I love the mentality of the Jones family brewery; include everyone and have fun. A lot of big drink companies claim to have ways to include their consumers (pick the new flavor… out of these 2 we already pre-tested), or prizes under the cap, but it doesn’t come near the great things Jones does on a regular basis.

I keep a collection of bottles for each root beer brew I’ve tried, and that task is very difficult with Jones because almost every bottle is different, literally. Jones encourages their fans to send in their own photos, of anything, and if they like it they’ll put it on their bottles and give you credit. The photos they choose don’t have a pattern: old cars, close-up of a tiger, deck at a lake, to a picture of a girl with a lamp shade on her head; they’ll use it so long as it’s interesting.

In addition to the photos, they also put something under each cap, but it’s not “Sorry try again,” instead its fortunes, and not just ones they made up, but ones that fans have submitted straight off fortune cookies. They include fans in their product so much, you’d almost think they’d let you help brew the stuff if there were a feasible way to pull that off, it truly lives its slogan: “Your photo. Your soda. Your brand.”

Jones – Root Beer – 3/5

So while Jones makes over 12 different regular sodas (plus plenty seasonal and crazy ones like ‘bacon flavor’), I’m focused on the Root Beer, and what a nice brew it is. As all Jones brews are, it’s made with pure cane sugar, and the taste shows with a nice smooth beverage with great flavor. It seems to have a bit of a vanilla to it which I’ve always liked as the kicker, but that brings me to my one complaint about Jones. I can’t be completely sure on the vanilla, because they don’t fully list all their ingredients, instead opting for: “NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS” which to me is a cop out in the world of root beer. Obviously some parts of recipes need to stay secret, but at least tell me what the main show is (though as a beverage I can’t dock points for that).

On the 5-point smoothness scale it’s a solid 4 with just that little bit of zip, but nothing to shock you. The other great thing is that Jones is popular enough that you can actually order 12-packs off the website, and that is a most definite worthy endeavor you should do if you can’t find this brew in a local store.

So as you may have noticed due to visits to the Abita Brewery, the Triple XXX Root Beer Drive In and other type travel visits, I have a fondness for trying out bottled brews/sodas. While I don’t advocate drinking a ton of soda the way fat America does, I do recommend trying out some natural and local brews from all around the world. Too many people in the states live on Coke and Mountain Dew, never knowing what its like to have a non-high-fructose corn syrup drink or trying variations on a flavor.

Since I’m always trying different stuff, I figured I’d start posting some reviews. Pretty simple: 1-5 scale with a 1 = spit it out and trying to burn the memory of it out of my brain; and 5 = awesome beverage you must try and worth getting a case of it shipped to yourself. So here goes the first reviews.

One thing I love doing is taking a trip down the international isle of our local Wegmans because among many things, it has sodas from Mexico; and for those not familiar with sodas outside of the U.S., there’s generally one thing consistent about them. Real Sugar. No high-fructose corn syrup or tons of other over-manufactured ingredients (and yes, I know some things need to be artificial in most sodas). Health reasons aside, my crusade against corn-syrup has a lot to do with flavor, while you can still get a decent drink with corn syrup, you get amazing drinks with real cane sugar.  So that brings us to today’s reviews, 2 soda flavors from Jarritos.

Jarritos (which in English means “Little Jars,” hence the jars in their logo ) is generally a popular brand in Mexico, started by some dude named Don Francisco “El Güero” Hill in 1950.

Jarritos – Tutifruti (Fruit Punch) – 3/5

As a fruit punch soda, its very good; (way better than say, Hawaiian Punch), but when actual fruit punch is just so good, plus the other flavors that are out there, I think its just in an assistant role in the soda world. I think its one downfall is the same as say Minute Maid Orange Juice (carbonating something that wasn’t meant to be a carbonated beverage). When chilled, a soda should go down smooth, not shock you; and while Tutifruti is maybe just a 3/5 on the shock scale, that’s still a little too much for me.

Jarritos – Fresa (Strawberry) – 5/5

The Strawberry flavor however is amazing! This is clearly the main event for Jarritos, the flavor is great and not any hint of that carbonation tang that the fruit punch has.  The strawberry is very smooth and well… it really tastes like strawberries. I also like that it is not a red-cream soda, but instead its a straight strawberry flavor, good stuff from Mexico.