Smile More Sparkling Lychee Spritzer : I’ve seen an upwards trend for vinegar-based sodas in the past year, and this Asian lychee-flavored one is sour and lightly sweetened with a faint lychee aftertaste. It’s not a drink I would want to consume in one serving though the bottle is smaller than most. If you appreciate carbonated beverages that aren’t sweet, you may enjoy it. 3.0/5.0
drinks vinegar asian smilemore sparkling lychee spritzer 3.0
Tominga Melon Cream Soda: Purchased from Galco's in Los Angeles, this Japanese fruit soda is like a carbonated melon-flavored Calpico: intensely sweet and like a liquified starburst with its artificial fruit flavor and atomic green color. It has a slightly milky finish, with a white froth that collects at the top of the bottle. I've never had a soda like it before, and I probably don't want to have a soda like it again. 3.0/5.0
drinks japanese tominga melon cream soda 3.0
Lemoncocco Lemon Coconut Beverage: Creamy-colored non-carbonated soft drink similar in appearance to Calpico, Lemoncoco has a slightly sharper acidic lemon flavor mixed with coconut water. I like lemon, and I like coconut water, but together, it tastes muddled. I wanted to like it much more than I did. 3.0/5.0
drinks lemoncoco lemon coconut beverage 3.0
iTea wintermelon milk tea with grass jelly: I ordered this drink out of curiosity, but the wintermelon didn’t have too much of a distinct flavor compared to regular black milk tea. The herbal grass jelly was very good as always, though Purchased at I-Tea in Kearny in SF. 3.0/5.0
milktea drinks itea wintermelon milk tea grass jelly 3.0
Steaz Peach green tea: At this year’s annual Mystery Hunt puzzle competition, my team was stationed close to the 26-100 lecture hall and its cluster of 6 vending machines. This tall can of Steaz came from the machine of non-Coca-Cola-owned beverages selling alternative caffeinated energy drinks. I was looking for a drink to get me through several more hours without the side effect of crashing, and for this, the can did its job-I felt alert and invigorated but not jittery. Flavor-wise, it didn’t stand out to me as ... (read more) 3.0/5.0
organic steaz peach ice tea 3.0 drinks greentea
Polar Tart cherry limeade seltzer: Like the initial bite into a ripe juicy cherry, amplified 5x, this seltzer has an intense concentrated flavor without any of the sweet qualities of fruit. It tastes artificial in the way that Cherry Coke doesn’t actually taste like cherry, but rather an imagined scenario where you could reduce the flavor of a mouthful of cherries into a single simplified taste. Lime trails behind, with a zingy citrus note at the end of each sip. Highly carbonated. 3.0/5.0
drinks polar tart cherry limeade seltzer 3.0