Inotea Pobble Passion Fruit + Apple

I grabbed this from Aldi over the weekend:

Here are a few of the "popping pearls" in a glass. 

Brand: Inotea Pobble Passion Fruit + Apple.

Origin: Newark, NJ.

Purchase Place: Aldi, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was quite good! It was very sweet, and tasted like a "good" apple cider that you might get on the holidays for the kids - like the sparkling kind, even though this wasn't sparkling. It was mainly apple flavored, and then the "popping pearls" had more of the passion fruit flavor inside. Yes, they are little pearls that are liquid filled that "pop" when you bite into them - I don't think everyone is ready for that experience. :)

My wife tried it, and she doesn't like things that are too sweet, so I thought she wouldn't like this. But after her first sip, she paused and said "... oh, that's GOOD." And my boys loved it too, so it went over well in our house. We'll have to try the other 2 flavors we saw at Aldi as well!

Score: 8 out of 10.

Avery's Fungal Fruit

I brought this with me to my office today:

 

Brand: Avery's Fungal Fruit.

Origin: New Britain, Connecticut.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: Yes, that's rotten fruit on the label. Yippie. As always with these "novelty" flavors, I'm happy when they actually note what the flavor is SUPPOSED to be on the bottle: this "fungal fruit" was really pink passion fruit and lime. I made it a point to NOT look at that until AFTER I tried my first sip, and I got a weak "fruity lime" flavor from that initial sip. The flavor isn't very strong, and it's also not very sugary. It tastes a BIT more "adult" than I expected - I thought this would be strong and possibly really sweet, but it's not. The lime flavor is fine, but this needs a little more of a kick of something. It's just a bit lacking. Ranking it just below average.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Wink Martindale's Orange Passion Fruit Guava Soda

A friend told me this was good. Well, he thought it was good but added "maybe because I had such low expectations." So it was time to try it:

TWO THINGS:

First, that's a crappy Photoshop job on the label to make it look like Wink is holding a bottle of his soda.

Second, I had to look up who Wink Martindale was. It turns out he "is best known for hosting Tic Tac Dough from 1978 to 1985, Gambit from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), and Debt from 1996 to 1998." (According to Wikipedia.)


Brand: Wink Martindale's Orange Passion Fruit Guava Soda.

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN. 

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I can't explain this flavor, but like my friend said, it's not bad. At first sip, it ALMOST tastes like a pink lemonade, but then there's a lot more depth to it. I can taste a subtle orange flavor, and I think I taste some guava at the end of each drink. If you like fruity and sweet sodas (that aren't OVER sweet), then check this out.

Score: 6 out of 10.