(photo courtesy of Thirsty Dudes)

Crystal Beach Sparkling Loganberry

Website: loganberry.com

Country: United States

Sweetener: Cane Sugar

Categories: Other/Weird, Sparkling

Rating: 5/5

This ain’t your grandma’s loganberry. This, my friends, is the first carbonated loganberry drink.

It was hard to avoid loganberry as a kid growing up in Western New York. It seemed like every corner store and restaurant had one of those continuously flowing glass loganberry dispensers next to the soda fountains. I know I would drink a tall glass of the insanely sugary drink easily as a kid, but I wouldn’t even dare to do so now. I recently came across some in a fountain and found the flavor nostalgic, but the drink to be too thick with sugar.

When I heard the news of a sparkling loganberry drink hitting the shelves at Tops this past weekend, I was expecting it to be a loganberry soda. To my surprise, when I picked up the four-pack, I noticed they used pure cane sugar as a sweetener instead of the high fructose corn syrup that is usually in loganberry. I wanted to drink a bottle on the way home but I resisted so we could all try it together when we recorded a podcast with Buffalo Eats later that evening.

Was it worth the wait? Most definitely! While this is a sparkling drink, it’s very lightly carbonated, which is really nice. The cane sugar also makes it very light and lets the loganberry flavor shine through. All my life I’ve been drinking loganberry that was drowning in corn syrup, so it’s nice to finally be able to taste loganberry for what it is. The light and fruity taste reminds me a lot of Izze drinks, or HotLips soda.

I think this drink has a little something for everyone. If you grew up on loganberry, you need to try this. If you’ve never liked loganberry because it was too sweet, pick up a bottle and see if you like this, because it’s much different that any loganberry you’ve ever tasted.

Thirsty Dudes are a trio of bearded, awesome, thirsty, straightedge dudes who love strange, non-alcoholic drinks. Read their drink reviews at www.thirstydudes.com.