If you get a chance, definitely try this drink. It's delicious, but one can will be enough. If you're thirsty for other Nostalgia drinks, also check out Shikhye.

It was 2 bottles for HKD22, coming out to be about USD$1.40 per bottle. Not bad for a drink with 8.4% alcohol, and considering I knew beers in the bars we were going to are at least twice that, maybe triple.

It turns out that this cider has practically no flavor whatsoever. I've had hard ciders before that I liked before, but this was not it. There was really nothing to be liked or disliked about it. It tasted just like really weak cider or a hint of wine cooler. I think it's safe to say that this is only for getting drunk, people don't buy it for the flavor.

It's not just alcoholic cider, it's cider for alcoholics - if you can even call it cider.

This mystery manzana drink smells a little bit like non-sour "green apple flavor." It's not at all like real apple though, and barely at all even like that fake apple flavor. It's got even a slight tinge of orange flavor, but it really just tastes like pure chemical artificial flavoring similar to a slush puppie or sno-cone.

Ecuadorian Manzana reminds me of apple jacks, which are also orange and taste nothing like apple. Hey, I guess you can ignore the label and drink what you like, but I'll probably be drinking something else.

I'm actually pretty nervous to try it. From the Chinese name,  黑木耳露 （Hei1 Mu4 Er3 Lu4）, I know that it's wood ear juice. Wood ear (evidently a.k.a. Jew's ear) is a fungus that's pretty common in Chinese dishes, but I would never think about drinking it.

It's a nasty-looking thick semi-transparent cloudy brown liquid. It's smell is weird, like a mix between the apple vinegar drink and turkey gravy. It's a little thick and slimy, but the flavor is actually mild. The flavor isn't anything at all like the cooked wood ear that I'm used to eating.

It's so strange that it tastes like bland, bad, old apple cider, that I decided to check the ingredients. The Jew's Ear Juice is made of: pure water, black wood ear (Jew's ear), haw (Chinese hawthorn), big Chinese date, sugar, honey, sodium of citric acid, and stabilizer.

It all makes sense now, the strange appley flavor is coming from the haw. It does taste similar to hawthorne juice now that I think of it.

Well, the can says that if you drink the Jew's ear juice cold, it's clear and refreshing, but you can heat it up to make it more "densely" fragrant. I gotta try it.

Wow this stuff heats up fast. Granted, I only heated a little bit, but I think due to the thickness or sugar or something, it started boiling after about 20 seconds in the microwave.

They were right about the smell, it is definitely denser. The strange thing is that it now smells more like food, almost like spaghetti-o's. Believe it or not, Jew's ear juice actually tastes better hot. Maybe it's the thickness, but I think it's just that wood ear is usually served cold, and when the juice is hot it reminds me less that I'm drinking fungus juice.

As a special bonus it came with a Jew's Ear Juice Bottle Opener! What a great souvenir. I will be the hit of all the parties from now on.

*Update: Since I've gotten a lot of questions from readers as to what Jew's ear actually is, I found this beautiful picture of one by Jenny Downing. You can definitely see where this fungus gets the name "wood ear. "

The smell is pretty unremarkable, like unsweet old apple cider. Actually, that's exactly what it tastes like. It's a little sweet, but there's a strong sour and bitter aftertaste. It tastes like if you took a couple bites out of an apple, set it on the counter for a couple days, then came back and took a bite of that brown part. I haven't actually done that, I'm just guessing. The other thing about this apple vinegar drink is that it's got a little bit of a slimy texture.

Anyone who's had apple cider sit around in the fridge a little too long will know what this tastes like. It's not too bad, but it definitely doesn't taste like when you first bought it. A few sips were enough for me, I didn't get around to finishing the bottle. It doesn't help me any that it came in a combo pack with another (less attractive) bottle. My guess is they need a promotion like this to get rid of the ugly bottles, because it's hard enough getting people to drink it when the bottle looks nice.

While I wouldn't want to drink apple cider vinegar everyday, after doing some research it seems like it has a lot of legitimate health benefits. It may help with diabetes, losing weight, and pH balancing (I don't know what that means). Since the 1950's it's been revered as a cure-all for just about everything: allergies, sinus infections, flu, cholesterol, sore throat, acid reflux, acne, gout, and even head lice! I'm not so sure scientific research has been done to back up any of these claims. Anyway, dinking apple cider vinegar straight is so harsh it could cause throat problems, so if you're going to drink it anyway, maybe getting a pre-mixed drink like this one is better than mixing up a recipe yourself.

Bottle of Nikola Kvas

Russian Kvas is really a strange drink, at least from a categorization standpoint. Looking at the bottle, it looks like any other soda or soft drink (aside from the Russian writing). It is carbonated, but that's because it's fermented like beer.

Translated from the Cyrillic квас, known in English as kvass, kvas, or sometimes bread drink, kvas is made of rye bread and fermented to make a slightly alcoholic beverage. The alcohol content is so low that it's considered safe for children to drink.

I tried Nikola Kvas for the first time at my Russian friend's house. He described the brown drink as "beer soda." Obviously I had to try it. While it does have a beer-ish taste, it's tangy and tastes a bit like hard apple cider. It's definitely not sweet like most soft drinks, and took a couple sips to get used to. Kvas is not really the greatest drink for refreshment, since it's a little heavy. It's great for drinking with a hearty meal though like meat and potatoes or just for the taste.

Nikola is a Russian kvass company, whos name sounds like "not-cola" in Russian. It's one of Russia's national drinks, and there has been a great revival of Kvas drinking there, as a push back against the big foreign soda makers. The Russian kvas recipe is traditionally made from fermented wheat, rye, or barley with fruit sometimes added for flavor.

I took a look at the Nikola kvas drink ingredients, and it seemed to be a blend of all three grains, using apple as a base. That would explain the hard cider taste. This is clearly a commercial production though, made in similar ways to other soft drinks. I'm curious to try a home-made kvas to see how they differ in taste.