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Awhile back I was contacted by Jarritos and asked if I could review, and sample some of their flavors and let my readers know what I thought about them, and honestly I was kinda honored and happy, and decided to give an honest review. I was sent a package of 11 flavors Mango, Strawberry, Guava, Grapefruit, Lemon Lime, Fruit Punch, Hibiscus, Pineapple, Tamarind, Mandarin, and Lime. Along with a cute little shirt, and a paisa music CD ha ha (thanks :)
My mother remembers growing up with these, and so do I. What sets Jarritos aside from typical American soda's? For starters they come in a very very wide array of flavors, sweetened with 100% natural white cane sugar/ no HFCS/ High Fructose Corn Syrup, they aren't overly sweet, usually more mild and light tasting, and often times taste very close to the flavor they are representing
Mango- this was a favorite! EVERYONE LOVED IT! It tasted just like a large, fresh, sweet, ripe, fragrant, juicy mango. It felt so natural, everything was just perfect. If you've never tasted a mango before this is what it taste like :) LOVE IT! and this is coming from someone who isn't a fan of soda.
Strawberry- tastes like Shasta strawberry soda, except it's made with real 100% cane sugar
Guava/ Guayaba- I was shocked that this wasn't my favorite, so was my grandmother/ Tata (I split it with her) because being of Cuban descent like we say "nos corre la guayaba por la sangre" (guava runs through our veins) we love almost EVERYTHING GUAVA, juices, shakes, sweets, cakes, cookies, pastries, marmalade's even fresh EVERYTHING guava we usually like. However the problem we had is we felt it wasn't sweet enough, it lacked sweetness in our opinion, but then again we are used to consuming Guava usually saturated in sugar (syrups, preserves, marmalade's, pastes, and incorporated in sweets, and when fresh very ripe and red) We felt the Guava taste was just too light for our liking.
Grapefruit/ Toronja- think of carbonated grape fruit juice, sweetened but still kept it's bitterness (which for me is a good thing because I love grape fruit it's tart, bitter, and sweet all at once) if you love grape fruits you'll enjoy this :)
Lima Limon- it tastes more like 7-up. It isn't as acidic as 7-up, it's more sweet, not overly sweetened however and it just captures the sweetness a lemon has, any hints of sweetness one would experience from a lemon has been isolated here. (I actually used another bottle of this to make a Vietnamese dish called "Thit Kho Tau" (Caramelized Pork and Egg) substituted the coconut soda for the Lima Limon soda, great results)
Fruit Punch- tasted like carbonated American Fruit Punch/ Koo laid, not overly sweet. If you like Koo laid, and not to sweetened you'll be a fan of this one.
Hibiscus/ Jamaica- my older sister said it tasted like "something rotted inside of it" she wasn't a fan of it. And we've tried real Jamaica/ Hibiscus, and my younger 11 year old sister said it tasted like sweet and sour water not so sweet though. I tried it myself, there was a hint of sourness but nothing strong, the taste was a very light hibiscus taste almost watered down, light hints of sweetness but some acidity and an off taste resembling Durian.
Pineapple/ Pina- it's my younger sister's second favorite, it doesnt really taste like pineapple, just floral fragrant hints of pineapple.
Tamarind/ Tamarindo - this is my mother's favorite, it has all of the elements of tamarind, pungent, sour, puckery but balanced with just the right amount of sugar. If your Mexican/ Hispanic and you love Tamarind, or the "Agua Frescas" made from Tamarind, if your in the mood for a soda grab this one you won't be disappointed
Mandarin- doesn't really taste like mandarin, tastes more like an orange.
Lime- tastes like a sweeter version of sprite.
Last Minute Note:We don't drink all of the Jarritos soda's but the one's that we usually and almost always buy is the Tamarind one, it's my mother's favorite and everyone enjoys it.
