Jones Soda Hatch Chile & Lime

Here we are with another special release from the Jones Soda Company. This one is very interesting. With all honesty I'm expecting to hate this flavor, but I couldn't pass it up. In an interesting twist the bottle says "Product of Canada," which I've not seen on a bottle from Jones before and they are known as being based in Washington State. But let's give it a go...

Wow... I opened this bottle a full two feet away from my nose and yet the instant I heard the carbonation release I could smell peppers. It absolutely smells like I was cutting green peppers in my kitchen. I don't smell any hint of lime. Oof... I don't like the taste of this bottle at all. A swig from it tastes like rotten vegetables, or a bowl of very cheap salsa left out in the sun. Look, it's not for me, but by all means if you like chile peppers and come across a bottle, feel free to give it a try. 

Schwip Schwap Cola & Orange

Here's an interesting find I came across in London. From PepsiCo Deutschland comes this interesting flavor combo. I can't find evidence of other flavors from the Schwip Schwap label, so it may only be the cola and orange option. It sounded intriguing and there are certainly precedents for it where both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have released lime and lemon combinations with cola. 

It does smell like a glass of cola with a slice of orange added for garnish. However, I find the orange flavor is overpowering the cola taste. This is much more like an orange juice with a touch of cola added than the other way around. The concept seems solid, but the taste isn't really there, in my opinion. Nonetheless its supposedly popular in Germany. 

Rubicon Sparkling Mango

Rubicon began in 1981 and is listed has having facilities in both Canada and the UK. They specialize in juices but have a line of carbonated juice drinks as well. 

It has a fleshy mango scent with a bright orange color. The color alone makes me think this could be carbonated fruit juice rather than soda flavored with fruit, if that makes sense. The taste is decent. It has a dense mango flavor with a sugary finish. I'd say this has a fairly faithful taste to real mango. It may make a good breakfast drink choice, but isn't a "daily drinker" for myself. After a while I becomes a bit too much for me, but sipping over it for a while is nice. 

Barr Bubblegum

Another soda to grace the blog from Barr. I spotted this one on the shelf and had to grab it knowing I probably would loathe the taste. It was hard to miss with that color. Many of Barr's sodas seem to be on the cheaper end of the spectrum, such as this one.

Bubblegum is usually such a cloying sugary taste that I went into this fully expecting not to like it. Flavors like this often make adults sick to their stomach quickly, but I was willing to give it a try. The smell reminds me of Kool-Aid made with copious amounts of sugar with a hint of that smell of cheap Bazooka bubblegum hiding in the background. Indeed, its close in taste to cheap, penny bubblegum like Bazooka or that circus stuff thrown out to kids at parades. It is powerfully sugary in nature and I'm sick of it after just a few sips. 

Mr. Fitzpatrick's Superior Black Currant Cordial

Well this was an interesting find. Perusing a gourmet food store on my recent trip to the Orkney's I stumbled on a range of different cordial flavors from Mr. Fitzpatrick's. The brand has been producing botanicals beverage products for over a century. While there were a lot of options I selected this black currant bottle. As mentioned in a previous post, black currant flavoring is very popular in the UK.

Now, based on the bottling and my limited knowledge of cordials I thought they were alcoholic beverages like an aperitif. Cordial apparently has a slightly different meaning in the UK. The shop staff told me they weren't alcoholic, but I later learned cordials require a mixer. They are essentially just a concentrated syrup. Although I've never reviewed a cordial before on this blog, I already had the beverage and it's still a soda as an end product so why not? 

I eventually located a bottle of sparkling water and chilled both the sparkling water and the cordial in the fridge. The syrup was quite thick so I ended up mixing about three parts sparkling water to one part syrup. The flavor was not heavy, but you could always just adjust the amount of water used to make it stronger I suppose. I think this ratio worked pretty well and is refreshing with a nice currant flavoring but the taste dies off pretty quickly. This means there is no real aftertaste lingers, but some folks that like this flavor my find it disappointing to have such a short lived taste. All around I find it made a nice sipping beverage. 

Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit (Lilt)

Imagine my surprise when I thought I'd discovered another new Fanta flavor on my latest trip in the UK. I was pretty exited, but later noticed the Lilt logo on the side. A short google later I discovered that Coca-Cola has merely relabeled the old Lilt brand as a new Fanta flavor. Apparently, lagging sales for Lilt meant that Coca-Cola came up with bringing it under the Fanta label. I'm unsure how they think the same flavor would perform differently being called something else, but I could be totally wrong about that since Fanta is a powerful brand worldwide. 

Since I reviewed Lilt many years ago there's little more to mention on it. It does release a very audible amount of carbonation when opening. The taste is as described. It's quite citrus in nature tasting of about equal amounts of grapefruit and pineapple, both soda flavors I enjoy, but this is noticeable less sugary than it might be if similarly released in the US. Still a good drink in my opinion and another nice choice for breakfast. 

Tango Dark Berry Sugar Free

Another Tango flavor makes its appearance. The last flavor featured was their flagship orange soda. Here I've found a bottle of what they've named "Dark Berry", which is really more of a black currant. The UK is pretty wild about black current flavored everything, from drinks to jams and more. Probably the most well-known is a competitive beverage named Ribena that is ubiquitous in shops around the UK. 

The can did not release a great deal of carbonation upon opening. Opening it released a pleasant smell like that of black currant jam. Noting that this is a sugar free soda, the sweeteners listed are sucralose and acesulfame. It actually tastes like a rich jam as well. For those unfamiliar with black currant, its like a robust grape; very deep and definitely keeping with the black currant flavor profile. I find this to be quite nice to drink. 

M&S Very Interesting Cola

Found this bottle in the Marks & Spencer Foodhall on my recent trip. Marks & Spencer is an upscale retailer with everything from clothing to beauty products and food items, similar to Target in some ways but more posh. 

I find the scent to be smooth but not a strong cola scent, with the tiniest hint of vanilla in the background. I don’t get the impression of much carbonation just by hearing the cap open or seeing any bubbles in the drink. A draw from the bottle presents a little bit of carbonation, but not that much. The cola flavor is seriously lacking in my opinion. It’s very subdued and I think the Madagascar vanilla is tainting the flavor. This soda isn’t very pleasant to me so I recommend a pass. 

Fanta Peach

A new Fanta flavor for the blog found on my recent trip. Other flavors from Fanta can be found going back quite a ways on the blog here. 

This particular can is caffeine free but does have high fructose corn syrup. It certainly smells like cutting into a ripe peach. I can practically taste the skin of a peach and picture the flesh and pit when I sniff it. After a healthy swig I’m amazed that Fanta created something so faithful to the flavor of the fruit. I’m not normally into the taste of peach but this is very good and very fruity. This would make a great refresher on a hot day and/or at a cookout or picnic so I'd hope to find it back home in the US eventually. 

Paisley Drinks Ginger Beer

Launched in 2018, by founder Brian O'Shea, Paisley Drinks produces craft sodas using unrefined sugar and are listed as being gluten free and vegan friendly. The sodas are produced in Paisley, a town to the West of Glasgow in Scotland. I wished I had been able to find some of their other flavors on this trip.

There is a very pungent ginger aroma. Each sip has an almost medicinal quality to the level of ginger flavor. It’s very strong. The liquid is clear, but lightly cloudy, not golden in color. While the taste is bold it is less "fiery" than expected. Many ginger beers can be almost hot when sipped. This one is very strong but tolerable, unlike some ginger beers I’ve had. So if you like ginger beer but want something a little easier on the palate give this is try. Being a smaller label though it may not be found outside of the Northern UK.