Portemo

I sample a delightful drink called Portemo from a local soft drink manufacturer Maine. I think the first thing to say is the bottle itself is a work of art. The kind of camp font on the label and the fantastic thick glass bottle combine to give you something that feels a bit special.

The next thing is a confession. I don't really know what Portemo is. If you search the internet you don't find much information. The name doesn't mean a lot to me as a local so I decided to dig a bit more. I believe this is a version of a drink called Portello which is local to the United Kingdom but now lives it life in sunnier climes like Sri Lanka and Australia.

Now I have never had Portello so this is a guess and it will remain only a guess unless I can get a Sri Lankan colleague to confirm for me there is a similarity. Why you might ask the name change, I found a cryptic blog that indicates Coca-Cola owns the trademark for the name Portello so this would go some way to explain the change in identity.

Now onto the maine version itself

As you can see from the photo it has a really lush deep purple colour to it. The smell of it is berry, strong berry. To me I would guess raspberry and blackcurrant as there is a definite Vimto note to it. Taste wise again there are similarities to Vimto but sweeter. It's highly carbonated which is common with Maine and this makes it really crisp and light. It's a real winner.

Really nice drink but one which still has questions over it's true identity.

If you are from Northern Ireland I would recommend trying this out. Maine is having a bit of a resurgence lately and is available in a lot of convenience stores.

Maine Attaboy Soft Drink

 We're reviewing another of Northern Irelands own soft drinks again from local Bottler Maine and why not in a week were Justin Beiber had 90% of belfast girls under the age of 16fizzing it seemed only appropriate (ie unlike that comment)


The name of this flavour is Attaboy...errr...yeah

No no they haven't gone full renegade on us and created a soft drink flavoured like an American dog food product



Or so I think.....

 
Yeah it says Colin on it.


Listen I don't know why but there is a mythical soft drink in Ireland. It's called Football Special and it roams the hills in Donegal eating Hikers. For some reason despite everyone claiming this to be the finest soft drink in the world it doesn't get sold outside of a 20 mile radius. It's like one of those big cats people always claim to spot in England to the point now that I'm not sure if it really exists. The Fizzness crew are in early stages of planning a road trip to pick it up but I have this incredibly odd feelin that Maine have tried to recreate it here. The wikipedia page indicates two flavours Bannana (which is probably reason enough to make a trip) and a secret blend of 7 flavours.


Now yes how can you now that this drink is like a drink you've never had? I don't. All I know is Mrs. Fizzness (she won't like being called that) was startled. Is that football special? It looks like Football Special. This paired with the fact this product is so secret it's not even listed on their website (http://www.mainesoftdrinks.co.uk/products/) was getting me excited (It's probably because it's sold as a 'Colin' product)

Excited I bust open the bottle. The smell is crazy. It's like Cherry Irn Bru. I'm not kidding this smells delicious.

I pour it out and even by looking at it it seems more like something from an apothecary than a corner store. It's science going on in that glass. The flavour god well ok it's a mongrel of a flavour and we all know that mongrels are invariably the best of all worlds.

This is like a heady mix of cream soda, irn bru, cherry and and cola (red kola like the Skottish Kola we reviewed before) and together it works incredibly well.

This is highly recommended. If you can get your hands on some you owe it to yourself to try this out.


FIZZNESS SEAL OF APPROVAL

I'm the maine man baby

Bit of background first up.

Maine is a Northern Irish Soft Drinks company based in Ballymoney. This is there website http://www.mainesoftdrinks.co.uk/products/ and they have a special place in the hearts of many Northern Irish people. They make classic UK flavours and bottle them in wonderful big glass bottles. My granny used to be a big fan of their products and their Pineapple flavour is out of this world

I stumbled, yeah shameful times I know, into a local store on Friday night and was confronted with the sight of Scottish Kola. My head told me it would be Iron Bru flavoured but my heart said it would be KOLA KUBE flavour I mean my god it even has a K there in the word Kola.

For the uninitiated Kola Kubes are officially a geometrists favourite sweet/candy. These hard boiled cola flavoured cubes are a staple of growing up in the UK. Despite this no Cola really tastes like them (Fentimans may be the closest) so if Maine had managed to do this they had caught the proverbial lightning in a bottle.

I snaffled this and a can of Dr.Pepper Cherry (review to follow shortly) and made my way back to drink it. I twisted the the cap, on that note is there a better feeling than opening an old worlde glass bottle of pop?, and sniffed in big. Ohh it did sort of smell of Kola Kubes. I didn't even bother with a glass, in my defense this bottle was technically a large glass right, and took a swig.

Boom it's Iron Brew but with a hint of Kola Kube. It's there I'm sure it's there, I might have imagined it, no I didn't it's definitely there. It's a strange mix and I think the Iron Brew overpowers it. I would prefer it to be a super strong Kola Kube flavoured powerhouse but instead it feels like a mix of two worlds.

This is a good drink though because it's different and it's great that a local company is trying new things. I would recommend to anyone in NI to get a hold of this when they see it, it's worth a try.

We'll see if there's anyway to find an online stockist of that and failing that if you are really keen drop us a line and we'll try and sort you out somehow.

I've got my eye on their product list and the Australian famed Portello is certainly calling me. I may have to give Maine a call to find a local stockist.

Failing that I might just have to hit up the Kola Kube flavoured schnapps

Although on second thoughts.......