Skip to main content

Fanta Pineapple

After the agave nectar scandal, nothing seems to be big enough to post about.

At it seems odd, that I am coming here to review a commercial and mass produced product. But hey- I do admit, that I love coke and really like some other commercial sodas. I only try to stay away of artificial ingredients.

This said, Fanta Pineapple doesn't start a nice relationship with me.
While the front states "Pineapple flavored soda with other natural flavors" - the ingredient list looks like a witches brew:

carbonated water, HFCS, citric acid, natural flavors, modified food starch, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate [to protect taste], sodium citrate, coconut oil, salt, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, yellow 5, yellow 6
Well - that doesn't really look like my homemade sodas. Yes citric acid, sodium citrate [a simple product, when you let citric acid and bicarbonate of soda react], carbonated water… this is understandable. HFCS is obviously far cheaper than sugar - this is an usual occurrence in all sweet industrial thing nowadays. Same applies for sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate - unfortunately people would like to have a very long shelf life and both are preservatives. A short look on the expiry date though relativize this - the shelf life is only 6 month - this is a bit disappointing, and maybe the food chemist overdid it a bit here. Also: even if it would be pale white [or off white] it would be understandable pineapple - so why the food color??? I believe, it would have more marketing effect, to state: without artificial color, than using the color to make an impressive yellow…

All this theory besides, how is the soda?

Well - surprisingly good.

Smell:
slight bubble gum pineapple aroma - tropical character with a funny hint of coconut at the end of the impression.
Taste:
Sweet upfront, with a definitive tropical pineapple aromatic kicking in. Nice acidity as well. It taste definitely better than pineapple juice from concentrate!
Afterthought:
Sweetness is quite lingering. Tropical flavors are moving towards coconut / nuttiness when the overall impression starts to fade.
Overall:
Surprisingly tasty pineapple beverage, which cannot though renege its industrial origins.

Yes - overall it is nice. Nothing to write home about, though overall pleasant.

Obviously it would not be able to compete a homemade pineapple soda at all. But rather than using 7up or Sprite [which definitely are as natural as this soda], it is worth to think about this product, when you are mixing up your rum [or gin - and if it is really necessary: vodka].

It would be adequate at home, but I wouldn't offer it in a bar.



Labels:

Comments

  1. The Opinionated AlchemistNovember 6, 2013 at 11:39 AM

    Thanks for the comment - and thanks for the link. Glad, that you find my blog informative.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 4, 2014 at 10:15 PM

    I just tried Fanta Pineapple (in the U.S.), and in addition to all the characteristics you describe, I found a bitter aftertaste. I was thinking it may be due to an artificial sweetener mixed in, but there doesn't seem to be one among the ingredients. What do you think may have caused the bitterness?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Opinionated AlchemistSeptember 6, 2014 at 12:54 PM

    Hi 'Anonymous',

    first, it would be nice, to use a name...
    I haven't really noticed any bitterness at all in the can I tried.
    Rather than artificial sweeteners, I would rather suspect the enzymes in the pineapple, which is notoriously aggressive and interact with a lot of stuff [that is why you can't make pineapple jell'o out of fresh pineapple, as the enzymes are preventing the gelatin to solidify].
    So if they use real pineapple juice, this could be a source of the bitterness... but this is just speculation...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to use citric acid - and why you might not want to use it anyway!

To be honest, I shied away of this topic, because I think, people can misinterpret this - big time. I don't want to be part of the problem - I want to be part of the solution!  But when Chris, over at A Bar Above  discussed this subject- I literally could not resist to join into "the discussion". Here is the video: I - however take a bit slower approach than Chris. What is citric acid? Chemical Compound Citric acid is a weak organic acid with the formula C6H8O7. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks. Wikipedia Formula: C6H8O7 Molar Mass: 192.124 g/mol Melting Point: 153C Density: 1.66 g/cm3 Boiling point: 175C Soluble in: Water Why is it controversial? In my "mixology world" it is controversial, as citric acid is the stuff, which makes the nightmarish sour mix [ preferably in powder form ] sour. Yeah - citric acid is the main ingredient in one of the most
5 comments
Read more

Agar-Agar Clarification

Not often, I am posting here things, which are clearly not my ideas... However Dave Arnold is clearly a mad scientist [no, he really is!] - and he posted amazing stuff on his website www.cookingissues.com - no - don't click now - just follow the link later. One of the most impressive posts about mixology, besides of demystifying the mechanics of shaking, were clarification techniques. Look, after him, you could use a centrifuge [which would set you back a couple thousand bucks] and a chemical compound, which solidifies sediments. I am not a fan of that. Then there is gelatine clarification; this works quite well [I tried it several times my self] - you gelatinize a liquid [with little gelatine only], freeze it, thaw it [in the fridge] over a colander and a muslin cloth. Thats it. Unfortunately this has several problems: Gelatine is made out of animal bones - hence it is neither vegetarian nor vegan, which you won't usually expect of a beverage. You have to freez
5 comments
Read more

King Robert II Vodka

Who would knew, that I am reviewing a budget vodka here - on the opinionatedalchemist.com. But this isn't a normal review. I skip the marketing perception and use this product to cut directly to the case: Vodka is a "rather" neutral, colorless, "rather" flavorless and odorless distilled beverage from any agricultural source - and depending on the country, it has a minimum of 37.5% and 40% abv. As I said time and time again before: at times it is absolutely nonsense to talk about premium and luxury, when the original product doesn't really "hold this promise". Luxury water can have luxurious marketing, luxurious packaging, can be even rare and slightly more expensive "to produce". However really it is just water. Maybe it has some nuances to normal water - however those nuances (in a blind-test) are pretty small. Vodka is extremely similar - and the chain of evidence (despite a lot of people trying to proof otherwise) makes it re
2 comments
Read more