Jeff’s Blog

Wow at first taste Aj Stephans Raspberry Lime Rickey Boston (hence know as RLR) hits you with a big cherry cool aid flavor.  The bottle says Raspberry but I don’t get any raspberry at all the dominent flavor is cherry. I  do get hint of lime torard the backend.  This one is a little weird I get a flavor bounce if you will at the finish.  I think its gone then its back and then gone and then back.  I really like this one though they should change the name to Cherry Lime Rickey.  They make a big deal on the front label that it is pure Sugar and pure water, but then they use artifical flavors and food dye.  They loose a full star for that just be honest its a soda its not good for you don’t play marketing games.

Ingredients:  Pure Carb Water, Cane Sugar, Natural and Artifical Flavors, Red #40, Blue #1, Sodium Benzoate

Vessel: 12 oz glass twist top

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Authentic Australian Ginger Brew Yank Style is lacking on the bouiqe.  All that comes through is the ginger.  It is very consistant taste through the whole palete.  The mouth feel is a little too soft in my opinion.  There is a bite from the ginger that occures on the back palete and finishes well.  In my opinion this one is a little to sweet and lacks complexity.  I prefer Reeds to this one for a real ginger brew.

Ingredients:   Carbinated Water, Buderim ginger brewed with real cane sugar, citric acid, sodium benzoante, potassium sorbate.

Vessel: 12 oz glass non twist top

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Eli’s Blueberry Pop is a quality soda that tastes as good as it looks.  That can be taken both as an insult or a compliment depending on your opinion of the bottle art.  Personally I like it though I don’t really get it. The bottle has a kid in a row boat with blue berries filling the row boat.  The kid is dressed in rain gear and the house on the shore leads me to think it probably is new england, but inexplicable there is a Perot perched on the boys shoulder.  Whats up with the Perot? 

Anyways back to the soda.  This is the first Blueberry soda that I have ever had and I have to say it was quite good.  It is made with real sugar and even uses real fruit juice instead of artificial flavors.  It taste almost like blueberry jucie but the grape juice also shines through. 

Ingredients: Water, Cane Sugar, blueberry juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate, blueberry and other natural flavors, yucca/quillaja, sodium benzoate as a perservitive 

Vessel: 12oz glass twist top

Price: $1.19 per bottle

Procured: Bevmo

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Faygo Original Black Raspberry is a nice smooth fruity blend of cola and raspberry. My only compliants were that it was a little too sweet and the raspberry overpower the other flavors. It is also made with High Fructose Corn Syrup instead of real sugar which is really my biggest pet peeve. For a cheaply made soda though this was pretty good.

Ingredients: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Potassium Benzoate, FD&C Red #40, Blue #1

Vessel: 16oz glass twist top

Price: $1.99 per bottle

Procured: Bevmo

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Lolli’s Passion Pop Stimulating Elixir tastes horible!  It has a fruity smell.  The taste is just bad, it has sort of a citrus taste at first swish but quickly develops into what I think hair gel would taste like.  This is a rare soda in that I only took a few sips and tossed it, and I can drink pretty much anything.

Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Citric Acid, Extracts of Ginseng, Guarana, damiana, yohimbe and bitter orange, natural flavor, glyceryl abietate, niacin, caffeine, vitamin C, riboflavin and vitamin B12

Vessel: 12 oz glass twist top bottle

Price: 1.10 per bottle

Procured: Bevmo

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I picked up a bottle of Barons Boothill Sassparilla on a family trip to Knotts Berry farm.  It can be found in the bakery outside the park.  It has a sweet cola taste and is fairly smooth.  It has a bit of a cola taste and is more mild than most root beers.

Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Fructose, Natural Flavor, Carmel Color, Citric Acid, and Sodium Benzoate.

Vessel: 12 oz glass twist top bottle.

Price: $1.50 per bottle

Procured: Knotts Berry Farm Bakery

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John Barleycorn Root Bear is another Journey beverage.  Unfortuantly it doesn’t taste like a root beer at all.  In fact it was way too sweet and kind of tasted like cough syrup.

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I picked up a 6 pack of IBC Root Beer at Target for $3.00.  You can’t beat the price of 50 cents a piece unfortunately you get what you pay for. 

First the ingredients: Carbonated water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Carmel color, Sodium Benzdate, Natural and Artificial  Flavors, Food  Starch-modified, Citric Acid.  This soda has cheap ingredients and the flavor suffers.  It is mass produced and designed to sit on the shelf for months.  It has a harsh taste that isn’t at all smooth.  It seemed to get worse the more I drank.  This one won’t be purchased again.

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Doctor Whatever is billed as a “Globally Refreshing Elixir” It hearkens back to the days before the mass production of soda. When soda was billed a miracle cure that cured anything that ailed you. Its ingredients are simple Water, Fructose, Cane sugar, cola nut extract, herb and spice blend, citric acid, and other natural flavors. I have to admit it make me nervous when other natural flavors is in the ingredients list, but I live on the edge.

The flavor is similar to that mass produced Dr. Pepper but has a much nicer smother mellow flavor due to the real sugar, and not high fructose corn syrup. This will be put into the rotation of sodas to drink. It is available at Bev Mo by the 12 oz bottle. It is bottled by Journey West in Solana Beach CA.

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This is a little diversion from my usual technology related postings. I reviewed Pharaohs lost Kingdom last year on Yelp. I nailed it, I said in the review that they would be out of business within a year.  It hasn’t been a year yet and it looks like I have been proven correct. Proving that the evil don’t always prosper.  I worked there for 2 years while I was in college and it was by far the worse job I ever had.  The managers treated the employees like dirt and it showed.  Moral was non existent and employees were rude and dismissive to the customers.  They shaved as many corners as possible and safety and customer service suffered.  I found out that  a man fell off the same Ferris wheel I used to operate due to operator and maintenance neglect. Pharaohs paid out a lot on that one.  Just think if they had paid their employees better, been nicer to their employees, and had real certified mechanics they probably would still be in business today.  I hope the park stays closed and because a Urban ruin not only as a reminder of what greed gets you but also because I like to take pictures of Urban Decay.