Manzanita Sol Apple Soda

I opened this last night with supper:

 

Brand: Manzanita Sol Apple Soda.

Origin: Mexico.

Purchase Place: Longfellow Market, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This was very "green apple." It looked like a carbonated cider, but it definitely had the tartness of green apple. It was OK, but nothing amazing. Just a middle-of-the-road score...

Score: 5 out of 10.

Brother Paul's Cure All Cola

I cracked into this between classes in my office today:

 

Brand: Brother Paul's Cure All Cola.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: I was ready for a "decent" cola when I first took a sip, but I was not ready for this! It had a TON of flavor, similar to a Dr. Pepper - I'm not saying Dr. Pepper has a ton of flavor, but instead that the flavor here was like a concentrated Dr. Pepper. It was a bit fruity, but otherwise was a very deep and almost smokey flavor. It was really unique and quite good! I drank this down pretty quickly.

Score: 9 out of 10.

International Fanta Challenge

Recently, Rhett and Link tried to guess where different Fanta sodas originated:


Direct link on Facebook: fb.watch/j7tc188-vb/

That's the edited 6 minute version above, but here's the full version on YouTube if you're interested (which is 22 mins long).

Spindrift Lime Sparkling Water

This is NOT going to turn into a "sparkling water" blog, but I happened to grab this last week and figured I'd review it. 

At work with photo paper, negatives, and the darkroom door in the background.

Brand: Spindrift Lime Sparkling Water.  

Origin: Newton, MA.

Purchase Place: Menards, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: None.

Review: I was walking through Menards and saw these large cans, and they looked good. So I grabbed one. But I was pretty let down with my first sip. Yes, I get that it's JUST carbonated water and lime juice with no sweetener, but the lime flavor had an odd almost fruitiness to it (and not in a good way). I was expecting (and OK with) a sharper citrus punch, and it didn't have that. I didn't expect a smoother lime water - I feel like that wasn't what I signed up for.

But truth be told, it grew on me a bit as I sipped on these 16 ounces. Part of that might have been just figuring out what the flavor was and slowly becoming OK with that. It went from maybe a score of 2 or 3 at the start to more like a 4 by the end of the can. So I still don't love it, but it's not completely horrible.

Score: 4 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.

Zia Piñon Cola

I brought this to Hyland Ski Hill this afternoon to drink as my boys skied:

Ski hills in the background!

 
Brand: Zia Piñon Cola.

Origin: Taos, New Mexico.

Purchase Place: Smith's Food and Drug, somewhere in Utah.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: First of all, it's a clear soda, which feels weird to me. That might be part of the reason that it doesn't taste very traditionally "cola-like" to me. But it's not a bad thing. The first part of each sip has the "deepness" of a cola to me, but then it ends with a refreshing kick of lime (note that the bottom of the label says "kola nut & lime"). The flavor is a bit smokey (maybe from the "roasted piñon" nuts noted on the label), but then there's a tropical feel to it with the lime. Very unique cola with a citrusy kick!

I've enjoyed all 3 Zia sodas that some friends dropped off for me last fall - I'll keep my eye out for more from Zia in the future.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.