Maine Root Mexicane Cola

/

Ever have a sinus infection?  I have.  Maybe once a year or so… except this year.  This year is special and I’ve had three thus far.  It’s super neat.  I didn’t want to write a review today because I’m exhausted, but I figured it’d make me feel better if I just powered through it and got to writing.

Twist is taking it back wearing the cap.

The soda I’m going to take my antibiotics with today is Maine Root Mexicane Cola.  As you probably realized from the play on words this is Maine Root’s version of “Mexican Coke”, also known as Coke sweetened with cane sugar.  As with all Maine Root products it’s a fair trade product, so you can rest easy as night that you’ve done the right thing.  Time to open the bottle.

That’s huge.  Sorry, not the aroma or anything, but the pill I’m supposed to take.  It looks like a cartoon pill it’s so big.  It’s a horse pill as my family and many other families out there probably call them.  Well hopefully this Mexicane Cola will be the perfect pair to it.

Even with one good nostril I can tell the cola scent is quite strong.  This would have me believe I’m going to enjoy this beverage.  Aroma’s have lied to me in the past though.  I’m sure the good folks at Maine Root wouldn’t do that to me.  They make Fair Trade Certified beverages.  You can’t lie and do that at the same time.

First swig was pill free and while it does have a nice cola taste it wasn’t as powerful as I expected.  It’s a shame because if this flavor was increased it’d be pretty amazing.   That said, it’s still a very good cola and I won’t take anything away from it by complaining about the strength of the taste again.

Along with this very honest cola flavor a second sweetness appears and sits atop it’s brethren.  The cola is a good foundation to this new sugary taste and the sugary taste seems to be a good foundation to the spices within the beverage.  I do wish I could pick out the spices a bit better  They’re somewhat noticeable and it still tastes good so I’ll keep my complaints to a minimum and just save them for the rating.

All in all Maine Root Mexicane Cola is a very good cola.  It doesn’t have the punch of Coke, but it has an enjoyable taste all its own.  That said, this soda falls into the category of so close to being amazing.  It’s good, but a few tweaks here and there and this could be stellar.

~A

This soda was purchased at HEB

Lucky Club Cola

/

Stuff tastes better if there’s a horseshoe on it.  I don’t know why, but it just does.  Perhaps it only tastes better in Texas or the Southwest region of America.  The science on it is unclear yet always wields a positive answer.  That said this bottle of Lucky Club Cola should be delicious according to science.  Emblazoned on the bottle is of course a horseshoe.  Within the bottle is a mixture of ingredients which involve pure cane sugar, some tasty caramel color, and mom’s favorite… gum arabic.  

The mouth of the bottle releases a robust cola scent that urges my mouth to water, but it’s not quite powerful enough to do so.  That said, it seems the aroma will partner with an above average soda at the very least.

Eh, it’s alright.  Perhaps I should stare at the horseshoe a little harder.  No it’s still fairly average even with gunfights and school marms crossing the unknown territory of my imagination.

I wouldn't know your soda from a Jersey Iguana

The first thing I notice is how carbonated this soda is.  Lucky Club Cola is quick to fizz up in your mouth and bites with equal fervor.  It’s a bite that I would associate with a stronger flavor, yet I’m greeted by the first cowboy in the western that succumbs to the villains bullet.  He thought he’d be sneaky and pop up from behind that barrel guns blazing, but then the movie would only be 30 minutes long.  Instead he’s shot in an instant, falling to the ground without so much as a whore to see him die.

Honestly it tastes more like a diet cola than anything.  If it were indeed a diet cola I’d say it was pretty good, but no such luck for Lucky Club Cola.   See what I did there?  So very disappointing.  My disappointment won’t show in the rating because it’s not disgusting.  It’s an average tasting beverage.  Sigh.

So just as quickly as it drifted into our lives Lucky Club Cola is going to drift out of it and be forgotten.  Before I go, let me offer this advice to soda makers.  A soda is a tool, Jerks; no better or no worse than any other tool:  an axe, a shovel or anything.  A soda is as good or bad as the folks making it.  Remember that.

~A

This was purchased at a Shell Gas Station

Minta Strawberry

/

So earlier in the week I had a mint soda called Minta.  I was not kind to Minta, but I still wanted to give their strawberry variation a try.  Here are the ingredients to Minta Strawberry:  Carbonated water, natural sugar, natural flavors (gah, vague) citric acid, fruit and vegetable juice for color.  So it’s the same ingredients as before, but now with vegetable juice for color!  I’m sure the “natural flavors” were altered as well because they had to add the strawberry in somewhere.  “Natural flavors”... JUST TELL US WHAT THEY ARE IF YOU’RE SO PROUD OF IT!  

Remember when sodium benzoate was my rant?  “Natural flavors” is the new hotness.  “New hotness” is passe.  Anywho, let’s open this thing up.

So the scent is strawberry mint.  That makes me feel a little better about what I’m about to taste.  I mean it doesn’t smell as minty awful as the original flavor, so it can only be better.  Right?

Twist is crying crocodile tears... due to a transplant.

Slightly!  The powerful mint taste is still there, but thankfully strawberry has wrestled him to the ground.  Well, as much as you could wrestle an 800 pound gorilla to the ground.  Mint is still the dominate flavor, but you can clearly see strawberry hanging on as mint tries to throw him off.  Much to mint’s chagrin, strawberry keeps holding on and you keep getting glimpses of him as he’s twirled about.  

The carbonation levels work pretty well with the taste, but it’s still not enough to sell me on it.  Ultimately the mint flavor ruins the beverage for me.  I expected the strawberry to be light, but I wanted it to have a fighting chance.  To be fair though it’s Minta Strawberry, not Strawberria Mint.  

So here I sit with a half can of Minta Strawberry in front me.  I don’t really want to finish it, but I could if I had too.  Sure it tastes better than Minta, but I’m not sure it tastes so much better the rank will be any higher.  I guess I’m just not cut out to enjoy mint sodas for the time being...unless it was chocolate and mint.

~A

This soda was purchased at Sprouts using donations from readers like YOU!

Minta

/

You know what takes up a lot of your soda reviewing time?  Life.  Well, the children portion of life seems to take up the majority of it… mine at least.  I’m sure once she can go down to the fridge and get me a soda it’ll be a bit easier to find the time, but right now we’re working on walking.  So bear with me if you would.

It's not easy being green...and being next to a can of Minta.

Now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way it’s time to review a delicious can of mint soda.  Nothing about that sounds good at all to me as the last mint soda I had was a bit on the mouthwash side, I’m guessing this will be too.

Minta is a naturally flavored soda with the following ingredients:  Carbonated water, natural sugar, natural flavors (vague much?), and citric acid.  It sits in a precious little silver 10 ounce can adorned with mint leaves.  I’ve got to give it to them, it really does look refreshing.  Time to find out if I can judge this book by it’s cover.  

Smells like spearmint gum.  Finally I can live my dream and drink spearmint gum, said some weirdo no one talks to.  I’m being far too harsh on those that love this drink.  I think my time away has made me more Jerk than Soda.  Clearly there is a market for mint flavored sodas as Minta is doing just fine in the world without my love/hatred.  Who knows, perhaps I’ll come around and like it.

Nope.  No I won’t.  Not in the slightest. That’s even mintier than Stander.  That’s mintier than the mintiest gum.  I ate mint leaves as a child… loved them.  This is mintier than MINT LEAVES.  Why would anyone want liquid this?!  It’s hardly sweet at all and the carbonation is easily ignored due to the pungent mint flavoring.  

I’ll give them one thing, they definitely deliver on their mint flavored promise.  That said, I’ve maybe had four ounces of this and I think I’m done.  It’s a very cool beverage and every proponent of it is good, except for the flavor.  That’s a pretty big deal in the soda game.  As the saying I just made up goes, Flavor Sells.  Perhaps when I try Strawberry Minta I’ll be singing a different tune, but until then… no thank you.

~A

This soda was purchased at Sprouts Farmer’s Market thanks to a donation from readers like you!

Fluids Soda Co. Radiant Red

/

Wanna play guess the flavor?  In front of me I have a bottle of red soda with a red bottle cap.  The brand is one I’ve never heard of; it’s called Fluids Soda Co.  Now the listed flavor is Radiant Red so you’d assume what “Radiant Red” would taste like should be somewhere on the label… nope.  Instead of a picture of cherries, strawberries, watermelon, or blood orange I get a picture of a transmission sitting in front of some checkered flags.  

"Twist" "hates" "it"

The label makes sure I know that it’s sweetened with “Pure Cane Sugar”, but as far as I know this is a transmission flavored soda that’s “Made in the USA”.  Perhaps it’s a generic “Red” soda.  Perhaps I’ll use “quotes” nine or “ten” more times while writing this review.  Either way I’m tired of this mystery.  Let’s see if my taste buds can become taste “detectives”.

Well the scent doesn’t help me at all.  I guess it’s cherry or strawberry… I think… possibly.  It’s such a faint aroma I honestly can’t tell.  Methinks the taste might not be as vague.

What in the world is this?  Ever find yourself melting down cherry cough drops and then adding equal parts carbonated water?  You do?  Well fantastic, you don’t have to do that anymore because Fluids Radiant Red exists on the market.

I don’t know if this is the worst “fruit” soda I’ve ever had, but the thought has crossed my mind enough that it needed to be typed.  Really the only redeeming value it has is that I’m not gagging on it and the carbonation levels are nice.  Other than that I’d stay far away from this.

So there you have it.  Fluids Soda Co. Radiant Red is terrible and I’m going to stop drinking it now.

~A

I bought this at a Shell Gas Station in Houston