Taste Test: Blueberry Soda from Maine Root

Okay, now for another soda taste test. Today, (from the wacky organic store with only American products) we are tasting Maine Root's Blueberry Soda!

I love me some blueberries!

Just in case you don't know: Maine loves its blueberries, just as much as it's seafood. While Machias, is home to the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival personally I have only been to the fabulous blueberry restaurants in Bar Harbour. There (and I am sorry I don't remember the restaurant) I had the best blueberry pancakes I have ever had with wild blueberries, not them big suckers, with wild blueberry syrup.  Damn it was amazing. I am surprised the locals are not blue.

So back to the soda.

Hand crafted....organic....cane sugar...and natch, blueberries!

And the colour is fabulous! Just like the blueberries. In fact, after I downed this glass, there were some berry skins in the bottom of the glass.

How does it taste?

Pretty good. Almost like a carbonated juice with a touch of something else you just can't put your finger on (maybe it is the cane sugar?) Now it is sweet, maybe even a little too sweet for my tastes, but remember I am not a pop drinker per se - I'm just testing these unusual soda's out.

I think kids would like it because of it's colour and taste. And I think I would buy a bottle again.

Wait a sec....dang...I've reviewed one of their soda's before! LOL! Oh well....the company has some great flavours....check out the Pumpkin one over here!

Taste Test: Crazy Uncle Basil, Lime, and Honey Pre-Mixed Cocktail

Had to pick up some beer for a kind neighbour who lets us use his BBQ without accepting money for the propane. Good neighbours are the best! I saw this sitting on the shelf at the L.C.B.O. I love lime and Tom Collins are my drink of choice.

So I picked it up...

Love the Bottle!

Hmmm. I am not much of a drinker per-se. I could not taste the basil nor the honey and unfortunately, the lime was overpowered by the sweetness of SUGAR. Weeeeee it is sweeeeeeet! You'd think it is sweet mix!

To finish my glass I added some water to it and it drastically improved the flavour to the point that I would recommend Crazy Uncle. It's quite tasty and natch, I like the lime.

Then, ONLY THEN, did I read the label....

"Pour over ice straight or lightened with soda water"

Hmm. No kidding. Gonna buy that soda water!

Don't know if I like having to read the label before I drink my drink. Requires work. Humph )-:

BBQ Sauce Cupcakes (???)

It looked normal. From what I'd been told, someone accidently spilt BBQ sauce on the cupcakes. Didn't look that way to me.

When dessert time came, it was the dare everyone was expected to try a BBQ Sauce Cupcake.

Apparently everyone knew the recipe. I certainly didn't. It was one of those weird, send it to everyone recipes that ends up in your email box. You end up deleting it cause you would never actually make it. This time someone did.

FYI, I never got the email.

In fact, just to write this, I had to troll the net to try and find something that was at least similar to what I ate, for the cupcake I ate had BBQ sauce in the icing AND in the cake.

A slightly smooshed BBQ cupcake.

OKAY HOW WAS IT: at room-temperature it tastes too much of BBQ sauce. Definitely a no and you wouldn't want to eat more than one. Plus, once you get the idea of BBQ sauce in your cupcake, you can't really get past that.

I was the only one up to taking home the leftovers and was happy to find out that the BBQ sauce taste was much milder when cold. It was rather tasty but not something I would ever bake.

I get the idea. Like spicy, Mexican hot chocolate, I can see what the creator was aiming for. But the garlic and onion in BBQ sauce sort of kills the appreciation, ya know?

If you would like to try it, you can view an similar recipe here. But my cupcake definitely did not have honey BBQ sauce in it. More like a Kraft smokey something or other.

On a related note: if this is your thing, you may also like to try this toothpaste:

This Monkey brand toothpaste comes from India. It uses charcoal to get your teeth white! Oh and has some interesting flavours like, uh, garlic. You can view the fabulous taste test (!!!LOL!!!) or purchase it from Smallflower, an amazing health product store online here.

Taste Test: Q Kola

Up until a week ago, I haven't been much interested in blogging. I'll blame it on a spring funk. Now it is summer, things are looking a wee bit more exciting!

Welcome a new pop/soda taste test: this time it is Q Drink's Kola, purchase at that so-called "organic" store in my hood with a freaky amount of American products, and few Canadian.

Booooooo.

Let's ignore the fun factor that there is stuff I have never, ever, ever, seen.

Remind me next time to wipe the sugar
off the table before I take a picture.

Q Kola comes from Brooklyn, NYC and comes in a very pretty bottle. I chose this particular flavour because of it's Christmas spices (I am a sucker for cinnamon, ginger and clove).

The blurry white writing says stuff like extracts of cinnamon,
clove, coriander, kola nut, lemon, lime, orange and nutmeg.

Thought it would taste rather weird. SURPRISE! It's yummy and tastes, wait for it, like a non-super sweet Coca-Cola. It made me think, "hey, maybe these actually are the ingredients in Coke, they are just hidden by all the sugar!!!"

Not overly spicy. Not overly bubbly. Not overly sweet. Mmm. This is really good!

Q Drinks comes in seven flavours: lemon, grapefruit, tonic, kola, club, orange and ginger. Maybe I would try the lemon next or grapefruit. Their website has a short complete history on the creation of carbonated drinks and locations on where you can purchase them (sorry Canucks, there aren't that many places for us, but where I purchased mine wasn't on the list so there is hope you may stumble on it).

The company was created after the owner had one to many inferior gin and tonics and decided to make his own tonic. Well, woot woot to that! Maybe I will try the tonic to mix it up with some gin. It is summer after all.

Taste Test: Fentimans Orange Jigger Soda

Last week I ventured into an organic grocery store that I have lived near for about 5 plus years and had never been inside. Organic means expensive to me. I also believe that most organic food is part of "green-washing" marketing, where something rather ordinary is suddenly healthy because it is labelled organic, but does not have any proof to make it's claim.

The store was shockingly American. Almost (if not all!) the produce was American! Then scattered throughout it's aisles, there was the usual suspects of healthy, natural foods and Canadian content. Milk, of course due to dairy/border laws was Canadian. Same with baked goods since most natural food stuffs don't have the preservatives to travel. But really, it was sad. Oh and there was a weird amount of maple syrup.

It left me angry.

On the brighter side, they had a really wacky selection of pop. Hence, my taste test of "Fentimans Orange Jigger Soda."

I'd never heard of it - have you?

It comes with a cool bottle cap.

Apparently this product is British but is bottled in Vancouver. (???) That is odd to me, for we dare not call pop,"soda" in Canada.

Fentimans has a neat ingredient list: fermented ginger root extracts with mandarin orange juice and juniper extracts. Funky. The raised glass says Botanically Brewed (and is why it was at the Organic grocery store).

How does it taste? Rather disappointing. I don't taste the ginger at all. It tastes rather like mandarin orange juice with just a little bit of carbonization (which I do like).

According to the website : 'Jigger' is an old English term for a good measure, which is used when combining the juice of eight mandarins and the zest of Seville orange in every bottle.

Here is a pic of PM David Cameron having a taste test of Fentimans. Check out the amazing wallpaper in the background LOL:

While I am not impressed with this flavour, they have lots of neat flavours which you can see here. I am curious about their "Curiosity Cola" which The Guardian has named 'the best soda in the world.'

Guess I have to go back the grocery store!