937 by the Valdez brothers, they began selling Malta India in 1939. These malta beverages are popular in the Caribbean where they are often served over ice or with evaporated milk mixed in. 

Personally, I find the aroma very unappealing. It's something like a molasses and alfalfa soup smell with the lingering hint of a box of dry Grape Nuts cereal. For those with any belief that this would taste like beer, you'd be sorely mistaken. It's dark colored and tastes repulsively like cold gerbil food pellets. I cannot fathom how people might enjoy drinking this other than knowing that it contains vitamins beneficial to health. I have to recommend steering clear of this.

Shirakiku Ramune Grape

I thought I had seen all the flavors of ramune from Shirakiku but then happened upon this little bottle of grape. If this is the first time you've seen such a bottle, check out this earlier post which explains a little about the history of the bottle.

This soda has a sweet sugary smell like a grape twin-stick Popsicle. The flavor is nice and light. But unlike the very natural taste of other ramune from this brand the grape falls short of that "real fruit" flavor and is more like an American grape flavored soda. The light, fresh feeling you get from these make them a no brainer in the summer, which is when they are most popular back in Japan. No matter what the taste, these bottles always make a drink a little more whimsical.

Faygo Root Beer

Here's yet another Faygo product. My history on Faygo can be found on an earlier post, here.

Root beer sodas are the comfort food of the soda world. They can be a little on the filling side as sodas. So many soda makers make a root beer yet a good one seems to be difficult to master since I've had so many bad root beers with bitter flavors or bad aftertaste. Luckily, Faygo makes a good root beer at an economical price. Their root beer is smooth an creamy to the point of tasting quite a bit like the run off of a float. And while I haven't had a root beer float since I was a kid, thank you dairy products, I can still appreciate that wholesome flavor. Seriously, if you want to save money and enjoy good root beer you can't go wrong with this one.