Writing rantings like this ones isn’t my job; in fact I don’t get paid to write any of this just yet. The job I have involves delivering, and in this case I had a soda in that order, which, being the rare case this happens, I dropped it. Naturally, I went back to the restaurant and asked for another one. The drink, called a Coco Rico, was $3.50, but ended up being $4 with tax.
The good(?) News is that I kept the can I dropped, and it was still drinkable. So here’s the rundown on this soda:
The ingredients are as follows: carbonated water: cane and/or corn sugar, coconut extract, preserved with sodium benzoate. So its not mostly coconut juice with some carbonated water, it’s like any other soda out there.
Fun fact about coconut water: it already has a good amount of sugar in it, enough to make it palatable. Adding extra sugar makes it way too damn sweet. In this case, at first sip, it tastes like cane sugar with a side of water and CO2. Would not drink this by itself.
Meaning I used it like a mixer! I went with the 2 staples I have at the house, which is tequila and bourbon. Tried it with the silver tequila first; the sugar is too overpowering even for that. I added lime to it but it only helped a little.
Next was the Evan Williams, which actually paired well with it. It tasted even better with lime added; in fact this is something I’d order at a bar if available. For fun I did try it with both silver tequila and Evan Williams with and without lime, and it was fairly palatable. This wouldn’t replace coke or lemonade or cranberry juice for me, but its a pretty good taste in that form.
Would I pay the going price for this? Fuck. No. Come on: $4 for one 12 oz. can of sugar water? The thing that amazes me more than a can of fucking soda being that price is that people are apparently buying it. Look, the ingredients aren’t that bad compared to, say, Pepsi. But even Pepsi wouldn’t dare to sell a single can for over $4. That’s goddamn crazy.
So, not a terrible soda, though on the sweet side. Not worth paying the obscene markup. When in doubt, don’t buy soda at a restaurant. Stick to bottles of wine and free water!