Review - Mountain Dew Kickstart Fruit Punch

Bottler: PepsiCo

Calories per Ounce: 5

Caffeine: YES (92 mg per 16 oz)

Aaron's Comments: Mountain Dew Kickstart is a drink designed to let people pretend that they are being healthier while still getting a full dose of caffeine. To a certain extent, the drink is healthier than regular Mountain Dew - it has fewer calories per ounce, and contains a smidgen of fruit juice in its mixture, but really, it is a delivery device for concentrated amounts of caffeine. The fruit punch flavor is exactly what one would think it should be, basically delivering a flavor similar for fruit punch flavored Kool-Aid with the addition of carbonation. Ice doesn't appreciably change the flavor of the Kickstart, likely because the flavor was pretty innocuous to begin with. Although making an ice cream float was clearly not the intended purpose of this drink, I did it anyway, and it worked out reasonably well. The flavor of the Kickstart seems to gain by mixture with the vanilla of the ice cream, probably as a result of the resulting slight thickening of the soda. I'm not sure I would recommend using Kickstart as a first choice for making an ice cream soda, but it does the job adequately.

Review - Goya Cola Champagne

Bottler: Goya

Calories per Ounce: 16.7

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: Being entirely unfamiliar with the flavor, I had no idea what to expect from Goya Cola Champagne. It didn't look like any soda labeled "cola" that I had ever seen, and the idea of a champagne flavored soda didn't sound particularly appetizing, so I approached it with some trepidation. Happily, cola champagne has a sweet coconut-like flavor that is hard to pin down more specifically. With ice, the coconut flavor is undiminished, although the almost cloying sweetness of the soda is dampened. Used in an ice cream float, the coconut-like flavor morphs into a slight citrus-like flavor, and mixes well with the vanilla of the ice cream.

Angela's Comments: It's weird but I like it.

Review - Mug Root Beer

Bottler: PepsiCo

Calories per Ounce: 13

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: Mug Root Beer is a somewhat spicier root beer than most other big name brands of root beer, garnishing the usual vanilla base flavor with what seems to be some combination of cinnamon and nutmeg. This gives Mug Root Beer a sharper taste than other root beers that rely heavily on vanilla for their flavoring, such as A&W. When served with ice, much of the spiciness is muted, which robs Mug of much of what makes it unique. Used in an ice cream float, the spicy flavor is still muted, but remains noticeable enough to add an interesting and tasty counterpoint to the vanilla of the ice cream.

Review - Virgil's Root Beer

Bottler: Reed's, Inc.

Calories per Ounce: 13.3

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: Virgil's Root Beer is one of the few root beers I have had in which the dominant flavor is not vanilla. Instead, it has an elusive spicy flavor that may be cinnamon or nutmeg, or possibly a combination of both over just a hint of vanilla flavor. The flavor is not appreciably changed when ice is added, although the somewhat tangy aftertaste becomes more prominent. Virgil's is very foamy, something that becomes even more apparent when it is combined with ice cream. As an ice cream float is is reasonably good, with the spiciness of the root beer complementing the vanilla of the ice cream fairly well. Overall, Virgil's Root Beer is unusual enough to be interesting, but not good enough to be memorable.

Review - Virgil's Black Cherry Cream Soda

Bottler: Reed's, Inc.

Calories per Ounce: 13.3

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: I love cherry sodas, and I'm partial to vanilla flavoring in soda, so I approached Virgil's Black Cherry Cream with high hopes. These hopes were, for the most part, met. The soda has a very strong cherry flavor which is quite good although it dominates and completely overshadows the cream portion of the soda. Drinking this soda with ice doesn't substantially change the flavor, which somewhat surprised me, as most sodas have a muted flavor when one drinks them with ice. Serving the soda with ice didn't even help bring out the cream flavor, and the black cherry flavor was still completely dominant. The soda pairs well with ice cream, forming an ice cream soda that tastes very much like cherry vanilla ice cream, although the cherry flavor in this concoction is more prominent than in a typical blend of cherry vanilla ice cream.

Review - Goya Pineapple Soda

Bottler: Goya

Calories per Ounce: 14.1

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: I don't usually go out of my way to obtain pineapple soda, so Goya Pineapple Soda is a new thing for me. On its own, this soda has a very strong, very sweet pineapple-like taste. It doesn't really taste exactly like a pineapple, or even like pineapple juice, but it is very close. When served over ice, as usual, the taste of the soda is muted, resulting in a somewhat watered down pineapple flavor. Vanilla ice cream goes fairly well with it as an ice cream soda, but I suspect that another ice cream flavor like coconut would be better.

Angela's Comment: It should be mixed with coconut rum.

Review - Reed's Ginger Beer

Bottler: Reed's Inc.

Calories per Ounce: 12

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: Reed's Ginger Beer is a higher quality soda than I have reviewed before - the label claims that it contains 25% fruit juice, presumably the result of the 26 grams of fresh ginger per bottle that this beverage is supposed to contain, although I'm not sure that ginger qualifies as a fruit. When I brought home a four-pack of this, Angela tried some, and absolutely hated it. My friend Dave is a fan of ginger beer, and tried a bottle which he declared to be pretty good. I'm pretty much somewhere in the middle with respect to Reed's Ginger Beer. I don't find it terrible - the initial strong ginger flavor of the beer is fairly good, but I don't find it all that enjoyable either - the aftertaste it leaves behind is about what I'd imagine drinking muddy gravel would taste like. Over ice, Reed's Ginger Beer is worse, as the ginger flavor is muted while the aftertaste is not. Oddly, when used in an ice cream float, it is tolerable, mostly because the ice cream flavor overwhelms the gravelly aftertaste.