This week on the show, join us for drinks! We finally watched Hackers together, and we drank (and reviewed!) Avec Drinks while we talked about it.
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Real talk, y'all: Dave swears that our sampler contained 12 cans, which broke down into three cans each of four flavors. But the sampler I am seeing on the Avec website sure does have all five flavors!
Luckily, we have both had the ginger, so I'll include a review of that fifth flavor here, even though we didn't review it in the episode.
Like making your own special drinks? I try my recipe for homemade ginger syrup or sparkling strawberry agua fresca!
Table of Contents
Hibiscus & Pomegranate
This was the only controversial flavor we sampled. Dave said it tasted like medicine, and he did not care for it.
I really dug this flavor, though! It was complex, for sure, but I didn't get a medicine taste at all.
Like all of the Avec Drinks we reviewed, it had a lovely tartness. What made this flavor stand out, though, was a tannic flavor, like you get when you drink a dry red wine.
As someone who is using drinks like this as a sub for alcohol, that's perfect! It felt so fancy.
Jalapeño & Blood Orange
Jalapeño & Blood Orange is Dave's favorite flavor, and I get it, y'all. It's citrusy and spicy, which is so nice in a fizzy drink!
Like a good, spicy ginger beer, the first sip made my nose tingle.
This drink is spicy, but not overpowering. The jalapeño doesn't burn, it warms, and they offset the heat with a little touch of agave nectar.
That heat is such a nice contrast to the citrus flavors in this drink. On top of the blood orange, they add calamansi and lime. Calamansi is a lime and mandarin orange hybrid, and that mandarin flavor shines through as you sip.
Grapefruit & Pomelo
I'm a grapefruit stan, so this was hands-down my favorite flavor. It's basically double grapefruit, because a pomelo has a flavor that's very close to grapefruit, but a bit sweeter.
Truly, this can had my eternal devotion before I even sipped it. The grapefruit smell when I picked up the cup won me over instantly.
What's interesting about this flavor is that, even though it's very grapefruity, it's also smooth. That likely comes from the vanilla extract in the mix.
Yuzu & Lime
When Dave sipped this one, his first thought was, "This one is all mixer!"
For me, it had tonic water vibes. It didn't taste like tonic water, but it would be great in any drink that uses tonic.
If you've never had yuzu, think of it as mixed citrus. It gives you lemon. It gives you lime. It gives you grapefruit.
Avec adds lime juice and lemongrass extract, too, which gives this drink layers.
This had the lightest flavor of all of the Avec Drinks we reviewed. I want to sip it over ice on a hot day!
Ginger
While Dave is sure that Ginger wasn't part of the Sampler, I'm sure that it was. We didn't taste it on the pod, but this is an Avec flavor that we have had in the house on and off for a month or so.
Y'all, I love Avec Ginger! It's got a spicy edge, but what really makes it stand out is its flowery flavor.
This drink includes pineapple, lime, agave, molasses, and allspice. The result is a balanced, herbal ginger drink that we both love.
Final Avec Drinks review
Y'all, we love these drinks! They're not too sweet, and they just feel like such a special treat at the end of the day. If you like citrus-forward sparkling drinks, you are going to love Avec.
Avec Drinks are not sodas. They contain very little sugar, though each one does have a light sweetness. If you're used to conventional sodas, this is very different, though I think they're still worth trying. You might just love them!
I'd recommend getting whichever flavor speaks to you. You really can't go wrong! We ranked them on the pod, but they were just so close, with the exception of the Hibiscus & Pomegranate, which Dave wasn't crazy about but I loved.
The can size is small, because they're meant to be mixers. To stretch one can, Dave likes to fill a glass with ice, add the whole can of Avec, then top off his glass with seltzer. It still tastes great!
I prefer to just enjoy these straight out of the can.
Where to listen
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