AriZona Green Tea

After a bike ride on vacation, I grabbed a tall drink from the grocery store:

Brand: AriZona Green Tea.

Origin: Woodbury, New York.

Purchase Place: Elden's Grocery Store, Alexandria, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup and Honey.

Review: This is a nice subtle tea. I've had this a number of times before. It has a nice sweetness to it, but I'm a little annoyed that they used HFCS in it. "Tea" should be better than that, but this is not really a "tea" company. I dunno, just a minor rant. But it tastes subtly earthy with a nice sweetness.

Score: 7 out of 10.

J.C. Gray Black Cherry Soda

We just got back from a few days in Alexandria, MN on a family vacation. Last year, I stopped at their local grocery store to try J.C. Gray Root Beer which was good but nothing special. I stopped by the same grocery store to grab some J.C. Gray Black Cherry:

With our cabin in the background.

Brand: J.C. Gray Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Janesville, WI.

Purchase Place: Elden's Grocery Store, Alexandria, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: It smelled good, and the first sip was OK. But it was oddly creamy - almost like a cream soda. It was a strange flavor for a black cherry soda to have. It was OK, but a little "off," so I'll give this a slightly below average score. I may be done trying J.C. Gray soda - I just haven't been impressed.

Score: 4 out of 10.
 

Jarritos Lime Soda

Yesterday, I grabbed my 2nd soda from the Mexican Food Section of Cub Foods:

Brand: Jarritos Lime Soda.

Origin: Mexico.

Purchase Place: Cub Foods, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was a good Lime Soda. It has a nice bite of Lime, but not too much. Good flavor overall. I think I need to start trying more Lime sodas because I haven't had a bad one yet...

Score: 8 out of 10.

Sidral Mundet Apple Soda

Last week, I grabbed 3 sodas from the Mexican Foods section of Cub Foods:

My 2nd Jarritos and Goya sodas (on either end), and my first Sidral Mundet.

This was the first one I tried:

Sweet embossed bottle.

The cap.

Brand: Sidral Mundet.

Origin: Mexico.

Purchase Place: Cub Foods, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This is a simple soda: it's tastes a lot like a sweet, carbonated apple juice. If that sounds good to you (which is does to me), try this. I'm actually surprised this is labeled as "less than 1% apple juice" because this could have a lot more in it based on it's flavor. It's an apple SODA, when it really could just be an apple JUICE with some carbonation (that would make it better for you too). Anyway, it was tasty and sweet - tastes more like juice than a soda though.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Capone Family Secret Root Beer

Time for some more Root Beer.

Brand: Capone Family Secret Root Beer.

Origin: Chicago, IL.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This had a really "tinny" taste from the start. After that, I had a common complaint for root beers that could be better: it'd flavor was weak and almost watered-down. I seemed to like this more as I got farther into the bottle, but it was just OK. 

Score: 5 out of 10.

Kansas City Sarsaparilla

I opened up this large bottle the other day:

Brand: Kansas City Sarsaparilla

Origin: Hopkins, MN. (Wait, NOT Kansas City?)

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar and/or Corn Sweeteners.

Review: The flavor was pretty good, but it was weak - it tasted like flavored water (which, yes, I know, that's what it technically is). It was a little creamy and had a little hint of vanilla and a good amount of wintergreen. Decent flavor, just weak. I'll give this a slightly better than average score.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.
 

AJ Stephans Raspberry Lime Rickey

I took a risk on this one...

Brand: AJ Stephans Raspberry Lime Rickey.

Origin: Fall River, Massachusetts.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I was expecting a "strange" bite to this, but it was good. The raspberry was very sweet and reminded me a BIT of an Icee from Target. And then there was just the perfect little hint of lime at the end - it wasn't too overpowering or nasty. It was good and went down fast!

Score: 7 out of 10.