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.