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.