Review: Apple Beer

A few years ago on my ride to work, I stopped into a convenience store to pick up a soda, and seeing as it was a hot summer's day, I wanted something fruity and refreshing instead of a syrupy, caffeine-laden cola. I found Sidral Mundet-a Mexican apple soda. It was crisp, delicious and very refreshing.
This set me off on a whirlwind of seeking out apple sodas. Sadly, I found very few-the aforementioned Sidral Mundet, Jones/Shasta Green Apple, and a little while later Manzanita Sol. While Manzanita Sol is a little more prevalent(being owned by Pepsi), Sidral Mundet was always my favorite. I would drink the occasional Manzanita Sol, especially since the others I found were carbonated versions of Apple candy. Sidral and Manzanita tasted very much like apple cider with fizz. Then, just a scant two weeks ago my amazing wife brought me home das Apple Beer...

...and it was good. Really good. Like, if I took a bottle of apple cider and ran it through a sodastream I'd get Apple Beer. It's light, sweet, tart, crisp and very complex. I imagine that it is brewed using a few different varieties of apples to capture the essence and range of complexity that only befits the source material. Another advantage over Manzanita Sol? Sugar instead of HFCS. I'm sold.

Packaging- 5/5
Come on-look at that bottle. That looks downright delicious. If you were walking through the soda aisle and saw that label, you'd grab that bottle and never think twice about the fact that you're not an apple soda drinker.

Aroma- 5/5
The initial uncapping brings about an aerosolized tart smell-like cutting into a perfectly ripe granny apple.

Taste- 6/7
It tastes exactly like a carbonated version of two or more varieties of apple mixed together. It's oh so subtle, but it's incredibly potent. They didn't allow the sugar/sweet to drown out everything else, and that's what makes this so damn perfect

Overall- 16/17
Great packaging, great smell, fantastic taste. I would highly recommend to everyone-even if you've had a bad experience with apple soda in the past-trust me, you'll like this.

Review: Reed's Raspberry Ginger Brew

Reed's Raspberry Gingerbrew. My lovely wife picked this one up for me at our local co-op, and I can say it is definitely interesting. I have a weird relationship with Reed's ginger brews to begin with-some are too spicy, and the others are a perfect blend of spice, tart and sweet under the right circumstances.

Upon opening the cap, I was awarded with a nice amount of fizz and the pleasant aroma of fruity-ginger. I poured some into a glass for my daughters to try and was surprised by the absolutely gorgeous coloring of this  fruity-soda(pictured above).

This was by far one of the most appetizing looking sodas, and could easily be poured into a wine glass and enjoyed at a fancy meal incognito. That's actually an apt description of this brew-it's almost  like the wine of the soda world. It's tart, sweet, slightly spicy and very refreshing. It is the perfect balance of it's components(raspberry, ginger and cane sugar), and only a slight hint of carbonation so as not add too much acidity to a berry juice drink. 

This is, surprisingly, very reminiscent of carbonated juice drinks,  but it is oh so much better in every way. I couldn't drink this every day, but would definitely be a soda of choice at many a meal.

Packaging -5/5

Reed's has this very fun-beer type of labeling to it, and their fun island view coupled with dark purple, magenta and yellow just compliment the coloring of this drink incredibly well.

Aroma -5/5

Smells exactly like it tastes-wonderful.

Taste- 5/7

Amazing. Tart and sweet perfectly balanced, ginger spice and slightly acidic bite. Probably not for the little ones, but a great compliment to a hearty meal. Definitely not something you'd drink a lot of.

Overall- 15/17

I really want to start reviewing more bad sodas, if just so I can bring down my average review score. That, and I find myself to be more interesting when insulting something...oh well-so it is.