Ethnic Pop

[melonpan]

i like the milkis drinks myself. they are kind of like calpis (often sold as calpico soda in us). there is also McCol. the names kind of weird but heres why they named it mccol.

the sino korean for barley is maek. (maekju = beer.) this carbonated barley drink (non alcoholic) is probably short for something like maek-cola. maybe. or maybe mccol looks cool.

i let a friend try it and she didnt like the roasted barley flavour at all. she said it tasted like coffee soda to her.

well. it doesnt taste anything at all like coffee soda, but maybe it was the roasted barley taste that was throwing her off.

and coffee soda tastes good besides. id finish it if it tasted like coffee soda.

ive seen mccol for sale at the local korean markets but i havent noticed lately. i will check the next time i go out...

[sazji]

There is a brand here called "Fresha" that is pretty nice. Artificial and natural flavors, they don't bother with artificial colors. It comes in sour cherry (vishne), banana (the exception - it's disgusting), orange, lemon and the ever-elusive mint, which is of course my favorite. All the stores carry all the other types, but never order the mint variety. It is better if you squeeze a bit of lemon into it though.

The kombucha that is brewed and the kombucha that is fermented and sometimes found bottled are two entirely different things. One is twigs of some plant, the other is made from strong sweetened black tea which is fermented by a colony of various fungi/bacteria/god knows what. It is good though.

On a humorous note, Turkey launched a cola a couple years back, called Cola Turca. The cola is nothing special, but the commercials, with Chevy Chase, are quite funny. Probably funnier if you have been here and know something about Turkey and Turks. (The whole premise is that Americans are drinking Cola Turca and suddenly behaving like Turks.) The commercials were shot in the US; you can see some of them at this web site.

http://www.turkishclass.com/allVideos.html

[Mooshmouse]

This has now officially replaced Ting and Jarritos as my favourite ethnic soda pop: Zesto Calamansi Soda.

It's the ultimate combination of lemon and lime, not too sweet, just the right amount of fizz. And it's ridiculously cheap. You can probably find it at any Asian market that also carries Filipino food. Definitely worth tracking it down.

[kaneel]

My favorites from Fernandes , a company from suriname i ofcourse from there grew up with it. Some of fav were: cream ginger, pineapple and a green soda i forgot the name of. Most of our soda's were sold in bottles(non plastic) and you get the true flavor of it. I never liked soda's from the can untill i came here because there was no option. Actually they do sell coke in little bottles but they are a little more expensive.

[NYC Mike]

I love Country Club Rojo and Uva from DR, especially great with a chimichuri.

[Alchemist]

This is a Thai pop. How they got the basil seeds to be perpetually suspened, you can shake it like a snowglobe or a poloroid, is beyond me. The ingrediants don't sound so good (Honey Flavor) so I am a wee bit scared to try it, for fear of being dissapointed.

[TongoRad]

San Pelligrino's Chino (Chinotto?) is great: bitters soda. To me it tastes like a fizzy version of Angostura Bitters. Yum.

Just curious - how does it differ from their Sansbitter product - the one that comes in little bottles? have you tried both?

Owen,

Afraid I haven't tried (or even seen) Sansbitter. San Pelligrino Chino is sweet as well as bitter, and quite dark in colour. There is a website, but it seems to be down at the moment. It describes Chino as a type of chinotto, so I wouldn't be surprised if the flavour is similar to the Chinotto you photographed in your recent post.

What does Sansbitter taste like? I dimly remember seeing virulent red bitter soft drinks in Spain many years ago that tasted like non-alcoholic Campari: was it like this?

←

A little late to the party here, but I can clarify these two. The comparison of the Sanbitter to Campari is spot-on, or more precisely like a non-alcoholic Campari and Soda. The Chinotto is very much like an amaro (Ramazotti, Averna) and soda, non-alcoholic. They're great for when you want that sort of cocktail but don't want the alcohol.

I don't drink many other sodas, but I'll take a Jarritos any chance I can get. Tamarindo all the way, baby!

[ghostrider]

Chinotto, long a fave of mine, is made not from quinine, but, prosaically enough, the chinotto fruit. See here for some explication.

The San Pellegrino version contains both HFCS & sugar. I'll have to try some other brands if I can find them for comparison.

[chocomoo]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here yet, but while in Mexico, my boyfriend and I got hooked on Manzanita Sol, a carbonated apple drink produced by Pepsi. We also tried Manzana Lift, a similar drink made by Coca-Cola. I liked the flavour of Mazana Lift better, but like Coke, it's more carbonated (which I don't like). My boyfriend liked Manzana Lift better. I like Manzanita Sol better than Apple Sidra (which has been previously mentioned here), as the flavour isn't overshadowed by the bubbles. Why aren't apple-flavoured soft drinks more popular here?

edited to add: I tried to find bottled Coke in Mexico, but only came across the canned kind (no noticeable difference in flavour - because it's also made with corn syrup? I couldn't read the ingredients in Spanish).

edited again to add: Not a soft drink, but Powerade has a new flavour we found in Mexico - I only bought it for the cool bottle (special edition for the Mexican soccer federation or some such name) but was delighted when the flavour turned out to be muscat (or green grape)! I normally detest Gator/Powerade because of the salty flavour (GROSSSS!! However, I don't mind Pocari Sweat) and off-putting fluorescent colours, but I would definitely buy it if it became available here in Vancouver.

Edited June 21, 2006 by chocomoo (log)

[JetLag]

When I worked/lived in Mexico I developed a taste for peach flavor soda and sangra flavored soda as well. These can be found in the Houston area in Texas too.