Feh

I can't see me updating this blog anytime soon. Sorry to my one regular reader. At the moment I'm broke and unemployed and can't afford to waste money on oddball soft drinks. Waahh!! But I'm still updating my main blog, more or less.

Bleh

Sorry I haven't been updating that much, but I haven't been drinking any new soft drinks lately. Not having much disposable income sucks.

I have a backlog of soft drink reviews and notes for reviews I haven't written, but the beverages are all so uninspiring that I can't make myself finish any of the reviews. What do you say about a soft drink that's merely good?

White Rock Ginger Ale

Not exciting at all. 

I was pleased to find White Rock ginger ale locally because I knew the company had had some hard times in the past few years. I couldn't recall seeing any White Rock products in this area for a long time.

My most memorable White Rock encounter was in the late 70's. I was with my sister and some cousins at a recreation center and we used their bizarre, archaic vending machine. They had only beverages that we'd never heard of and the cans had no pull tab on the top. The tops of the cans were like soup cans. To open them you had to lift a little door on the vending machine, put the can in, and then pull the door down and the can would get a triangular hole punched in the top. I'd never seen a vending machine like that before and haven't seen one since. It may have been one of the last ones operating in the country for all I know.

Anyway, that day I got a can of White Rock's lemon/lime soda. At the time, the can looked very exotic to me. All these years later, I'm still kicking myself for not keeping it.

White Rock's trademark is Psyche, who, in her modern portrayal on the bottles, seems to be wearing a bit more than she used to.

I wasn't expecting anything different from most of the other ginger ales on the market, but this did taste a bit different. The label said it was naturally flavored, so maybe that was the reason. There was a somewhat spicy, rooty taste with a hint of fresh dirt (a lot like what I tasted in Pepsi Holiday Spice). I got the same taste, but with 100 times the spiciness, from the frightening Goya ginger beer I reviewed a few weeks ago.

My problem with White Rock ginger ale was that it was very flat. I don't know if I got a bad bottle or they just ordinary under-carbonate their beverages.

Verdict? It's pretty good, but not my favorite. There's a lot of ginger ales out there. The major brands are a safe bet. Even Shasta ginger ale is quite good. I'd drink White Rock again, but I'd probably choose another, more easily obtainable, brand of ginger ale over it.

Pepsi Holiday Spice

What were they thinking? 

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I'm finally reviewing Pepsi Holiday Spice. I think I'm a bit late because there's stuff all over the internet about it, but better late than never.

Let's cut the chase. What does it taste like? It's like Pepsi with a lot of pepper in it and there's also a rooty, fresh dirt taste which makes me believe that the "festive blend of holiday spices" is basically just ginger root extract or oil of ginger. It reminds me of the ghastly Goya ginger beer I reviewed below. It's no where near as strong, but it's hotter than other ginger beverages I've had recently.

But is it any good? When I first drank it, I didn't think it was that bad, but the more I drink, the worse it seemed. It's not horrible, but it's not the least bit enjoyable either. Frankly, I don't know what Pepsi was thinking with this stuff. Does anyone actually like it? Most of the reviews and comments about it online have been negative.

Verdict? Bleh. But I recommend trying it because it's cheap and strange. It'll be one of those memories you can enjoy years in the future: "Hey, remember Pepsi Spice?" And everyone goes, "Yeah, that was terrible." Ah, memories.

Pointless Addendum: There's a website called the Pepsi Holiday Spice Project where a guy claims that to win a bet he's drinking nothing buy Pepsi Spice for 45 days. There's even a blog where you can read about the nauseating medical problems he's been having since starting this stupid bet. I seem to be in a minority, but I think the whole thing's a hoax.

Jumex's Guanabana Nectar

What are those scary looking things pictured on the label? 

Today's beverage is Jumex's Guanabana Nectar. This was another find in the little Mexican products section of my local supermarket.

Just what the heck's guanabana? It looked freaky on the label: a green lump with little spikes on it, weird pulp, and a vaguely sinister looking core. According the site I linked to earlier in this paragraph, it's "a member of the Annonaceae, the custard apple family". Doesn't look like any apple I've ever seen. It doesn't really taste like apple either.

I was hoping for something strange tasting. Maybe something really vile. But I was pleasantly surprised. It's quite good.

Don't let the word "nectar" in the title fool you into thinking this stuff's just fruit juice. Nope. It's got sugar/corn syrup added to it, which probably makes it only slightly more healthy than Coke or Pepsi.

Verdict? It's good. I like it. I'll probably drink it again. And I'll be sampling other flavors in the Jumex line.

Goya Jamaican Style Ginger Beer

It burns! It burns! 

Today's beverage is Goya Jamaican Style Ginger Beer. I found this in a little grocery store that sells specialty items. I was curious about what it tasted like even though my encounters with Hansen's Ginger Beer and Reed's Ginger Brew will haunt me until my dying days.

When I opened it up, it smelled like dirt or freshly dug up roots. The taste? HOT!! It's really hot. Did I mention that it's hot? Well, it's hot. Very hot. Imagine if a tabasco sauce company decided to market a soft drink. And that soft drink also smelled, and tasted, a bit like dirt. When it first hit my mouth, the fumes(?) went into my sinuses. I immediately started coughing. I've coughed several times trying to finish this bottle. Sometimes I can feel it in my tear ducts.

The ingredients include oil of ginger, which I suspect to be the cause of my distress.

I don't understand this stuff at all. Soft drinks are supposed to be refreshing, not painful. Why would anyone crack open one of these on a hot day? Why would anyone crack open one of these ever? It's not as nauseous as the Hansen's Ginger Beer, nor is it putrid like Reed's Ginger Brew, but it's just not pleasant. It burns! But, hey, at least my sinuses are clear now.

Verdict? If you like really hot stuff, try it, otherwise avoid it. And on the up side, it only cost 61 cents.

I think I'm done with ginger beer and all types of "Jamaican style" ginger ales. I'm satisfied with regular old ginger ale.

Chubby Cotton Candy Cream Soda

So many "chubby" jokes, so little time. 

Today's beverage is Chubby Cotton Candy Cream Soda. This was a surprise find at a local Dollar General. I paid 26 cents for the squat little 8.45 fluid oz. bottle. I'd read about this stuff before and doubted I'd ever find it here. I think it was first made in Trinidad and Tobago, but this bottle was made in Canada.

There's a lot of different flavors of Chubby, but the only other flavor I saw today was orange. Orange soda seemed like a bland choice to me, so I went with the cotton candy (which apparently is discontinued because I didn't see it on the website).

The taste? I was hoping for something really awful because I tend to have far more fun writing the bad reviews than the good ones. What can you say about a good soft other than it's good? Well, Chubby Cotton Candy Cream Soda is surprisingly good. I think it's a mistake to call the flavor Cotton Candy Cream Soda because to me it tastes like strawberry short cake. I haven't had cotton candy in over 20 years probably, but I don't remember the taste as being anything like this soda.

Verdict? If you can find it, buy a bottle. I can't say I'd want to drink a lot of it, but as an occasional thing, it'd be nice.