Levi Roots Caribbean Crush

Ahh Levi Roots. What a man. Levi Roots is such a fantastically likeable man that I recently managed to stomach close to 15 minutes of Jamie Olivers new cooking programme just because Levi Roots was on it. Yep he might be the cure for the common Jamie Oliver.

With this in mind you could probably guess that I was pretty excited about the prospect of LEVI ROOT BRANDED SOFT DRINKS. Yeah that deserves capital letters as this was a capital idea from the minds of Vimtos finest.

Levi was brinking out 3 drinks a Reggae Reggae Tomato Juice Drink (and some other juice drinks it must be said), err ok maybe not for me that one, a Ginger Beer (which we hope to have G-PEZ review soon) and one that was right up my alley, so to speak, Carribean Crush. A Reggae Reggae take on Lilt.

Carribean Crush proposes itself to be a tropical blend of mango, grapefruit and pineapple so yeah we're on pretty safe ground to assume we're looking at a Lilt type deal here. Lilt is a mix of Pineapple and Grapefruit so unless we're mangoed up to the hilt here it should be pretty similar.

I opened my nicely branded 500ml bottle and it is nicely branded. It jumps off the shelf at you and I have noticed it getting a little traction with customers locally as I'm seeing the bottles about a lot. More the Crush than Ginger Beer but still it's nice to see a new brand taking off and I think that's largely down to the man behind the brand.

First things first it smells like Lilt it's that tropical welcoming smell. First taste and the carbonation seems similar to Lilt, which is deliberately less carbonated than other Coke products to make the drink seem more relaxed. The grapefruit and pineapple are instantly recognisable, the mango a little less so. The pineapple after taste is strong and rides out well but then you're hit with another after taste one of dissapointment.

It tastes like an own brand version of Lilt. It doesn't feel like it has it's own identity or flavour to it, maybe side by side you could appreciate mango a little bit more but as it is it's feels like an impersonator. The looks there and it all seems right but deep down you know it's just not the real thing.

One thing that has come out of this is though that Lilt are bringing out a new Mango flavour to counteract this, so they've got someone rattled. I think if possible they should see if they can reinvent the flavour a little maybe by adding papaya or blood orange even if just to change the colour and outlook of the drink.

Sorry Levi Roots, I am dissapoint