Mary Jane’s Soda
I first heard about Mary Jane's Soda online, as a part of the relaxing drinks trend, obviously using the name to relate it's properties to something like a weed soda, even though it contains no marijuana. It's made by The Relaxing Company, which also makes a relaxing tea. Both drinks contain kava extract as the active ingredient. Click "read more" for the full review.
Cascal Naturally Fermented Soda
Cascal was one of the first booths that caught my eye at the 2010 Boston vegetarian festival. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I know of many non-vegetarian drinks (unless you count drinks made with eggs or milk), but that's beside the point. The Cascal booth was one of the largest, and they were giving away samples of what they called soda, but described like wine. Read More >
TOT: Iced Tea Soda
Here's a new weird combination that turns out to be really good. It's bubbly cherry iced tea, called TOT 苏打红茶 suda hong cha (Iced Tea Soda).
On first taste, it's almost like the tea flavor is hidden behind the bubbles, and you feel like you're drinking seltzer water. The tea and cherry flavor is subtle and actually pretty good. I'm not a fan of most bottled iced teas like brisk
Even weirder than the drink itself is the TOT Iced Tea Soda Commercial (I apologize, that this video might not be available outside China without a proxy). I'm not sure how this sells the drink at all, but here's a recap of the commercial:
Read More >
Chilsung Cider
Despite the name, this is just your standard lemon-lime soda. It's not a cider at all. What a let-down. It does taste allright even though it was nothing like what I expected.
Manzana Soda from Ecuador
Manzana is a soda with a strange orange color for something that supposedly tastes like apple. The name "Manzana" means apple in spanish, and there aren't really any other identifying clues on the bottle besides a cap which has the logo of RC Cola on it and a quote on the side saying "100% Ecuatoriana."
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.
