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.

Mary Jane's Soda tastes like a weak cola. it's got a little bit of carbonation, and is sweet like a typical brown soda. As for unique flavors, it tastes a little bit herbal or flowery, maybe similar to china cola or thums up. Based on taste alone, it's a respectable soda but nothing special.

I first drank one at 8:30pm, didn't feel much in the way of relaxation. Drank another at 9:30, and still didn't feel anything, or didn't think so. Since two was the limit on the bottle, I figured it would be enough to feel some kind of effect, so I waited a while. I read online that the effects sometimes take half an hour to take effect, which is why I waited so long in between bottles. If there was any effect after the 2nd bottle, it was indistinguishable from what could have been a placebo effect or me just being a little tired. At 11:00 I went for a third bottle in the name of science. After the third, I could feel some slight tingling sensation, and a very tiny bit of a "heavy arms" feeling, but only when I stayed perfectly still. It was so slight that if I moved or walked around, the feeling was completely gone. I can't honestly say that it felt relaxing at all though, but then again, I wasn't particularly stressed out to begin with either. After going to bed at around 1:00, I had trouble sleeping, but I can't attribute that to the drink either - it could easily just be my overactive mind. I can only safely say that Mary Jane's Soda didn't help me sleep better than usual.

There is one factor that may have interrupted the experiment - I ate a big bowl of noodles for dinner before drinking the soda. The website says to try it on an empty stomach. So, experiment two will be to drink it faster without any food beforehand to see if I can achieve some sort of significant relaxing effect.

Update: I decided to go all the way to test if there was any sort of effect whatsoever, so I drank the remaining bottles (don't try this at home), which was about 6 and I can conclusively say that it doesn't have any significant relaxing effect. If you are looking for a drink that does have noticeable relaxing effects, try Kava Kwik.

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.

The people at the booth were using words like "dry, with hints of black currant, " so naturally I was intrigued. They have 5 flavors, which are very different from each other. Overall though, they're lightly fermented, and not too sweet like most sodas. I tried the white, then the brown, then the red (they don't have names, just colors).

The Crisp White is really light and refreshing. The flavor is hard to describe, like fruit juice, but with hints of kombucha. While kombucha is really harsh though, the Cascal isn't harsh at all. The Cascal Fine Dark reminded me a little of kvas, so there must be a similar fermentation process going on there. I like all of these naturally fermented drinks, almost as much as I like real beer.

While I'm not 100% sold on Cascal being compared on par to beer and wine, it does definitely have more complex flavors than pretty much any other sodas I know of. The naturally fermented taste might not be for everyone, but I like it.

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, but this one is different. It's got a lighter flavor and is not so overpoweringly sweet or artificial tasting as other ones I've tried.

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:

It's pronounced T-O-T

Guy: "Why are you going to college all the way in Beijing? You know my test scores aren't high enough to go there with you!"

Four Years Later....

Girl: "Iced Tea Soda, please"

Guy sees her ordering the drink, gets all teary-eyed

Girl sees him, nods slightly

Next thing we know, they're happily ever after, but noone has even drank any of the tea

Obviously, this is marketing at its best. The commercial has nothing to do with TOT or iced tea, or even drinks in general. It suggests that if you buy an iced tea soda at a grocery store, you will find your long lost love. You don't even have to drink it! Unfortunately that didn't happen to me today when I bought mine. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

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 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.

I heard a lot about Thums Up from my Indian friends all throughout college, but never got a chance to try it until I recently found it in an Indian food specialty shop. After hearing so much praise, I had very high expectations. It looks and tastes like a cola, but it does have a distinct taste from the likes of Coke or Pepsi. It's flavors are more like China Cola, herbal and aromatic, though sweeter and more carbonated.

It may just be my bias knowing it comes from India, but the spices and flavors in it do seem to match the profile of Indian food. According to Wikipedia, it has a taste "reminiscent of betel nut." I don't know what betel nut tastes like but for anyone who does, maybe it gives you a better idea of what I'm talking about. That being said, it is still a cola, and may just be an interesting drink as an alternative to Coke. Its interesting flavors would also make a good mix with rum for a rum and thums up.

Thums Up still comes in a glass bottle with an actual, real bottle cap that you have to use a bottle opener for. What it might lack in convenience, it makes up for in authenticity. Despite the fact that it's made by Coca-Cola, I still give this drink a thumbs up.

I sipped this before smelling it. Bad idea.

Based on the harmless-looking sprig of wheat or barley on the can, I figured it would be something like Nikola Kvas, especially since Korea is so close to Russia. Boy, was I wrong.

That first sip of McCol was terrible and overwhelming. It's really fizzy and sour, and tastes like lemon juice mixed with beer that's gone bad. It's worth saying again, it's really fizzy, so fizzy that when you sip it forms a foam in your mouth because of all the fizz. It's one of the worst drinks I've ever tried, and I couldn't actually take more than two sips.

I seriously can't imagine anyone liking McCol. I had to force myself to take a second sip so I could reasonably describe what it tastes like. But I've heard differently too. One of my thirsty friends guzzled the drink down without blinking, and I've read on a Korean blog (in English) that it just tastes like Coke or Pepsi with a slight barley aftertaste. Supposedly it's even somewhat good for you, fortified with Vitamins A, B, and C.

At the risk of being guilty of just "not giving McCol a chance," I was happy when I discovered a French blog (in French) that agrees with me. The author describes McCol like this:

"I'll be honest with you, it's disgusting. It does not resemble cola too much, rather a kind of Rivella which has aged poorly. Not great so I do not advise it."
- Louline (via Google Translator)

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.