Mountain Dew Baja Cabo Citrus Zero

This new flavor from Mountain Dew is available in both regular and zero sugar versions. I was only able to secure this bottle of the zero sugar version yesterday. Despite having zero sugar, the bottle still lists 5 calories per serving and still contains caffeine. It has a sort of orange red color reminiscent of gummy worms. When I opened the bottle there was a nice crack of released air and it actually smelled like candy gummy worms. It has a standard amount of carbonation for a Mountain Dew soda. The taste comes across as orange-citrus at first then a taste I would describe as Live Wire blended with cough syrup. Finally, there's a lime flavored finish. I think the non-sugar sweetener affects the flavor too much and would probably be better with the full sugar version. It's not undrinkable but isn't great either. 

Mountain Dew Citrus Blackberry

The next Mountain Dew I have is also a tie-in with the World of Warcraft campaign mentioned in yesterday's post. Is there some sort of food flavoring fad going on right now that I've missed? I'm encountering a lot of blackberry stuff lately, both in the soda world and in other foods. I don't know if most of these companies are using real blackberries for their flavor extracts or if they are completely artificial, but a search online shows the U.S. gets most of its blackberry crops from Mexico. Will we see the end of this blackberry trend staring down the tariff trade wars in recent news?

The bottle's aroma is similar to that of a grape, not particularly "berry-like", but there's a tinge mixed in with the scent. I repeat my sentiment from yesterday's citrus cherry... they are making the most imperceptible changes to the flavor, or maybe not changing the flavor at all!, then slapping a new name on the bottle as a marketing gimmick. This bottle doesn't taste that far different from their Pitch Black. It's time for Mountain Dew to get more creative or I'll start skipping their new and limited flavor releases. 

Mountain Dew Citrus Cherry

Diving back into the world of Mountain Dew... as I've mentioned, it's nearly a full-time job keeping up with their releases. It seems they have a marketing tie-in with World of Warcraft, an online multiplayer role playing video game. The subtitle says "Game Fuel," as if sitting in a chair for hours playing a video game was the equivalent of playing a full 90-minute soccer match. Before I taste this, I'll point out that the label states that a serving size is one bottle (20fl.oz.) at 290 calories and a whopping 77g of sugars, for 153% of the RDA of sugar and 28% of the RDA for total carbohydrates. Oof! I hope you're playing from a standing computer desk.

After opening, I take a good sniff from the top and I smell something citrus along with a scent that, for some reason, reminds me of a new carpet showroom. I don't think the flavor is that far distant from their Code Red flavor, but then its been some time since I've tasted Code Red. It seems like in an effort for their "flavor scientists" to keep up with the number of flavor variants each year they simply alter existing recipes by a tiny amount and slap a new name on it. It's getting tiresome to keep up, but I wouldn't want to miss an entirely new taste experience by passing them up. Something they count on I'm sure. If you like some of their classic taste experiments, like Code Red and Live Wire, I think you'll like this one as well. 

Perfy Tropical Citrus

Here's a drink I've not heard of before. Per usual, I often hunt for new drinks when on the road. Perfy has only existed for a short while and was born after the founder, Vasa Martinez's, health spiraled during a period of stress and tragedy. Her goal was to create a soft drink more friendly to those concerned with blood sugar issues. It contains no added sugar and no caffeine. This particular can is listed at 20 calories and just 4 grams of sugar for its 12 oz serving. Additionally, it contains Stevia, Tumeric, and L-Theanine. Tumeric is considered a natural inflammatory, commonly used in Indian foods, and may be used to give yellow coloring to some foods. L-Theanine is an amino acid found in tea, which is supposedly used to help treat stress and anxiety. While this flavor does not, some of their other flavors also include ashwagandha, a member of the nightshade family. This is often used as a dietary supplement for treating stress, though the scientific community finds little evidence to support this. 

My first whiff of this soda reminds me of pineapple. It's very fruity with an overall pineapple forward taste. The carbonation is weak and I think the addition of the dietary supplements mentioned earlier have a distinct effect on the flavor. While it doesn't taste like fruity tea, there's a leafy, tea-like quality lingering in the finish and I wonder if that is caused by the L-Theanine or just my imagination. Certainly, the tumeric is in play but it isn't overshadowing. While there are certainly better tasting "traditional" fruit blend sodas, the health trade offs of imbibing a drink like this with lower sugar, sodium, and overall calories would seem to offset that. And it's much better tasting than any of the pre- or pro-biotic sodas I've had to date. It should probably come in 12 packs at a more competitive price point though if they plan to challenge traditional sodas. Definitely worth a try if you find it in stock near you. 

Fitz's Voodew

Based on the play on words, it seems apt that this is Fitz's approximation of Mountain Dew (Mtn Dew). I don't find that it's terribly well carbonated, but it doesn't quite match the zip that Mtn Dew, if that's what they were aiming for. It's more lime than Mtn Dew but with an almost clinical feeling as if I'm drinking it from a stainless steel pot rather than a glass bottle. But I think if they tripled the amount of sugar and added more carbonation it would come closer to Mtn Dew. 

Shirakiku Ramune Yuzu

Its been some time since I had ramune, particularly from Shirakiku. Frankly, I think Shirakiku makes the best ramune drinks. This is a new flavor I haven't seen from them previously. Yuzu is a yellow citrus fruit that resembles a very bumpy, rotund lemon that is popular in Japan. Supposedly, it has floral notes in addition to the tart citrus flavor. 

After the gratifying pop of the marble-closed opening of the Codd-neck bottle, it has a wonderful lemon scent. Strong like a lemon-scented cleaner, but sweet. The taste is pretty unique. It's citrus alright, but very distinct from plain lemon and lime. It has notes of grapefruit and even the slightest tinge of melon. This would make a good pairing with breakfast due to the citrus nature of it. 

Sinalco Bitter Orange

This bottle was something of a mystery when I found it. Located in a nearby market for middle eastern foods, it has arabic labeling on the cap and on one side, but said it was bottled in Germany. I had to turn to the internet and their own website claims they are a popular global brand and the oldest soft drink in Europe, yet I had never heard of them before. 

The story goes that Friedrich Eduard Bilz, who had an interest in natural healing methods, opened a sanitarium in 1895. In 1902, Bilz created a drink called Bilz-Brause to serve to his sanitarium patients. The drink consisted of mineral water and citrus juice. Brause translating as "lemonade" or "fizz." It sounds as if he and John Harvey Kellogg, creator of corn flakes, would have been buddies had they lived closer to each other. In 1905, Bilz and Franz Hartmann joined together and renamed the drink to Sinalco. This name is a mash up of the Latin for "without alcohol." As the oldest soft drink company in Europe, they've released other flavors of Sinalco, and grown to include a stable of drink brands, much like a PepsiCo or Coca-Cola Company.

I find there's very little scent from the bottle. It takes a very deep whiff to get a hint of something more akin to the smell of grapefruit. There's a good level of carbonation from the bottle and even though it's a single use bottle it has the feel of the old reusable, returnable bottles. I do like this and think the citrus nature of it makes it a nice choice for a morning soda. It finishes clean with no aftertaste and is refreshing. 

Sprecher Citrus Splash

A newly found variety from the folks at Sprecher graces the blog today. This bottle screams "caffeinated" right on the bottle, but I do not recall the previous sodas from Sprecher that I've tried being caffeine free. I'll have to try to remember to look for that on other bottles from them in the future to see. The label states this 16oz bottle has 93mg of caffeine. For comparison, 16oz of Pepsi has 51mg of caffeine. A light lime scent emanates from the top of the bottle and it carries a lemony yellow color. Unfortunately, I find this bottle quite lacking in carbonation. Its certainly there, but I think it could use more. Sprecher offers some rich flavor options, but honestly, I don't think this is one of their better flavors. It's a very non-specific "citrus" flavor in that I don't really taste a specific sort of citrus fruit. Instead I'd say it's trying to be a little more like Mountain Dew and it falls short of that. The "citrus-iness" is weak. In the end I think its just okay but I recommend passing this bottle up for something else.

1893 Citrus Cola from Pepsi

 

A little while ago Pepsi created a craft series of sodas named 1893. There were four flavors including Original Cola, Citrus Cola, Ginger Cola, and Black Currant Cola. This can of Citrus Cola contains the same number of calories, 150, as a can of classic Pepsi cola. 

I do find the packaging of this series very nice. An elegant touch in tall, slim cans for a craft experience. Interestingly, they chose orange for the color of this Citrus Cola can, which made me think it would be imbued with an orange flavor, but the can mentions grapefruit essence. I do quite like that the label states the ingredients are Fair Trade Certified though. Opening the can does reveal a grapefruit-like aroma. Though the can does not mention cane sugar, based on the softness of this I think it may in fact use cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Cane sugar being far superior in my opinion and often, I find, giving a softer sweetness. What I like about this is how rounded the overall taste is. There is no overt cola flavor and yet the fruitiness is light and unassuming. You'd be forgiven for even believing this was a cola drink at all, let alone something from Pepsi. So far it has my endorsement and makes me look forward to some of the other flavors in this series. 

Mountain Dew White Label

Mountain Dew continues its exploration of flavors with this White Label flavor blended with a citrus flavor. This flavor was released in the same time period as their Black Label and Green Label. History on the original Mountain Dew can be found in this previous post. 

It has a grapefruit-like aroma when opening. The flavor is like that of a blend of Fresca and Squirt, not unpleasant to me at all, albeit with more caffeine. Interestingly it lists white grape juice high on the list of ingredients. I think the carbonation level is just right. One of the thinks that strikes me though about this drink is the beauty of the matte white can.

Sunkist Citrus Fusion

While not in a glass bottle, I picked up a bottle of Sunkist's Citrus Fusion from the grocery store. See my review on Sunkist Orange here.

This particular soda has a unique combination of flavors. The base flavor is lime but there's also a melon mixture in there. It's not unpleasant, but I find it to be a bit strange. I also think it could benefit from more carbonation. Unfortunately, plastic bottles are permeable to gasses so some ma have escaped while on the shelf. 

Ting

Eugene Peter Desnoes and Thomas Hargreaves Geddes merged their companies to form Desnoes and Geddes Ltd (D&G) and began brewing beverages together in Jamaica in 1918. Their best known product is Red Stripe beer. In 1976 D&G introduced Ting, a grapefruit soda made from locally grown grapefruit trees. D&G was bought by Guinness in 1993, but Ting was sold to Pepsi Co in 1999. 

There a tart aroma from this bottle and I like the taste. There's a good level of carbonation. Like many things from Jamaica however it's a bit more potent. This soda is bitter. It's sweetened with sugar, but my tongue can't tell much of a difference from biting right into a ripe grapefruit. All that said, it's not off-putting to me but it's good it's a smaller than normal bottle. I can also understand the popularity of mixing this soda with vodka as it will make a good mixer for sure.

Mountain Dew

Ally and Barney Hartman, brothers who ran a bottling company in Knoxville, TN, starting making a lithiated lemon-lime mixer for their hard liquor. They called it Mountain Dew after a term used for moonshine. In 1946 they meet Charlie Gordon of Tri-City Beverage at a convention in Gatlinburg, TN and he begins selling Mountain Dew in 1955. By this time the brand was co-owned by Tri-City Beverage and The Tip Corp. In 1960 the original flavor of the drink was altered by adding orange flavoring into mix, more sugar was added to the formula as well. During this period Mountain Dew competed with a similar drink by Pepsi Co. called Teem, but in 1962 Pepsi Co. began licensing Mountain Dew for bottling. Pepsi Co. went on to gain ownership shortly after and has remained under Pepsi Co.'s guardianship ever since.

Seen here are two bottles recently purchased. In 2008, Mountain Dew's name was shortened to simply, Mtn Dew. Although the formula has contained high-fructose corn syrup for many years, Mountain Dew Throwback was introduced in 2009 with sugar replacing the standard corn syrup. Originally, the Throwback variant was intended to be a limited release but has seen multiple short production releases since it's initial introduction. The label also features some of the earlier artwork from the brand.

Mountain Dew has never been massively infused with carbonation, nevertheless it is on par with many large production sodas, particularly those found in plastic bottles which are permeable to air over extended periods of time. Mountain Dew's flavor is a unique blend of citrus flavors with what I believe is lead by grapefruit and touched with others. Interestingly enough, I do pick up a slight difference between the standard offering and the Throwback formula. The real sugar seems to give a smoother edge to the sweetness in the drink, while the regular formula has a hint of acrid sharpness to the sweet flavor. If you can find a bottle of Throwback try a blind taste test yourself and see if you agree?

Lilt

I hadn't heard of Lilt at all until my last excursion to the UK, despite having been there twice before. Lilt was introduced in 1975, but it's another drink you'll find only in the UK and Ireland. Lilt falls under the umbrella of Coca-Cola. There isn't a long colorful story on the history of drinks introduced by corporate conglomerates like this one, so I can't provide much more information than that. 

What I can tell you is that I liked this soda. I'd venture to call it the UK version of Ski. It has a blend of citrus fruits, including Grapefruit and Pineapple and something called "fruit crush"... which is more information than you'll usually find about what Ski contains. Though for the Ski faithful, you'll note that Lilt is sans fruit pulp. It's a refreshing drink that revitalized me after walking around for a while. The bottle pictured here was purchased and consumed at the Cliffs of Moher. I'd pair this with breakfast foods or drink solo on a hot day. 

Fanta Icy Lemon

Canned Icy Lemon at Dublin Castle.

So admittedly, this post has been quite belated. I intended to post the remaining sodas as soon as I returned, but things got busy and lasted through the holidays.

I've discussed Fanta's history in some length in prior postings. So, getting to the point... I was able to find the Icy Lemon flavor in Ireland. This was a tart little soda, with the refreshing flavor of fresh lemonade but with the added frostiness you would expect from foods labeled icy. The frost-flavoring doesn't overwhelm the lemon and unlike some drinks didn't make me sick to my stomach by the end. Great refresher on a nice day outside.

Bottled Icy Lemon in a Belfast bar.

Fanta Fruit Twist

Here's another Fanta flavor that isn't offered in the states so far as I can tell. I assumed that this would be fruit punch flavored but was surprised to find that this lightly carbonated drink tastes strongly of pink grapefruit. It is tart and besides the grapefruit taste I sense something along the line of mango or tangerine as in a subtle background flavor. If you like citrus sodas you'll probably enjoy this and it's another good breakfast soda.

Sunkist

Sunkist as a brand name dates back to the turn of the 20th century when a co-op of citrus growers, called the Southern California Fruit Exchange, began branding it's fruit in 1908 as "Sunkist," alluding to it's high-quality. This is said to be the first time fruit was branded. Over time the co-op and the brand grew, including fruits other than oranges and even nuts. The co-op changed names later to the California Fruit Growers Exchange and later Sunkist Growers, Inc.

In 1977, General Cinema Corporation was also a Pepsi bottler. To fill out their range of soda offerings General Cinema wanted an orange beverage and so developed it's own concoction and licensed the "Sunkist" brand name from Sunkist Growers. Sunkist, the soda, was released on the public in 1978 and was the best-selling orange soda in the US two-years later.

It's actually surprising to me that a non-profit like the Sunkist Growers, who used their "Sunkist" branding as a sign of their high-quality, fresh fruits, would sell-out to General Cinema who use no oranges in making their drink, but rather citric acid, high-fructose corn syrup, and sodium citrate.

True, it's become this neon-orange which Americans see as the very symbol of "orange" and "freshness" over the duller colors of more natural orange drinks. And it does indeed have the aroma of a fresh orange rind. It has a good deal of carbonation and a tang flavor. But it's sodas like this and Fanta which are the par for the orange soda taster.

Boylan Orange

See my earlier post for some historical notes on the Boylan Bottling Company.

This libation from Boylan is their orange. I realize there are a great many Boylan fans out there, but this is merely a so-so soda for me. Keep in mind that these antique orange sodas are not the chemically made orange sodas of today's Sunkist-like brands. The aroma is that of an orange cream soda, but I found the taste to be a little more like orange peel than orange. It's still an acceptable thirst quencher, but I'll keep working my way through the Boylan line-up.

Kickapoo Joy Juice

Kickapoo Joy Juice is citrus soft drink inspired by the nickname given to moonshine in Al Capp's Lil' Abner comic strips. The comic strip, which ran from 1934 to 1977, featured the misadventures of Lil' Abner and a town of hillbillies from the imaginary Dogpatch, Kentucky.

There seems to be some question as to who developed the drink first, since my research shows claims made by both NuGrape and the Monarch Beverage Company. However, the drink was introduced in 1965 and is a non-alcoholic soda, much the same way that Mountain Dew, also a euphemism for moonshine, is. Either way the NuGrape company as well as others were bought over the years to bring them under the current umbrella of products from Monarch Beverage Company.

There is a light sediment in the bottle similar to some other citrus soft drinks, I would assume this is from the concentrated grapefruit juice listed on the bottle. It's hard to describe flavors such as this one which are such a blend of real world citrus fruits that it has really become it's own flavor. The the aroma is similar to the more main stream Mountain Dew, I think the flavor is more subdued... not as bold as Mountain Dew and has more of a grapefruit highlight to it.

Green River

Green River was created in 1919 by Schoenhofen Brewery in Chicago, IL. Schoenhofen had been around since the late 1800's but made Green River to continue sales during prohibition. Green River was a very popular soft drink during the prohibition years and is said to have trailed only Coca-Cola in market share at the soda fountains. But Green River began to fade after prohibition when Schoenhofen returned to making beer. The Schoenhofen Brewery closed in 1950, but Green River was still produced by other companies. Today Green River is produced by the Clover Club Bottling Co. back in its home city of Chicago.

My first taste of Green River was actually from an old fashioned soda fountain in Greenup, IL. It isn't exactly lime-flavored. It smells like lime Jello and has a unique flavor all it's own. I liken it to the very essence of the color green, or even pure leprechaun urine. I recommend trying some, if your lucky enough try to get it at a soda fountain for the old-time experience.