Riéme Limonade Artisanale

A triple-review today! My mother brought home this lovely trio from a trip to our local Italian (and, by extension, Most-of-European) Grocery a while back. The bottles are dainty and pretty, the label design is uninspiring but not off-putting.

Our flavours for today are Pomegranate, Grapefruit and... uh, "Pink".

The Pomegranate one smells like candy and has a light flavour, but isn't overly sweet. It's clean and refreshing.

The Grapefruit one is a bit more carbonated than the other two and, again, the fruit flavour is understated.

The Pink one is actually white, and I think it's just plain lemonade flavoured. Still, very nice.

There were other flavours available, including "traditional" which was clear as water.  Each cost about a dollar and a quarter (Canadian) apiece, plus enviro fees.

All the flavours are united by a certain unobtrusiveness. They're not too acidic, not too sweet, not too carbonated. Pleasant and thirst-quenching. I think the Pomegranate and Pink ones are more to my liking, but I'd recommend giving any of them a try.

Uptown Girl Strawberry Blonde Ale.

So by that title you may be able to tell a little bit about today's beverage. Namely, that it's limiting its audience. Not that I'm particularly concerned about ~*girly*~ marketing, but I was pretty leery when it came to the prospect of actually bringing this thing to the checkout. Luckily it was my Mother's duty to buy the tiny, adorable six-pack and I was able to make my purchases in peace. (A tiny, adorable bottle of Jagermeister.)

Basically, Uptown Girl is adorable. It's twee. It's precious. It's impossible not to roll your eyes at it.
I wonder if maybe that's the real target of the image. Not delicate womenfolk who require small and appropriately pinkish version of that strange, intimidating beverage known as "be-er" so as not to offend their sensibilities, but cynical jerks who catch sight of it on the liquour-store shelf and say "Oh man, look. Lookathis. Dude. It's girl beer."

Ahem.

Appearance-wise, the Strawberry Blonde Ale is clear and bubbly with slight foam and it is indeed distinctly blond. The scent is unremarkable. In flavour it is only distinctive in its extreme mildness. In its favour, that means it lacks the back-of-the-throat acidity that usually turns me off from light beers in general. Unfortunately it also has next to no flavour.
Yeah, "brewed with strawberry juice"? Sure. Whatever. It's a light, clear beer and that's all it has going for it.

Except for adorableness.

(Pictured here with a dainty, girlish hand.  Cat hair garnish optional.)

In all seriousness, if you're after a strawberry beer, I would highly suggest the Fruli.

Reed's micro brewed ginger sodas

Spiced Apple Ginger Brew

Micro brewed spiced apple ginger soda

cost: under $2

Not too long ago, during a trip to a new Bulk Barn in our area, we found the Reed's brand of "ginger brew" pop.  This is a brand of  micro-brewed natural sodas and traditional Jamaican brews.  The old style sodas - the type you can make in your own kitchen (which we do intend to try out!) taste quite different from the large scale pops.  

We tried only one flavour the first time out and enjoyed it enough to head back and get two more to try.  The first taste test was of the Spiced Apple flavour.  The label boasts that it is made with 60% juice, which is actually higher than a lot of drinks "made with real fruit juice!" on the market.

In appearance, it has a deeper colour than a typical ginger ale.  We could smell both the apple and the ginger; it reminded my younger daughter of apple pie and Spindle found it reminded her of the spiced apple cider we sometimes make.

We all found it quite sweet, but not in an overpowering, cloying way.  All the promised flavours could be recognised.  It was very refreshing and delicious.  The label and company website boast about its ingredients, methods and care, and this is a drink that lives up to that promise.  So much so that we were really looking forward to trying new flavours.

Our next taste tests were for the Cherry and Raspberry flavours.  

Cherry is, I find, a difficult flavour to market, mostly because of its strong association with cough syrup.  It's hard to find a cherry flavoured drink that's doesn't make me think of cold medication.

Unlike the spiced apple, the cherry drink didn't really smell like the flavour it was supposed to be.  In fact, it didn't smell much of anything, reminding me somewhat of those flavoured waters.  Spindle found it reminded her of something she couldn't quite put her finger on, but she found it rather tinny and gross.  In flavour, she found the ginger flavour more dominant than the cherry; something I didn't notice quite as much.  It was a take it or leave it sort of thing for her, while I quite enjoyed it.  Based on how faint the smell was, I was expecting far less flavour and was pleased to be wrong on that.  We both definitely noticed that it tasted like "cherry juice" rather than "cherry flavoured beverage."

The raspberry also had a distinct lack of scent to it and, like the cherry, the lack of scent belied the much more intense flavour.  We both liked it a lot.  Though Spindle still found the ginger flavour predominant, the raspberry flavour was nicely intense.

Of the three, the spiced apple was the overall favourite, with the raspberry running second place.  Definitely a drink we will be picking up again.

Vex

Strawberry Orange Banana

Hard Lemonade

Elephant & Castle

$5.85

An evening walk found Spindle and I stopping at a nearby Elephant & Castle for a chat over drinks.  Normally I would have tried another cocktail, having been rather pleased with what I'd tried the last time we were there, quite a while ago.  Alas, it seems they were only available for the summer. 

Perusing their drinks menu is an interesting challenge for me.  I don't like beer, so their extensive beer list is of little use to me.  I'm cheap, so the wine and hard liquors weren't up my alley, either.  That left the ciders and coolers.

The Vex intrigued me.  It's a hard lemonade, with strawberry, orange and banana.  That's a lot of fruit.  I like fruit.  I like vodka.  I figured this would be safe.

On viewing the label, Spindle was decidedly unimpressed by its design.  She mumbled something that I couldn't quite hear.  Something about it looking like the sort of drink a woman of questionable morals might drink while visiting numerous establishments that were purveyors of alcohol, though not that wordy. 

Not sure what that says about my choosing it. ;-)  It was amusing, though.

Well, the drink certainly does have its hit of vodka.  It's 7.0%, which is pretty fair.  As for the fruit... Yes, it tasted very fruity.  To me, it tasted like pineapple.  Spindle thought it tasted like grapefruit.  Looking at the ingredients list, however, yielded a listing of lemon juice and natural flavours.

Alrighty, then.

It was, however, tasty.  Stronger than I expected, so not the sort of thing I'd drink more than one of, but definitely something I'd order again.

Even with the label of questionable repute.

MASH, ripe mango & blood orange

Hey, do you remember the first time you picked up a bottle of Jones Soda? I do. I was in my early adolescent years and, being from the boonies, I wasn't familiar with a huge variety of sodas in general. I remember thinking that the photos on the labels were a really cute idea, and I was taken by the laid-back-dude element in the product descriptions.

Since then, I have become far more cynical. The point is that it was my introduction to beverages that like to talk to you, the viewer. They want to win you over with a friendly, chatty image, like the vitamin water that goes off on a tangent about work-outs and sick-days and breakfast with orange juice. MASH seems at first to be running with the same gimmick but oh, oh no. This drink is feisty.

"MASH was conceived with everyone in mind, taking all that's good from a number of well-liked beverages."

It says, and I raise an eyebrow. A number of well-liked beverages, huh?

"It's not 100% juice, it's not soda-pop. nor will you get vitamins or energy from it (we still believe in getting a good night's sleep and eating your vegetables)."

Really. You can almost hear the "Unlike those OTHER guys" muttered sidelong.

"But you will love its natural fruit essence and its very light sweetness (and low calories!). So whatever you do or study, MASH is for you... when you're looking for something to drink other than water (water water, that is)."

I'll love no matter what I study? Sweet! I'm always looking for a drink that isn't at odds with my perusal of Chaucer.

But seriously, MASH, there's a point where you can just get too colloquial... "Water water"? Really? It makes me imagine a room full of marketing experts trying to figure out how they can snark their competitors whilst retaining that Casual, Down To Earth tone that the kids are into these days.

But you're probably tired of my nitpicking.... How is the drink itself?

Boring. Sorry. It's sugary and carbonated to a degree that had all three of us comparing it to lemon candy. Maybe focus more on the blood-orange than the prose next time, MASH?

George's Good Drink mango hibiscus & vanilla

George's Good Drink Hibiscus & Vanilla Mango Tea is part of that fascinating branch of beverage culture. You know, the one that splashes 'ALL NATURAL' around its label as though it were an Olympic medal, uses nice understated colours and a self-consciously vintage, quirky design... their little cartoon man (an arrow helpfully naming him as the titular 'George') assuring you that this is, indeed, a good drink. It knows it's audience is what I'm saying.

Is it a Good Drink, though?

Yup.

It has a light, fruity scent and a crisp flavour. The mango is evident, the floral and vanilla flavours slightly less so, and it has an unusually clean finish that led me to conclude part way through tasting that this is what flavoured waters are trying to be. As someone who waters down her fruit-juices on a regular basis, I have some issues with most flavoured waters. They're going for 'light and clean' and somehow fall flat in the territory of 'indistinguishable and sugary'. This, however, pulls it off. It's nice and refreshing with hardly an aftertaste of which to speak. Give a try if you're looking for a thirst quencher.

Sanpellegrino Chinotto

I vaguely remembered having something of Sanpellegrino brand before and being... none too impressed. It's a very popular drink in the cafés and groceries around my city, but I've been avoiding it.

Until now, dear readers. Oh, the things I sacrifice in the name of journalism...

I kid. Either my memory is faulty or there's a horrible flavour into which I'll run someday and tell you all about and this isn't it. All talk of "Citrus" and "Herbal" aside, this drink tastes rather like bubblegum. It has a pleasant dark red-brown colour and a hint of dessert spices, definitely a unique beverage. Not to mention that the label and can design is just lovely. It's a tad sweet for me, but I'd recommend giving it try.

O.N.E. Coconut Water

O. N. E. Coconut water

Mango flavour

Confession time.

I really, really do not like coconut.

Wait, not true. I like coconut in it's raw, mature form. Crack it open, drain it, carve out the meat, that's all lovely. In its myriad other forms, though? On chocolates and cakes and cookies and in trail-mixes and "young", adorned with umbrellas? No. No, no, no. Go away.

That said... this drink is okay. I picked it out because the packaging seemed very chipper ("Good source of electrolytes!") and because I was curious about the combination of coconut and mango. It smells like one of those syrup-packaged fruit cups I think most of us had as children and the taste goes along the same lines. The mango flavour is very light, but, oddly, so is the coconut. Its mildness is probably, as my mother said, it's only saving grace. I would categorise it overall as merely uninspiring. Pass it up unless you find yourself seduced by the cheery packaging.

Calamansi Fruit Juice Drink

 

Another one that's already met my approval and that I've pushed on my unsuspecting family. Its draw for me was the singularly pretty fruit on the package which lists itself as "Philippine lemon" but seems to have a whole host of common names having nothing to do with lemons at all. Does the intriguing source hold up as a beverage?

Well, we all certainly smelled lemon... and aside from me (I tasted hints of naval orange) we all tasted lemon.... So, in the end, this drink is pretty much lemonade.

The best lemonade.

No, really. On the sliding scale of lemonade this drink is a perfect balance between sweetness and tartness. It's not too sugary, it doesn't burn, it's not too sour. If you're looking for some kind of unique and exotic fruit experience, seek elsewhere, but if you're looking for a soothing balm to heal the wounds left by those all too common encounters with either syrup or battery acid? You may have found your prize.

Summer Garden Bowl

I (Spindle's mother) love Madame Benoit.  I first discovered her when I got her book, Madame Benoit Cooks at Home, as a promotional freebie.  I call it a book, rather than a cookbook, as it was filled with stories.  She wrote of growing up as a child in the early 1900's, of her time doing a cooking show, of her own family and, of course, tidbits of history and anecdotes connected with individual recipes.  It's a gold mind of information.  Over time I picked up The Canadiana Cookbook and all but one volume of her Library of Canadian Cooking, which turned out to be the English translation of the French version my mother-in-law has the original of.  It had been released a section at a time and, once complete, she had it bound into a single volume.

Madame Benoit  Cooks at Home remained my favourite.  Unfortunately, after many moves, my hardcover copy disappeared.  So I was thrilled to find the paperback copy at a recent library book sale.  If you get the opportunity, I recommend picking up a copy.

The following recipe is from this book.  She writes:

Summer Garden Bowl
So called because it was made as needed, with basil or marjoram or mint freshly cut in the garden, and it was served in a punch bowl set on a tray in a bed of herbs or wild flowers.

We decided to go with basil and picked up some fresh organic basil at the grocery store, my not having been able to do any herbs on our balcony this year.  Unfortunately, the next day, they had gone black and slimy.  So back to the grocery store we went.  The other basil didn't look to good, so we went with mint.

Here is the original recipe.

8-10 sprigs of basil, marjoram or mint
2 Tbsp (30 ml) sugar
1 bottle dry white wine
2 bottles rose wine of your choice
1 large bottle of soda water
3 limes or 2 lemons, thinly sliced

We decided to do a half recipe.

We're not big wine drinkers, so we weren't sure what to get.  We decided to go with wines from the same vintner.  They were only $10.99 a bottle.  I wasn't sure if I should consider that a good thing or not. *L*


The first step is to put the herbs and sugar in a punch bowl (we don't have one, so we used a salad bowl) and mash them together with your hands to release the oils.

Then a cup (or for our half recipes, 1/2 cup) of white wine is added and it's set aside for 1 hour.

After sitting for 1 hour, the rest of the wine is added.  We had tasted the white wine on its own (it's all right) and, with the half cup already out, there was little more than half a bottle left, so we used the whole thing.

This made up for the amount of rose we used up to give it a taste (better than the white).

 

At this point, it was getting late, so we were going to let it sit in the fridge overnight. When we found ourselves staying up late anyhow, we did end up trying it after 4 hours.

At which point, the soda water is added, the herbs removed (we used a small sieve to scoop them out) and the limes added.

 
To serve, ice the glasses (not the bowl) and fill with punch.

And there we are!

It is definitely a pretty little drink.  We could both smell the mint strongest, but I could also smell the lime a bit.  The smell of wine was pretty faint, competing with the soda water smell. 

For flavour, it went over well with my daughter.  She found it refreshing, not overly sweet, and it went down easy (as she shakes her glass with nothing but ice left to demonstrate).  None of the flavours overpowered the others, which she liked. 

Me, I'm not so sure.  I don't like soda water, so that didn't help much.  Still, it didn't overpower the other flavours.  The mint and lime went well with the wines, and the two types of wine mixed together worked out just fine. 

We both liked it, but not necessarily enough to make it again.  It's nice, but not really a drink that seems to warrant the length of time needed to make it.  It's just not interesting enough.  We'd order it in a restaurant, though.

Paldo Aloe Pomegranate flavour

As you may be able to tell, I've had this one for a bit longer than the other beverages featured here. My mother brought it to me one day with a gleam in her eye that said "You like drinks with chewy bits floating it them, don't you...?"

Well, yes, I generally do, I also like pomegranate juice quite a bit and so was quite eager to try this out. Unfortunately it falls square into the mediocre side of things. The Aloe flavour is present but, sadly, no hint of pomegranate at all. And it is sweet. My sister described it along the lines of melted popsicles and my mother as a kind of "watery" sweetness. It's sharp and a little sickly, going straight to the stomach. I've been eyeing the remainder of the bottle with a mixture of exasperation and resentment.

You should be tasty, O, Aloe vera Pomegranate... why do you fall so short of goodness?

Melodrama aside, pass this one up.

Jumex Strawberry Banana Nectar

Well this one seems nice and safe, no? Strawberry and banana is a respectable combination, if slightly unusual for a canned drink, this can't be all bad, can it...?

I'm just kidding with you. It's fine.

Actually it's really nice, even though I'm not personally a fanatic for strawberry & banana beverages at the best of times. It smells more like strawberries and cream but tastes more like banana with a hint of the berry, overall well balanced and not too sweet. Quite refreshing, no carbonation and none of the flavours are overpowering. I definitely recommend it as a summertime thirst-quencher.

Peardrax

Before Peardrax (and what a fabulous name) I had never tried any kind of pear drink, and this was definitely not what I was expecting. It's smooth and refreshing with a slightly malty scent and taste. I likened it to a non-alcoholic dessert wine, a sentiment echoed by my sister but not my mother, who only tasted strong pear. The carbonation is so light as to be undetectable. The design (especially the bottle cap) is jaunty and attractive, easy to pick out on the shelf, so make sure you try it when you see it.

Nikka Sweet Tamarind Juice Drink.

Congratulations, Sweet Tamarind Juice Drink, you have earned the dubious honour of being the first (undoubtedly not the last) beverage to truly stump us. We passed the faintly amber-coloured drink around, sniffing it warily and entering timid conclusions of... Sweet? Pulpy?

The mystery was no less after we tasted it. It's definitely sweet, a little bit tangy, slightly reminiscent of citrus, and has a severely strange after-taste. None among us could finish it. Unless you already like Tamarind, I'd pass over this squat little tin can in the shelf.

Sip Natural Craft Soda, Orange Coriander.

Sometimes you can tell a lot about a beverage merely from its ingredients list.

"Carbonated spring water, cane sugar, coriander & orange natural essences, citric acid."

Yes, ladies and gents, this is a somewhat pretentious little drink. The design is clean and deliberately sophisticated from its bold sans serif name to its abstract little coloured bar-things. "Drink me in the shade of a small local-organic café whilst wearing a tasteful scarf and reading a book by David Suzuki" it says. But does the flavour of this crystal clear soda hold up against its sparkling image?

Well, no.

To be honest, none of us could taste much of anything. The scent is definite, if faint, orange. My mother said she could smell the coriander, but she seemed to be alone in that. It tastes like very carbonated mineral water with slight undertones of orange zest, and that would be the end of my review were it not for an odd and particular problem that I actually encountered on my previous run with the brand. (Lavender Lemon zest. Also boring.)

Yes, it appears that this is a beverage to be observed, rather than handled, unless you want your fingers stained with the representative colours of your choice. My guess is that Sip put the extra effort into its image and used some manner of biodegradable ink which is all too eager to biodegrade right off the label.

Jelly Drink, Orange

This brand of jelly drink is actually something I've been drinking for a while, my friend and I having discovered it during a fortuitous trip to the Asian supermarket. "Jelly Drink?" we wondered, "what could that possibly mean that isn't terrifying?" so we naturally picked up a couple of cans and became quiet infatuated with the whole notion. No doubt slightly influenced by the vividly coloured label and it's vaguely eerie cat logo. It wasn't long before I foisted it upon my mother and sister with a declaration of "You'll like it! Really!"

They didn't like it.

My sister, after initial revulsion, has come to terms with the idea of "bouncy texture" and "beverage" going hand in hand, but my mother just hasn't seen the light. It was only while pouring (read, shaking out vigorously) the drink for this post that I noticed the rather alarming colour, though...

In terms of taste, this Jelly Drink isn't anything special. It tastes like sweet, orange flavoured soda, described by us all as specifically Mandarin Orange. I should also note that the carbonation is very slight. This is important because you will have to shake this beverage violently.