Tag: Soda

REVIEW: Pepsi Holiday Spice

Marvo 16 Comments

Ye holiday season is here!

Woo hoo!

It’s time to get into the holiday spirit and I’m trying to get into the mood by drinking Pepsi Holiday Spice.

I NEED to have the holiday spirit, as I prepare for the crowded malls, last minute shopping, excessive Christmas decorations, the color red, tinsel, children crying on Santa’s lap, and numerous kiss rejections under the mistletoe.

I would’ve gotten eggnog, but no one is selling it yet. So until someone starts selling it, I’m stuck with Pepsi Holiday Spice to get me in the mood for some holiday “fun.”

I know liquor is quicker, but I’m afraid I might relive my 21st birthday drinking binge, which involved ten shots in one hour, followed by dancing with two girls, flashing body parts on my body that shouldn’t be flashed, and dry heaves.

So what does Pepsi Holiday Spice taste like?

It has a nice spicy cinnamon and ginger taste and it’s really good, but let me think of a better way to describe the taste.

Hmmm…

Well go to your favorite store, whether it’s a local mom and pops or your gigantic mom and pops-destroying superstore, and look for a red soda bottle or can with the word Coke on it. Then purchase it or steal it, because there’s no way the old greeter at the superstore entrance will be able to tackle you. Then open it and when you drink it you will know what Pepsi Holiday Spice tastes like.

To make that unnecessarily long explanation paragraph short, Pepsi Holiday Spice tastes very similar to Coke.

If you’re a crazy Coke fanatic and you think what I just said is blasphemy, then go try it for yourself, YOU FRICKEN’ COKE-HEAD!

Wow. That last part was rude of me. I’m sorry.

Seems like I need more holiday spirit.

Well, I guess it’s a good thing I bought a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi Holiday Spice, because hopefully the more holiday spice I drink, the more holiday spirit I’ll have.

Item: Pepsi Holiday Spice
Purchase Price: $1.49 (2-liter bottle, on sale)
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Very good. Nice spicy taste. A great holiday drink replacement until eggnog hits the stores. Tastes like Coke.
Cons: If you’re a crazy Coke fanatic, it tastes like Coke. Too bad it’s a limited edition. Might need a bit more holiday spirit in it.

Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus

Marvo 9 Comments

Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus

They say that pink is the new black and it’s the color everyone should have.

Since I always yearn to be cool and hip, I decided to get some pink in my life. I did this by buying a Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus. However, instead of being cool and hip, it seemed like I was losing my masculinity.

I felt so girly buying something pink. Part of me felt like I should pick up some wine coolers and tampons as well.

It’s like the testosterone in me was being sucked out. The feeling was very similar to the one I got whenever I stepped into a Hello Kitty store.

While I waited in line to pay for the Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus, the girl in front of me told her friend how cute the color of the Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus was and how it totally match her pink top.

I totally agreed! I also thought her friend’s shoes were really cute and I wanted to know where she got them from.

When I got back from the store, I decided to try the Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus. While drinking it, I had the sudden urge to plop on the couch, watch the movie Beaches and paint my nails.

Please don’t ask me what I’m doing with nail polish and a copy of Beaches.

So what mix of berries do they use in the Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus? According to the label, it looked like strawberry and raspberry. There’s also a little bit of apple juice, which the last time I checked, wasn’t a berry.

I guess apple is becoming the new berry.

It also contains Splenda, which I hear is the new Nutrasweet.

Unfortunately, the taste of the Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus was very light, like a really bad diet soda. I guess when it contains ten calories, two grams of carbs, and one gram of sugar, you can’t expect much taste, but those numbers will definitely help prevent my ass from looking huge in those cute jeans I just bought.

After finishing the Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus, allowing my crimson passion-colored nails to dry, and using half a box of tissues while watching Beaches, I felt myself getting manly again.

I wanted to speed up the process, so I plopped on the couch again, flipped on ESPN, and looked through my collection of Playboy magazines.

Within a few hours, I felt like barbequing.

Item: Mixed Berry 7-Up Plus
Purchase Price: $0.99 (on sale)
Rating: 2 out of 5
Pros: A little vitamin C and calcium. Low calories. Low sugar. Low carbs.
Cons: Very light taste. Caffeine free. Somewhat emasculating.

Shasta Tiki Punch

Marvo 9 Comments

Shasta Tiki Punch

Some people in this world have called me a “cheap bastard.” These people include: women I’ve dated, panhandlers outside of my local convenience store, family members on Christmas Day, and Girl Scouts selling cookies.

However, I like to think of myself as “very financially responsible.”

Sure, I try to find ways here and there to save money and I haggle with Girl Scouts, but that doesn’t make me cheap, it makes me smart. Think about it. If you saved a penny every day for a year, you would have $3.64.

Now you’re probably asking yourself, “What the hell can I get for just $3.64?”

Well you can get the refreshing goodness of FOUR Shasta Tiki Punches, the focus of our review today.

Now when I say FOUR Shasta Tiki Punches, I’m not talking about some tiny 12-ounce can. Nor am I talking about some wimpy 20-ounce bottle. I’m talking about a 24-ounce grande bottle, baby! Twenty-four ounces of sugary and carbonated goodness for, get this, just 89 cents.

It’s not a sale price. I didn’t get an employee discount. I didn’t buy it out of the trunk of some shady guy’s car. It’s the frickin’ regular price!

What does Tiki Punch taste like? It’s like a mixture of lemon-lime soda and fruit punch, and it is mighty damn good. There are other flavors in the Shasta family that are in stock at my local convenience store, like cola and orange, but the Tiki Punch stands out.

Hmmm, if only the panhandlers that hang out at my local convenience store would just drink Tiki Punch instead of whatever alcohol they have hidden in their brown paper bags. The loose change they bother and harass people for would surely last a lot longer.

Then again, the sugar in the Tiki Punch would probably rot their teeth, because I don’t think they practice any form of oral hygiene.

But now that I think about it, with the money they’re saving by buying the Tiki Punch, they could probably afford toothpaste and a toothbrush.

Although the Tiki Punch is cheap, it might confuse you when I say the only problem with it is the fact that it is so cheap.

Let me explain.

At the same convenience store I bought the 24-ounce, 89-cent Shasta Tiki Punch from, a 20-ounce bottled water costs 99 cents. The Tiki Punch is sooo cheap, that it’s cheaper than water.

There’s something slightly unsettling about that.

Item: Shasta Tiki Punch
Purchase Price: $0.89
Rating: 4 out of 5
Pros: Damn cheap. No need to haggle with convenience store workers. 24 ounces. A better option for panhandlers.
Cons: Cheaper than bottled water.

REVIEW: Diet Sprite Zero

Marvo 1 Comment

Diet Sprite Zero

“Dump that zero and get with the hero,” apparently is an effective pick-up line, because it has been used by other men to cause all my past dates to walk out on me.

Because of this I used to think that being a zero was a bad thing, but along comes Diet Sprite Zero, which reminds me a lot of myself. No color. No carbs. No caffeine. No sugar. No fat. No protein. No personality. No knowledge on how to please a woman.

Because the Diet Sprite Zero had none of the above, I thought that it wasn’t going to have any taste, again just like me.

I was surprised and jealous that it actually had taste, and a pretty good taste I might add. Well I guess I can still hope that the Diet Sprite Zero doesn’t know how to please a woman.

I wondered how a beverage with almost the same characteristics as water could taste so good.

Well I didn’t really find the answer in the ingredients list on the bottle, but I did find something interesting. There were two words that stood out, not because they were printed in bold, but because I have no idea how to pronounce them: phenylketonurics and phenylalanine.

(Just a note to all those young folks who aspire to be future spelling bee champs. You should try to remember these two words and when you win the National Spelling Bee by spelling the word “phenylketonurics,” please remember to thank me.)

Hmm, let’s look up these words in a dictionary.

Phenylketonurics: relating to a genetic disorder of phenylalanine metabolism, which, if untreated, causes severe brain damage and progressive mental retardation.

Um, excuse me. I’ll be right back.

(Puking sounds)

(5 minutes later)

Okay, now where were we. Aaah, yes.

Phenylalanine: an essential amino acid, occurring in proteins.

Just to make sure everything was all right and I wasn’t going to end up “special,” I Googled the two words and I think my bulimic-like actions were a little premature. Despite the scary definition of “phenylketonurics,” I assure you that most of us have nothing to fear.

That’s the short answer, but if you want the long, technical, and boring answer, read this.

Diet Sprite Zero surprised me in many ways. Despite its lack of sugar, calories, fat, and carbs, it’s a good tasting beverage.

I guess sometimes it really is better to be the zero than the hero.

Item: Diet Sprite Zero
Purchase Price: $1.29 (20 oz.)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Pros: Surprised that there actually is taste. No sugar, calories, fat, and carbs.
Cons: If you’re phenylketonuric, DON’T DRINK THIS!!!

REVIEW: Mountain Dew Pitch Black

Marvo 4 Comments

pitchblack

Sometimes it sucks having The Impulsive Buy Laboratory on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Why?

(1) Can’t jump into The Impulsive Buy Mobile and take a long road trip, unless we want to circle the island a few times. (2) We sometimes get new products slightly later than everyone else.

This was the case with the new Limited Edition Mountain Dew Pitch Black.

Kelly, an occasional Impulsive Buy reader, asked us if we had a chance to try the new variation of Mountain Dew. We told her no and she immediately started rubbing that fact into our face.

The taunting started with emails that contained lines like, “Nanny, nanny. Boo, boo. No Pitch Black for you.” Later she started emailing us pictures of her drinking Pitch Black. Then she sent us a picture of her standing in front of a refrigerated case stocked with Pitch Black and giving us the finger. That was the last straw and we frantically attempted to find some, but we couldn’t find any.

This taunting went on for a week. Finally, the national convenience store chain down the street got their stock of Pitch Black.

After trying it, it was time for our revenge on Kelly, which involved rolls of toilet paper and rotten raw eggs. Unfortunately, she lives in the state of Washington. So we can add one more reason why it sometimes sucks having The Impulsive Buy Laboratory in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

(3) Can’t get revenge on those who live in the Continental United States.

As for the Mountain Dew Pitch Black, it’s pretty good, now that we finally got to try it.

What makes it black is the blast of black grape, which also makes it grapey. (Holy crap! “Grapey” is an actual word! We thought we were making up a new word.) It was good to drink a grape soda again, because it’s been awhile since anyone of us drank one. (Does anyone even make grape sodas?)

We feel Pitch Black is just as good as the other Mountain Dew flavors, like LiveWire, Code Red, and the original Mountain Dew. Or maybe that’s the caffeine talking.

There are two disappointing things about the soda. One, is the fact that Pitch Black really isn’t black. If you look at it in the light, you will see it really is purple or plum-colored, if you will. And, two, Mountain Dew Pitch Black will only be around until Halloween. So get yours now.

Item: Limited Edition Mountain Dew Pitch Black
Purchase Price: $0.99
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Good grape taste. Same amount of caffeine goodness as regular Mountain Dew.
Cons: Not really pitch black, more like purple. Wish it wasn’t limited edition. Wasted a good carton of eggs. At least we can still use the toilet paper.