I HAVE A STREAM

HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS FIZZNESS READERS

I bring you good tidings. I scored myself a soda-stream for Christmas from the loving other half. Awh. She knows me far too well and will soon start cooking up some home brew I reckon.

I missed out on the soda stream revolution as a child and so this is my first foray into the home carbonation movement. This has of course left me very excited and got the mind bubbling away, what can I fizz first MILK? GRAVY? VODKA? but wow there I also got a lovely flavor sampler pack which I'll work my way through first and after that well I might try out this little recipe here for  Chocolate Soda

This will be our last past of the year so all that's left to do is wish you all a happy new year and watch this space. We have a big review coming up in the next month that we can't say too much about right now

Forever Home Alone

TaB Cola

I'm a moron. Yep, it's out there. As a delightful man from the delightful city of Belfast my knowledge of TaB began and end with the ill-fated clear cola of TaB Clear in the early 90's

Look at it, it's so.... well pointless but still the point stands so imagine my confusion, if it helps picture Peter Andre trying to remember the last time he wasn't a cretin, when I got myself a can and well it wasn't clear. See Tab Cola was one of the worlds first ever Diet Colas and pre-dates Diet Coke apparentley. WELL I BE DAMNED

Shock! It's a coca-cola product and I'm drinking it. It's got a strong cola taste and an incredible pink can. Err and it's very 80's styleee. You can tell this by the crazy usage of a capital letter and the start and end of the word. This isn't to be confused with the vErY nInEtIeS nU-mEtAl way of making things eye bleedingly bad.

It's pretty cool drink but there is a worrying kind of hum from the can that makes you think it might be a little bit toxic. The sweeteners used seem a little harsh but not overly sweet. It's main plus points are probably that it's a bit different and err pink but it really isn't a patch on Pepsi Max or the current young pretenders. In the world of Diet Colas Tab is probably the Karl Largerfeld. Older than most, maybe not ageing that well, flamboyantly attired and err got shit hair, I think I've got distracted. The funny thing about that is even he drinks Diet Coke

Aside from that it's totally rad and gnarly. Sorry guys in true 80's style I'm off to befriend a small alien creature, party with a caveman robot before finally going to prom with that swimsuit model that lives next door.

BRISKY BUSINESS : Brisk Lemonade

Brisk is a non-carbonated US drink brand from the same family of products as Lipton Ice Tea. Most don't contain any tea they just contain powerful flavours in pretty out there can designs. The 1st one I'm trying (and in total I will be trying 4 from the range) is the Lemonade drink.

With non-carbonated lemonades you run the risk of something like Marks and Spencers lemonade cooler that melts your face off with it's powerful lemon cannon. An unrelenting roller coaster of sourness that makes you want to go crying to your mother.

This is not that drink. It's tangy and sweet without any sharpness and by god does it look good. I prefer it that way and that's actually how the police described me after a toga party at fizzness tower went a bit awry recently.

Overall it's a lot of fun. I'm going to rank it just below the Rockstar Recovery as it's more readily available, has the added hangover killing caffeine and the can is equally as pimping.

I think it's worth picking a few of these up just to see the artwork including the particularly fetching Green Lantern inspired piece we'll review soon. So for me this is a  7/10 to a really welcome change up in pace.Quite a fan of these non-carbonated drinks, but this isn't quite up there with Hawaiian Punch

You can get your grubby little mits on it at AmericanFizz
http://www.americanfizz.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=187

Christmas Fizzness

Get your christmas tubes around this

Sneak Preview of our Xmas video

Tymbark Cherry and Apple

We reviewed the apple and mint flavour of Tymbark recently and the only reason it avoided the dreaded Jude Law award was simply because we hadn't invented it yet.

It was a confused mess of a drink so it was with a great deal of trepidation that I took on the Cherry and Apple Flavour

We're on much more stable ground with this one. It's a more common flavour and I think they've pretty much nailed it. The cherry flavour is really strong and nice. The apple doesn't overpower it due to the strength of the cherry flavour. It's like biting into black cherrys. It feels like something cobbled together from the black forest.

Really good and has fully made up for the flat dissapointing Apple and Mint Flavour.

FIZZNESS SEAL OF APPROVAL

Great news it's on special offer at Tesco at the minute. Only 50p! BOSH
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=265845700

Kicking Kola

An organic Cola you say? Seems odd but why not. Free Natural you say? Seems odd but why not? Sweetened with fruit juice rather than sugar? Ok but you're just making me a bit sad now.

Kicking Kola is an odd little product that I found in a Deli recently. It was the only bottle left so I quickly snaffled it up and brought it home.

I wish I'ld left it there.

The smell is a bit off putting as well it's a bit spirit like. I guess it's probably botanically brewed like Fentimans but the smell isn't as alluring as Curiosity Cola. The taste well it doesn't fully taste like Cola. There's a hint there but instead of the apple juice adding to the cola taste and strengthening it, you kinda feel the other way and that the cola is the background flavour.

The apples taste stewed. I doubt they have been cooked or whatever but you get that kind of apple tart taste to them.

Wasn't a fan 2/10. The only thing kicking here was what this drink did to my nuts. I feel stunned.

It also gets the dreaded Jude Law award. I tried to be nice in my wording last time but apparently gave the impression I fancied him. The Jude Law award is for something that makes you want to reach inside your own face and disconnect your brain so you don't have to deal with it anymore. In real terms it also means I havent even been able to finish the drink, that was the case here and it was a small bottle

Frugo Strong White

Another Frugo review. If you've seen our other reviews you'll know the drill by now.

We've almost worked our way through the entire Frugo range now. Just two left. Today we are dealing with Strong White, which you will be thankful to know isn't some sort of political statement from our Eastern European friends...phew. It's a Lychee infused drink and I'll be really honest here. I was not looking forward to this one.

Why you ask? Coconut, Pineapple and Bannana sounds like an odd mix alone but adding Lychees (and again that's a weird combo right because Lychees are more common in Asia right?) just makes me feel we are on a really shaky ground here.

DO NOT TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS EVER.

This was really really good. Tastes really 'tropical' and has a really sweet refreshing taste. The lychees flavour is masked quite happily by the other 3 but together they have created something really nice here. Again if you are a fan of snapple drinks give this a go. It's still relatively cheap in tescos

It's a high score it's probably an 8/10 but it's falling a little short of the official seal of approval. As a drinks range though it probably earns it.

You can get it here
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=271638424

So that leaves us with only 1 Frugo flavour left to try and thats the orange which is Passonfruit flavour I believe. We got a strong recommendation on that from a fizzness reader. If you guys have any suggestions for us either hit us up on Facebook or Twitter (@Fizznessblog)

Kubus Apple Raspberry and Carrot

Like the soft drink Michael Palin we are continuing are journey sampling some of easternly europes finest beverages by way of the international food aisle in our local supermarket, which in some ways is exactly like being there in the first place right?

KUBUS. Where to start? Well the bottle is pretty cool with little pawprints and the like on it. The top of the cap has a delightful pawprint as well. Great and it's nice when someone takes a little time to make a bottle look a bit different and stand out.

If you've not heard of Kubus well I will be a little suprised. It's pretty common sight here in most convenience stores in some form or other, normally the larger bottles. It's a high vitamin fruit juice blend, the small 300ml bottle accounted for 150% of my Vitamin A and C for the day.

It kind of reminds me a bit of the V8 product which I think in the UK was normally carrot based, in the US I believe they have like beets and sweet potato juice blended. This is Carrot, Apple and Raspberry but to be honest on tasting it none of the 3 are dominant. Is it because they are such a delightful blend or is it soemthing to do with the glucose-fructose syrup being added just kind of dulling the corners of the taste a little? Probably leaning to the latter.

One thing I need to say about this is the consistency is odd. It's thick but it feels whipped or aerated somehat. It's like a melted sorbet or Calippo Ice Cream or something. Not sure how they've managed that? I don't think it's entirely down to the make up of the juice either. It sounds maybe similar to a thick smoothie you would make at home but here it kind of feels like an artificial example of that.

All in all. It's pretty inoffensive stuff. Nothing jumps out either way except maybe the oddly offputting texture might cost it a couple of points. Run of the mill stuff I thought 5/10

If you fancy trying it you can order it online from the following places.
http://www.polishfood.co.uk/section.php/70/1/kubus
or
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=265723862

The Bannana, Peach and Apple flavour has got me a little interested if I'm honest

Pepsi Wild Cherry

Look at it. Isn't it glorious? This is one of the holy grails for us UK type folk. We hear a lot about Wild Cherry Pepsi well now I managed to find it on the shelf of my local deli (Sawyers in Belfast http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/sawers-belfast which if you can get past the smell of fish is a bit of a treasure trove for drinks and candy)

So in the interest of full disclosure I will come clean and admit this isn't my first dance with Wild Cherry Pepsi. No no no, I had it from a dispenser in a buffet type restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes in Florida (http://www.souplantation.com/locations/restaurant.aspx?store_id=116&store_name=Lake_Buena_Vista) It's only fair to give that a place a whole hearted recommendation to anyone in Florida. I thought it was fantastic.

This however is not holiday time and therefore I had my serious hat on (it has a picture of godzilla on it) when I sat down to review this drink. So here it is.

It is very very good. You smell it and there's like an almondy background to the smell and a little bit to the flavour. I think the Cherry flavouring is a lot nicer than the stuff we get here in Cherry Vimto or Cherry 7-UP (both reviewed on this site you say? http://fizzness.blogspot.com/2011/08/cherry-vimto.html and http://fizzness.blogspot.com/2011/07/cherry-7-up.html ) but that might be an america vs uk deal going on there.

The obvious competitor here would be Cherry Coke right? Is it better than that? Probably no for my money and I think due to the almond type flavour I'm getting it's possibly a little closer to the UK Dr.Pepper than Cherry Coke. Madness? Possibly. It's good but I'm not sure it's any better than what's currently readily available here in the UK.

I will get my hands on this Cherry Pepsi Max as surely it's nicer than that frankly vulgar diet coke with cherry. Which makes my eyes bleed.

Want to get your hands on some? Not from Belfast? Try the following web links
http://www.americanfizz.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=72
http://www.americansweets.co.uk/american-wild-cherry-pepsi-12-can-pack-643-p.asp
http://www.americansoda.co.uk/uk/American-Soda/Home/Drinks/Regular-Soda/Wild-Cherry-Pepsi-12-FL-OZ-(355ml).aspx

I have had experience with all of these guys and they are all reputable sellers.

Haribo Super Sour Monsters

Haribo have a new(ish) product called Super Sour Monsters and oddly enough it doesn't seem like it's a Halloween only treat.

Stomping along in Lemon, Cherry and Apple flavours these terrifying critters will surely have you screwing your face up. Not only because they are powerfully sour but also because you would think to yourself doesn't Haribo already have Tangfastics? Aren't they brilliant? Couldn't they have just added these to tangfastics for Halloween rather than make it stand alone?

Odd. Still good like don't get me wrong but given the choice I would probably go for Tangfastics. These sweets have the 3 flavour variations and each is nice, apple would be my personal favourite. but they don't have the same range or excitement that tangfastics generates.

Left me feeling a bit  flat 5/10

Frugo Green

So after the success of my initial Frugo tasting and the sheer revulsion following my second tasting I decided I owed it to myself to try out a few of the other flavours.

First up is the STRONG GREEN. Which is a blend of kiwi, passion fruit, apple and Lulo. Yeah Lulo, no it's ok I didn't know what it was either but check this out it's like something out of a sci-fi film

SPORES!

So this is Frugos thing they like to take odd or tropical fruit and blend them with more familiar flavours to give us something unique. Great idea, especially as most of us will have no idea what a Lulo tastes like....


So first things first it smells nice, kind of like Tropical 5-A-Live which I guess is kind of a direct competitor for this sort of drink as again it's non-carbonated and fruit based.

The taste is nice you can get Passion Fruit and a bit of Kiwi coming through and it's nice. Very tropical and again it's sort of snapple-esque in terms of the flavour and the way it's blended.

Here's the thing. I like the taste of this, I like the price of this (still 33p until Christmas) but it's hard to give it the seal of approval as I can't tell if they have nailed the Lulo taste. I have a funny feeling the passionfruit and kiwi blend is probably something akin to what the lulo tastes like and it's there to give you that feeling or taste.

It's good. At this price you should try it but it's not quite good enough to get the golden seal of approval.

7/10

Available at Tescos http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=271636138

Merry Christmas from CocaCola

I just wanted to bring you a little snippet about something Coke does in Ireland (North and South) at this time of the year.

So as we all now Christmas is a time for families, presents and general good tidings but also sadly it's a time of increased convictions for drink driving (I'm using my adult voice now). So what coke have done is offer 3 free soft drinks for designated drivers! Yep 3 free soft drinks for those who are not partaking in alcohol that night.

http://www.cokezone.ie/home/assets/xmas11/driverLanding.jsp

In the rest of the UK you are getting a BOGOF type deal, which whilst not quite as good is still a fantastic offer from coca-cola
http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/designated-driver/pub-finder.html

So next time you're heading out and don't feel like drinking remember you might be able to get youself a nice little freebie this christmas

Pink Frugo

Now in terms of looks this is the strongest Frugo product. You may have found yourself drawn to it in tescos. BEWARE. IT HAS GRAPEFRUIT IN IT AND LOTS OF IT. It burnt my face off. I now have no face because of grapefruits.

As graprefruit juice is the devils piss I've decided to take a stand. A real stand. This is the 1st time I've ever awarded a drink the dreaded JUDE LAW AWARD, given to those drinks which may look alright but have a genuine core of evil running through them