Dr. Pepper and Rum Chata

In more than 1 recent "viral" video, I've heard that mixing Dr. Pepper and coconut Rum Chata is supposed to be delicious. My Mom is a huge fan of "regular" Rum Chata, so I grabbed a mini coconut bottle of Rum Chata before a recent family vacation. I paired that with a Diet Dr. Pepper we got from the convenience store near our rented cabin:

On the counter in our cabin.

As a mixed drink. It's hard to tell because of the line in the glass, but the top 1/3 is all frothy head!

It came as no surprise that this was delicious! I've had regular Rum Chata a few times with my Mom (which is good mixed with chocolate milk or root beer, or good on its own over ice), but never the "coconut" Rum Chata. The coconut Rum Chata had a bit of a sunscreen vibe to it (many coconut flavored things have that vibe to me), but it was very smooth and tasty mixed with Dr. Pepper! It was a creamy and easy-to-drink mixed drink! I think I'll bring this combo around more often when I'm together with my Mom.

Goya Coconut Water

While technically not a soda, I opened this with my boys a few days back: 

 I took a photo of it, and later realized it was the Spanish side...

... so I had to turn the can and take one of the English side.

Brand: Goya Coconut Water.

Origin: Jersey City, NJ.

Purchase Place: Aldi, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This smelled nicely like lightly sweetened coconut. But it was odd tasting. (Even after shaking it well like it said to.) The biggest thing that put me off was how thick it was. It had the thickness of syrup, but it wasn't nearly that sweet. So it was odd to wrap my head around. Sure, I'm not a huge fan of coconut-flavored things, but this I couldn't do. And neither could my boys - they both gave up on it after a sip. No thanks. I have to rate this pretty poorly.

Score: 2 out of 10.

Serenity Sodas Lime and Coconut

I've had good luck with "Serenity Sodas" - they make some interesting flavor combinations, and they are "2 for 2" in my book. Last night, I cracked into my 3rd: 

Brand: Serenity Sodas Lime and Coconut.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This is another small bottler that was purchased by Blue Sun Soda, so it's now bottled there. The first sip tastes very "limey," and then it ends with the coconut hit. It's a BIT heavy on the coconut, but maybe that's because I always think of what my wife told me years ago: "everything coconut flavored tastes like sunscreen." She's not wrong. So it totally lives up to it's flavor, but I didn't totally care for the combo. It'd be better sitting on a beach somewhere... not huddled next to our fireplace on a 30 degree evening. Not bad, just not totally for me.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Goya Coconut Soda

I recently finished off my small stash of sodas from the Mexican Food section of Cub that I picked up a few months ago.

Brand: Goya Coconut Soda.

Origin: Secaucus, NJ.

Purchase Place: Cub Foods, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: I'm not a fan of coconut flavored things - I'll admit that. So the best coconut soda might only be able to reach a mark of 7 out of 10 on my scale. Well, this one will do just that. When I opened this, it had no smell what-so-ever, and that worried me. But the first sip was decent. The problem with coconut flavored drinks is that sometimes it tastes like you're drinking sunscreen, but this one didn't taste like that. It was a good, smooth coconut flavor. It tasted very clean and pure. If you like coconut flavored things, give this a shot - it was as good as it could have been.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Joia Pineapple Coconut & Nutmeg Soda

I had my first Joia soda nearly 2 years ago - I don't remember what flavor it was, but I remembered it being a little "weird," and I didn't care for it a lot. But I recently picked up 2 more Joias to try out.

Blurry photo from a big taco party we were at this past weekend.

A better photo from the Joia website.

Admission: I do not care for pineapple or coconut that much.  So I didn't know what I was hoping with this soda.

Brand: Joia Pineapple Coconut & Nutmeg Soda.

Origin: Minneapolis, MN.

Purchase Place: Lunds Grocery Store, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it was downright tasty. I didn't taste much of the nutmeg: it was mainly coconut flavor with a bit of pineapple in there. It was very sweet and went down well. It's flavor sounded like it could have been "sharp," "harsh," and just not very drinkable, but it was quite tasty. It was good with my tacos at our taco party.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.