Tuesday, October 24, 2006

POP OF THE DAY: Dry Soda Kumquat

Category: Adult Contemporary Soda
Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 5
Fizziness Factor: 5
Bottle/Can Design: 4
Availability: 1

Tasting Notes: "Kumquat" is one of my favorite words—try saying it: "kumquat"—and I once stole a couple of kumquats from a Parisian grocery store to impress a girl I had a crush on. (We later made out on the banks of the Seine, but she ended up getting back together with her estranged boyfriend, who was some sort of minor Russian royalty.) And guess what? Dry Kumquat is exquisitely tasty. The delicate, fresh orange taste is lightly sweet, with a tart finish that puts it in the Adult Contemporary category—this is the soda equivalent of a rockin' Death Cab For Cutie song. And it has only 50 calories. Dry Kumquat's score is pulled down by a couple of factors. First, the bottle is not a twist-off. More damaging is the fact that Dry is only avaialble at specialty stores, restaurants, and some Whole Foods stores on the West Coast. And the website is kinda pretentious, referring to the drink as "the first culinary soda," and offering suggested food pairings (!) for the four flavors: kumquat, lavender, lemongrass, and rhubarb. Oh, and one other thing: kumquat. Hehehehe. (Total score 15/20)

Suggest Food Pairings: Pasta with pesto, herb roasted chicken

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