Soda Review: Jarritos Jamaica

Nestled in the Hispanic foods section, my local Safeway stocks a tasty little display of Mexican bottled sodas made by a company called Jarritos. As soon as I spotted these popular drinks sitting there with their rainbow colors, I knew I had to try a couple. Already familiar with the Mexican preference for hyper-sweet everything, I knew that the strawberry variety would be delicious and I wasn’t let down. For my second bottle, I decided to go more exotic and try the jamaica flavor. How can you resist a soda named after a country? This jamaica, it turns out, is an indigenous Mexican plant. The soda derives its flavor from a hibiscus-like flower known elsewhere as Roselle. Right away I was attracted to the pleasing cranberry red of this soda. Flavor-wise, what it most tastes like is — wait for it — prune juice, with a little bit of a tea-like earthiness. The sweetness of pure cane sugar overwhelms the flavor a bit, leaving a lingering aftertaste. Overall, I actually enjoyed it. As an occasional sweet treat, this soda was muy bueno in my book.