Asha tea Blueberry green tea: Another great fruit tea from Asha tea in Berkeley. The drink is tea-first, with a mild herbal flavor that’s clean and refreshing. It pairs well with the fresh blueberry pulp, which turns the drink a deep shade of purple. 4.0/5.0
recommended drinks boba ashatea blueberry green tea 4.0
Happy Lemon Lemon pineapple slush : I almost always get ~25% sugar when it’s an option. But I somehow forgot this time, and the pineapple slush was too sweet. Besides that, though, the pineapple had a lackluster canned concentrate taste. There are much better options at this normally reliable juice shop. 2.5/5.0
drinks slush nyc happylemon lemon pineapple 2.5
Roxbury Mountain Maple Maple Lemon Ginger Beer: Soda from farmers market are almost always a gamble. They’re rarely labeled with nutrition facts and sometimes don’t even have an ingredients list. Yet, the mere fact that they’re only available directly from small producers is often appealing enough for me to want to try them. There was no question when I saw this intriguing combination of maple with lemon and ginger. Remarkably, the soda tastes purely of those three flavors and nothing else. The ginger is prominent and spicy, the maple add... (read more) 4.5/5.0
exceptional drinks soda gingerbeer roxburymountainmaple maple lemon ginger beer 4.5
Kimura Fukumaneki Soda: After having previously reviewed yuzu soda from Kimino (a 5.0!), I looked up other distributors of the fantastic beverage and came across Umami Mart in Oakland. I decided to pay it a visit to see what other tasty snacks it might sell. Umami Mart is a largely sake-focused store that sells a variety of barware and ceramics. In the back of the store is where the snacks are, with products like Japan’s famed KitKat flavors and bags of Umaibo. It’s basically a limited selection of what you can get... (read more) 2.5/5.0
drinks soda japanese ramune kimura fukumaneki 2.5
Galvanina Blood orange, black carrot, and blueberry sparkling fruit beverage: Organic Italian soda that apparently is sold as Whole Foods branded Italian soda. I purchased this glass bottle from Molinari deli in North Beach, SF (which I also recommend, by the way). While I found it on the sweet side, the addition of carrot was unique and not at all overpowering. The berry, vegetable, and citrus combination is well balanced and worth a try. 3.5/5.0
recommended drinks sodas italian galvanina blood orange black carrot blueberry sparkling fruit beverage 3.5 organic