Tango Orange

Tango has been around since 1950 in the UK and Ireland. Although I've had this before on previous trips to the UK, it struck me that I hadn't done a post on it. The beverage group Britvic has owned Tango since 1987. While orange is the go-to flavor for Tango, over the years they've added some additional flavors as well.

This soda is not to be mistaken for some more common orange sodas. I find it has a bit of an orange zest flavoring to it while simultaneously tasting just a touch chemical in the way that Sunny D beverage does. However, unlike Sunny D which pretends to be orange juice, this orange soda is drinkable. I actually picked this up at the station with a bit to eat for breakfast and enjoyed it. 

Jones Soda Key Lime 3.14

On the footsteps of another Key Lime flavored soda, I'm tasting another special release from Jones Soda. Based on the label, I'm guessing this was a release for Pi Day, (March 14th, 3/14). 

A nice loud crack from the escape of carbonation when opening a bottle is always satisfying. I'm a little more concerned though about the radioactive green color of this soda though. I find the bottle has very little to smell. I've really got to inhale deeply to try to sense it. Tipping back the bottle really releases a lot of carbonation bubbles despite looking flat when it just sits on the table. The carbonation really comes alive on your tongue. This bottle tastes nothing like a key lime pie to me, or even like other key lime sodas I've had. This is a very puckering sour lime taste. If you like sour, and some folks do this might be for you. I however, don't really enjoy this bottle and wouldn't want to sip it on the deck on a warm night and suggested giving it a pass. 

Fitz's Key Lime Soda

It seems absolutely wild to me that this is the first time Fitz's is making an appearance on my blog. Living in the Midwest, I have seen them for years. Subconsciously I must have just been putting them off. Fitz's hails from St. Louis, MO. But as I've mentioned before, some time in the late 1990's or early 2000's they has a small bottling operation viewable through a window at Kansas City's Union Station, which only lasted a few years as it's no longer there. They began in 1947 producing root beer for the Fitz's drive-in, a burger joint. Both sodas and burgers ceased to be made any longer when they closed shop in 1976. Fitz's sodas made a return in 1985, but I don't know if the ownership of the brand had traded hands by then or not. 

As the weather is finally beginning to warm up, this feels like a good time to review some refreshing flavors for summer. This bottle features a wonderful lime scent on opening the bottle. Owing to the cane sugar, the sweetness is rounded nicely and I get a nice sweet citrus pop of flavor when taking a swig. It has a subtle amount of carbonation. I feel like the tartness appears closer to the finish. Overall, this is a nice soda with good flavor that doesn't become too tart and also isn't overly sugary. Definitely a good choice for some summer cookouts. 

State Fair Mini Doughnut

I came across this bottle on a trip to Kansas City and needed to give it a try. This comes to us from a company called Blue Sun Bottling in Spring Lake, Minnesota. These folks have a series named State Fair Soda with some interesting flavors. Although this bottle is supposedly mini-doughnut flavored, the series also consists of chocolate chip cookies, rocket bomb pop, cotton candy, and kettle corn flavors. Hopefully, I'll be able to find each of these flavors to try in the future because they sound interesting. 

I really like the scent wafting from this bottle after opening. Mini Doughnut could be a number of different flavors since they come in a wide variety of options. The scent however makes me think of cinnamon sugar mini-doughnuts. It's a heavenly scent and now I'm wondering if the taste will be able to meet that. Mmm... it's not really cinnamon flavored, but tastes like freshly made cake doughnuts, without any real powder or frosting... much more like plain cake doughnuts with a slight buttery or fattiness. The taste is something else, very original and delicious. This would make a great dessert drink. 

Ale 81 Orange Cream

Ale 81 has traditionally been well known for their ginger ale-like soda, so I was a little taken aback when I learned they had released additional flavors for the first time around 2018. This orange cream was initially a limited edition release, but brought back as a permanent flavor to their line up. 

The bottle has a crisp carbonation release and presents the aroma of those orange cream sherbet push-pops that I always remember when I smell a nice orange cream soda. It does have a decent orange cream flavor, though it feels a tad weak. Frankly, for a bottle that reads "no artificial flavors" the finish of a swig tastes a bit chemical. So while I consider it a decent effort, in my opinion there are better orange cream sodas if that's the flavor you're after. 

Pepsi Mango

Now we move on to another flavor variation of Pepsi cola with this interesting mango blend. Some of these flavor combos fall flat on their face and I feel like after the years of Pepsi and Coca-Cola both releasing vanilla and lime versions, they both kind of went wild with flavor options. 

It definitely has a citrus rind scent. I would actually venture to say it's less like a refreshing smell and more of a musty smell... but then I can't recall having smelled mango outside of a mixed melon tray. As someone who doesn't eat a lot of melon, I find this drink interesting. It has a pleasant amount of carbonation, which I'm sure helps disseminate the fruit smell. The flavor of mango is strong and hits you right up front. There is still a cola taste but it follows at the end. I could see pairing this with breakfast, as just about any citrus or fruity soda goes well with breakfast dishes in my opinion. Overall it's quite flowery but not unlikeable. It's intriguing and one I'd recommend trying if possible. 

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Soda

I picked up this generic bottle of soda on a trip to a soda shop in Kansas City. It's produced by Rocket Fizz, who also operate a chain of soda and candy stores in North America. 

I honestly always have pretty low expectations from these sort of novelty flavored bottles, particularly the more generically labeled ones. The soda itself has a bit of a cloudy light-brown color, while the scent of it gives me butterscotch vibes. The taste is very off-putting. I immediately get the taste of wet cardboard flushing through my mouth. Only the aftertaste, a few seconds after finishing a swig, gives the slight hint of peanut butter. I have to recommend steering clear of this soda unless you're very curious. 

Fanta ? #WhatTheFanta

A mysterious, radioactive blue option from the folks at Fanta comes to me in this bottle. A variety of Fanta flavors have graced the blog before but this is something unexpected in a mystery flavor. 

Unsealing the cap a strong whiff gives hints of both powdered sugar and something akin to the smell from a bottle of chewable vitamins. I think the flavor is like a blueberry/citrus-cream, though not very nice. Something about the Zero sugar sodas from Coca-Cola always taste off to me. After getting my own impression, I decided to search Twitter for the hashtag on the label... #WhatTheFanta and see that there are different colors available in different areas. I would think perhaps they used the same flavor but just colored them differently? One post mentioned rhubarb, and they might not be incorrect there. It's not forthcoming, but that combined with a cheap cream soda flavor could be a good description. In any case, its not a pleasant flavor in my opinion.

Jones Soda Sugar Cookie

Jones Soda strikes again with another Special Release flavor, this time in the form of Sugar Cookie. This is a bit fitting based on the taste of yesterday's selection. 

A frosty, powder blue color seems fitting for this drink. The scent coming from the bottle isn't that unlike the Coca-Cola Move reviewed yesterday, but there's also the tiniest dash of something that I can't quite place. Is it the smell of a buttercream frosting? It definitely smells like a sugar cookie with frosting on it. The taste on the other hand is almost citrus-like to me. There's something tangy taking over the front of it's flavor. The sugar cookie-like taste is hidden in the background only peeking out in a flash during the finish over the tongue. For that reason, I think this is a bit of a swing and a miss. It was a valiant effort, but the taste can't quite keep pace with the aroma. 

Coca-Cola Move

Following on the footsteps of some of their other recent flavors with mysterious sounding names, such as Dreamworld, I stumbled on this release a few weeks back. I had intended to review it then, when it was first released, but wasn't able to get around to it. There are many other Coca-Cola posts and flavors to be found on this blog as well. Move is a limited edition flavor with the tagline, "Transformation Flavored." So let's see what this flavor has to offer...

Immediately upon opening the lid I get a waft of powdered sugar, like that from biting into a sugar cookie, with a hint of vanilla. The taste does bring to mind a vanilla-like feeling, but it's delicate and slight... not at all like the heavy vanilla flavor of Coke Vanilla. I would even venture to say the finish is a little bit buttery in taste. It isn't at all like what I might have expected from Coca-Cola, but it's a pleasant flavor so would recommend trying a bottle if you can find it before its gone.