The Orange Soda Taste Off
Most orange drinks in Sri Lanka CONTAIN NO FRUIT, retaining only the taste of orange in their own unique chemical creativity. Coca-Cola’s Fanta is the reigning king of all that is fluorescent and unnatural, but there are a lot of other contenders, notably Pepsi’s Mirinda and the local Orange Crush and Orange Barley. I get Fanta occasionally (it reminds me of the north somehow) but I haven’t really tried the others. So we did.
For YAMU, Shru and I did a taste off of the five main contenders, along the lines of the previous lamprais challenge. I was kinda surprised and mildly disgusted when one of the bottles turned out to be expired. Damn you government grocery stores, you are both lazy and incompetent. We retried that one and Shruthi wrote up the results, which are interesting. You can read it here: The Best Orange Soft Drink. Here are my tasting notes.
- My Orange: Tastes like Vitamin C pills ground into liquid, and not in a good way. Brand turns me off. Nose: chemically orange. Rating: 2
- Mirinda: Spicy and weir. Like immigrant apartment smell. Really horrific. Nose: Siddhalepa. Rating: 1
- Orange Barley. Classy. Tastes like sweet orange, with a lightness to it. Tastes like melted candy. Nose: candy. Rating: 5
- Orange Crush: Cloying and pathetic taste, limp on the tongue. No fizz. Tastes somehow powdery. Nose: fish. Rating: 2
- Fanta: The classic, comforting and somehow normal. Good, fizzy, has redefined what orange should taste like. Nose: gummy bear. Rating: 4.
I still don’t like orange drinks, reminds me too much of one too many horrible teenage Screwdrivers. That Orange Barley is quite surprisingly class, however, and Fanta is a reliable favorite. Also, don’t shop at Co-Op City. But don’t take my word for it, check out the full results.
Posted on Friday, September 28th, 2012 in food, Photography, YAMU.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
Orange Barley all da way………….
Orange Barley is my favourite too. I get a bottle of it whenever I can from the Sri Lankan shop.
Orange Barley still available? I haven’t noticed bottle in years. But I dont drink any of that stuff anyway.
What’s the sugar and chemical content in those various brands? Would be interesting to know. Do they have gatorade in SL?
This is pretty funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTjQLfU6Gk
see the part on the grape drink…
Generally as a rule of thumb assumee 330ml can or bottle can contain upto 15 – 20 tea spoons of refined Sugar!