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.

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.

Apple Rush Sparkling Apple

I opened this today, as it feels very fall-like around here suddenly:

Brand: Apple Rush Sparkling Apple.

Origin: Somewhere in Florida.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: None.

Review: It's what you'd expect: it's sparkling apple cider. The carbonation is a fun (but not too crazy) addition to cider. Solid drink for this time of year.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Review of 4 Hard Sodas: Not Your Mom's, Henry's, Strongbow, and Coney Island

Here's my second an final "mini review" of some hard sodas / flavored beers that I picked up at Total Wine:

All the bottles from a few months ago, but this review is just for 4 of the 9.

Here's my review of the final 4 (in the order that I drank them):

Not Your Mom's Apple Pie: This was a beer flavored with vanilla and apple juice, which sounded good to me. It's rare that my wife and I have the same reaction to a drink, but this one was the exception. My wife's quote after taking a sip: "Mmmmm, oh that's goooo... wait, OH NO!" Yep, I had the same thought. It's a very sweet apple pie flavor initially, but then there's a HARD hit of over-the-top cinnamon. I see what they're going for (it's like a super rich pie crust flavor), but it's quite literally 10x what it needs to be. It was nearly undrinkable.  Score: 2.5 out of 10.

Henry's Hard Cherry Cola: I liked this. It was just a little malty and not too "beer-y." And it had just a good cherry cola flavor. This went down easy. Score: 7 out of 10.

Strongbow "Cherry Blossom" Hard Cider: I'll be honest - I don't remember drinking this one. It must have been OK, but not great. Or horrible. Oops. Sorry. Score: 5 out of 10.

Coney Island Hard Root Beer: Possibly my favorite hard root beer! It had a strong vanilla flavor, and not a huge bite of booze. Still, I couldn't help but thinking if did NOT have alcohol in it, it would have been a great root beer. Score: 8 out of 10.


So I need to try more Coney Island hard sodas, because (as seen in the link below) I've liked them quite a bit - they hold 2 out of my top 3 scores for these 9 beverages.

If you missed it, here's the review of the first 5 of these hard sodas/ciders.

Fritz-Kola Fritz-Limo Apfel-Kirsch-Holunder-Limonade

This was a german soda that I picked up, and I didn't know what I was about to drink:

Probably the last "classroom" photo of the spring
as I'm grading final projects right now as I drink this.

After I took my first sip, I found an added-on English sticker on the back. It said it was "Natural Cherry Soda" of Germany. On their website, they called it "fritz-limo apple, cherry and elderberry." It had a lot of apple juice and a little sour cherry juice (both listed before sugar), and then a bit of elderberry juice as well. They appear to sort of be marketing it as a juice drink, and not as a soda.


Brand: Fritz-Kola Fritz-Limo Apfel-Kirsch-Holunder-Limonade

Origin: Hamburg-Othmarschen, Germany.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It was not "cherry" at all. It was very much like chilled, carbonated hot apple cider that makes me think of Christmas. It wasn't bad - it just wasn't what I expected in a "cherry" soda. I really thought about it as I sipped it, and I could NOT taste ANY cherry flavor. It was all apple to me. It had a bit of a bite at the end of each sip that wasn't super desirable, but overall, it was pretty good. Sweet, but not too sweet. I'll give it an average score.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Minnesota Loon Juice Honey Crisp Hard Cider

I reviewed some hard ciders and flavored beers at the end of last year. I'm totally not making this into a beer or hard cider blog, but I tried this the other night (mainly because it was cheap and it was local) and thought I'd share:

It wasn't the best ever, but the carbonation was really nice and crisp. Really, the word here is CRISP because I feel like that's totally the best way to describe this. The flavor was OK, but I hoped it was a little sweeter. If I had to rank it, I'd have to give it a 6 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.

Cider Galilee (Drinking Soda in Israel)

I've been in Israel for a few days. So I HAD to try some local soda when I got a pita:

Great lunch!

Brand: Cider Galilee.

Origin: Netanya, Israel.

Purchase Place: "Meat and More," Eilat, Israel.

Sweetener: None?... I think. It said it was just apple juice and carbonation.

Review: This was crisp and tasty. It was a good, "clean," and "pure" tasting apple juice with a nice amount of carbonation. If you want a sweet soda, this won't satisfy. But if you want some tasty carbonated juice, this is right up your alley. Natural and tasty.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Apple Beer

I didn't know if this would be any good. I grabbed this Apple Beer from my fridge and hoped for the best.

It smelled like apple cider, and I was ready for it to be a little horrible. But I was pleasantly surprised....

Brand: Apple Beer.

Origin: Salt Lake City, UT.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, Burnsville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This really surprised me. It was quite tasty. It (obviously and rightfully so) had a strong apple taste, but it wasn't tart like cider. It had the gentle smoothness and sweetness of soda, but the flavor of apple. It tasted very "natural" with not a ton of carbonation. This would be a great summertime out-on-the-back-stoop-watching-the-sun-set soda.

Score: 9 out of 10.


Bonus: here's the history of their can from their website: