I’ve been keeping score: Vanilla Coke sucks, Pepsi Blue is even worse, but Dr Pepper Red Fusion is pretty good.
Vanilla Pepsi is surprisingly okay. It kind of tastes like a sweeter, if one could imagine, version of regular Pepsi. There is actually a vanilla flavor to it, and, unlike the citrus flavor inherent in Coke, Pepsi’s flavor complements the vanilla.
I’ve read that they’re going to make a Lime Coke. I like this idea. I love lime. It’ll certainly make a good ingredient in a Cuba Libre. However, if the lime is only added to Diet Coke, like the lemon flavor, I’ll never try it. I don’t ever drink diet sodas.
On the subject of things I don’t drink, I tried Sam Adams Light, which tastes a lot like Becks, with a bit of that oak-y flavor that is a trademark of Sam Adams Lager. It isn’t something that I would ever order by itself (it was included in the Winter Classic 12 pack, which has a variety of brews), but it’s not evil-incarnate as I thought it might be. One thing I noted was the Sam Adams Light is 120 calories, which is more than the standard 90 or so of most light beers. It’s thirty calories of flavor, for sure, since most light beer tastes like the can that it came in.
Back to soda, Dr Pepper Red Fusion is getting harder to come by, but when it first came out, I thought it would make a good mix with rum, because it was very sweet and very fruity. So for Halloween, I bought a few bottles of Red Fusion and a couple bottles of rum and made up a drink called Redrum. It’s very easy to make: Cup of ice, 1 part rum to 5 parts Red Fusion. In a 16oz cup, that tends to be about 12oz of Red Fusion with 2oz of rum. It’s a very easy drink, as in people who don’t like to taste alcohol in their alcoholic drinks will like this, but the combination of high caffeine from the soda and the intoxicating effects of the rum make it a drink that is dangerous. You can drink 3 or 4 without feeling a thing, and then, WHAM! you’re slurring and generally making an ass out of yourself. Good times.
Coconut rum and spiced rum give nice overtones to Redrum. With coconut rum, you have a Redrum Tunococ, and spiced rum is a Redrum Decips. I haven’t tried it, but I suspect you can make a Redrum with regular Dr Pepper and maybe an ounce of Grenadine.
So what’s a Cuba Libre? Well, it’s a Rum and Coke, but with a slice of lime instead of lemon. And it isn’t a drink I made up. It surprises me how few people, including bartenders, have heard of a Cuba Libre. I tend to tell people that Cuba Libres are made with Pepsi, instead of Coke, because it tastes better, and in this way it becomes more of a revolutionary drink, going against the bourgeoisie, Capitalist-Imperialist Coca-cola Corporation. Or something.