Friday, September 12, 2014

2B Sparkling Chocolate Soda - (Gift)

2B Sparkling Chocolate Soda - (Gift)
This soda was a little gift from my mother, and I'm honestly not sure where she got it. At first I thought the packaging looked like something no-frills you could buy at Aldi, but when I Googled it, this 2B brand had a decent amount of web presence on it's own. Any idea where she might have picked this up? (I should just ask her the next time I see her, but it's almost 2AM on a work night. It'll have to wait until tomorrow.) It's been a very long week, and my 9-5 job has been super busy, so I'm basically a walking corpse. With that being said, I'm going to keep this review short and sweet. (Boo! That was bad, but I barely have enough brain power to function at the moment, so let's go with it.)Let's drink some chocolate soda!




The soda can is constructed the same as any other aluminum can on the market, nothing to report there, and the design is (sorry to say) a little boring and unfinished. I can see what they were going for, with the repeating words and chocolatey color scheme,  but it just doesn't work for me. Starting with the logo, more specifically the "2B" part of the design,  the text seems dynamic and energetic, which is great, but it makes me think of energy drinks, and this is no energy drink. In case you were wondering, this is an all natural soda. The overall look of this product isn't awful, I've certainly seen worse, but the entire design just feels so...flat. This is a chocolate flavored soda! It's meant to be fun and quirky! Where's the playfulness and whimsy? I think if the 2B logo was tweaked into something more soft and playful the rest of the design could be left as is and the overall product would look more cohesive, but a complete re-design might not hurt either.

Okay, so it looks a little boring, how does it taste?


I popped the top of the soda open and took a whiff, and what I smelled could only be described as Tootsie Rolls and seltzer water, and I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I started pouring the soda into a glass with a few pieces of ice, and it was a light caramel color. (I was expecting brown.) 
Once the foamy fizz of the soda settled, I took a sip. Now, I've had chocolate sodas before, and they are enjoyable, but I usually have to be in the mood for them. I was excited to try this soda, but it was just...odd, and not in the good way. It was lightly sweet, which was nice, carbonated, and the flavoring was like a watered down Tootsie roll. The only way I could describe this was if you left a Tootsie Roll in a can of seltzer for a day or two, then strained it and drank the contents. It wasn't terrible, or spit-take worthy, but the taste didn't leave me wanting more.

My boyfriend likes to buy a lot of unique beverages, mostly flavored seltzers, but there was this one diet chocolate soda he was hooked on for quite a while. I gave him a glass of this to try, he had one sip, put it down, and refused to drink more. He's usually not picky (except when it comes to coffee), so that tells you something.



I looked up the 2B brand, because I like the concept of an all natural lightly sweetened soda, but this chocolate soda was no where to be found! On top of that, the soda can packaging has had a complete redesign! I like the new designs better, but the logo still gives me that energy drink vibe. I'm not sure if you can buy this flavor anymore, but if you can't, I wouldn't say you were missing out.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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3 comments:

  1. I like this soda. It did have to grow on me though. Bought a couple cases at a discount market in Pittsburgh for 25 cents each. I wound up taking one to work for lunch each day. Now that they're gone, I lament that I didn't buy 3 cases. Besides the taste, it also doesn't have artificial sweeteners or fructose corn syrup or a high amount of calories. So on balance, this soda seems to be a good compromise for us who really like soda but want to refrain from chemical sweeteners and excessive sugar.

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  2. I really like the company and their idea of making a natural soda, but I just couldn't get behind this flavor. Since you got it so cheap and it's no longer listed on the website, I am guessing that it might have been discontinued, but I would love to try other flavors. Did you get the chance to try anything else by this brand?

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  3. No, the chocolate was the only one available in my area.

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