03.22.08
Zest-o Dalandan Soda
Zest-o. Heh. So you can guess why I picked these up no? Also, I have no idea what a dalandan is other than some sort of fruit I expect. Probably something citrus-y judging from the looks of the sectional citrus-y looking thing on the can and the vague general citrus smell of the soda.
These sodas come from the Philippines but ‘Zest-o’ was funny enough to honorary them in. Also, I might have a thing with foreign sodas now thanks to Ramune. Zest-o’s dalandan soda fizzed up nicely when I poured it into a glass and that bodes well if Ramune is the Asian norm of soda. Zest-o also packs their soda very snuggly into the can so despite my wanting to show Sean Whose Name is Nate up and do another liquid I was wise and opened the can well away from both the laptop and the camera. Consequently my couch got splurted with dalandan soda spray so maybe I wasn’t as smart as I could have been if I had thought to open things up at the kitchen sink. So beware of the soda because they don’t leave a lot of head room at all in the can.
Along with the vague citrus scent, dalandan has another background scent that I couldn’t rightly place. I called in my favorite Guinea Pig to help with the review and he decided that the other scent was “Slightly fishy Mountain Dew”. I don’t know about ‘fishy’ but I can see perhaps the fragrance of vague citrus and a touch of pond. Not bad scummy pond but pond that has fish and plants and clean but natural pond stuff in it.
As to taste, dalandan soda is very reminiscent of Mountain Dew crossed with tart Squirt and a titch of pond. Not as much pond as the smell might lead you to believe but there is a weird background flavor that matches the weird background smell. There is also a bit of an afterlinger taste that isn’t the Mountain Dew or Squirt flavor. Meh.
Lastly, I am sad to say that dalandan soda has the same small carbonation problem that plagues Ramune. It is perhaps a touch zestier (Zest-oier?) in the bubble department but it still tastes a little flat. And of pond, which is not the carbonation’s fault but I had to mention it because the more I taste of the soda, the more I am aware of the pond water factor.
I can’t say that I’m behind this soda 100%. I’m not sure I can even go 75% since I am not impressed by the itty bitty bubble carbonation. Tiny bubbles dissipate to quickly and leave the soda tasting flat which costs pea points. I’m OK with the sweet Mountain Dew-y type flavor and I kinda like the tart citrus Squirt like flavor but I could really do without the background pond water flavor. If the carbonation had been a little more robust and the pond water factor non-existent, then I could give this soda at least a 3.5 pea rating. But I am going to have to knock half a pea off for disappointing carbonation and another half pea for weird reminiscent pond water for a total disappointing
Rating of 2.5 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
Sean K. said,
March 24, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Well, I have to say, you do get points for opening the can away from the laptop, and for pouring it into a graduated cylinder with a nice wide base, rather than some other kind of glass that could tip over.