Black Fly Beverages Review

Long Island Iced Tea

This one is lightly carbonated and surprisingly heavy on the tequila...and I love tequila. Shockingly, it is not very sweet. I kept drinking and expecting the sweetness to hit me, but it never happened. Yeah, I guess the claims are correct.

Anyways, back to the taste - the tequila is the heavier of the alcohols while the vodka takes a backseat. Normally long island iced teas also have gin, rum and triple sec, but in most you cannot tell the gin and rum are present...OK, maybe a bit of the rum. The triple sec really gives the beverage a touch of sweetness and an orange note, which this cocktail does have so I guess this one has been pulled off successfully.

Soon after the tequila comes a sour, and slightly sweet, lemon flavour which lingers well into the finish cleansing a good chunk of your palate after each sip and hiding traces of the booze very well. The coke (which is another standard ingredient) comes in the form of a caramel note towards the end.

I also got a bit of salt which comes immediately after the tequila. That came as a bit of a surprise, but it goes very well with the tequila.

Overall, a very decent pre-mixed long island iced tea, which yes, is not very sweet.

Vodka Cranberry

Well, the title should pretty much explain this one...also the color gives it away.

Or does it? When I first got a whiff of the drink from my glass I was expecting a strong cranberry note, but what I got instead was Sprite. Oh yeah - Sprite. Or maybe like the red Mountain Dew...with a little bit of vodka.

And does it taste like Sprite or Mountain Dew? Nope, it actually tastes like a strong vodka cranberry mix. The cranberry flavour comes in light both before and after the vodka hits you. After the vodka appears, the cranberry taste becomes very tart and dry as it should and helps the drink finish on a very refreshing note with lingering flavours.

The taste is light and comparable to mixing vodka, cranberry juice, club soda and some lemon/lime at home. I kinda liked it...I actually liked it very much. And if you don't normally add that much vodka to your mixed drinks, add a splash of cranberry juice to tone it down.

Nice!

Tequila Margarita

The beverage does look like a margarita with its hazy, pale lime green color. Poured in a blender with ice, and then blended gives it a picture perfect margarita look. I strongly recommend the blended approach, but if you are feeling lazy, drink it out of the bottle.

Black Fly's aroma is very inviting with salty, lime and tequila infused scent. The taste is pretty solid, in fact, better than the Jose Cuervo Golden Margarita we reviewed a while ago. The cocktail is salty with a strong tequila lime punch which develops into a very sour and refreshing finish with a warming tequila sensation.

There is very little sweetness at first, but with time, it does start to build up. I do not recommend drinking more than a few of these unless you are planning on ending your night prematurely.

The saltiness adds another dimension to this drink, one that could not have been achieved with the Jose Cuervo if your glass wasn't salt rimmed.

Overall, this is a pretty decent margarita cocktail which I recommend if you are feeling too lazy to make your own.

Vodka Citrus

And last, but not least - Black Fly's Vodka Citrus. Vodka citrus is one of my favourive mixed drinks and I make it as so - 1 part vodka, 1 part freshly squeezed lemon juice. That's it. At these proportions you will not taste any of the vodka, but your stomach will probably pay a hefty price with all that acid you are ingesting.

Now, onto the beverage. The aroma tells me that there is a lot more than just lemon - like lime and maybe some orange here and there. The flavour is refreshing, and yes, it mostly consists of lemon and lime...with some boozy vodka notes here and there. There is a bit of sweetness to balance out the sourness, but it lays low at the start and does truly emerge until you are half way into a bottle.

This is a simple beverage, but it is extremely refreshing and will get you good. I liked this one the most so I strongly recommend it.

Squeezing Melons Vodka Beverage Review

Just about a year ago the LCBO introduced two Jaw Drop vodka beverages with pretty cool names - Puckering Punch and Sucking Lemons, which of course were sour. Now, there is a third one which bears the same eye-catching can design.

Squeezing melons (OK, for some reason I want to keep calling it squeezing lemons so every time you see the word "melons", know that it was "lemons" before realizing what I was doing) is bright pink in color and has a strong melon aroma...with a lot of vodka underneath.

The taste is similar with a decent punch of sour melon up front...and a lot of vodka trailing behind. The melon taste is very similar to that of a Jolly Rancher, which pleases me a lot. There is also the expected boat load of sweetness which accentuate the melon taste, but will probably give you a terrible headache if you had more than a couple of these bad boys.

Overall, this is an enjoyable pre-mixed drink, which is not overly sour, but does have a pretty decent punch to keep you satisfied. As many other similar drinks, the alcohol taste is strong so if you dislike that, I suggest getting a pre-mixed drink with a lower alcohol content.

Scores:

Cost - $2.95 from LCBO

Taste - 7/10

ABV - 7%

Overall - 7/10...like a Jolly Rancher soaked in vodka...with a shot of vodka

Puckering Punch Vodka Beverage Review

Besides Sucking Lemons, Jaw Drop brought a second vodka beverage to the shelves of LCBO. The beverage comes in the same eye catching can.

For those wondering, the contents of the can are the same color as the hands on the can. The drink smells like a generic, sour fruit punch with almost no vodka smell. This drink is more up my alley than Sucking Lemons. It starts off with a nice sour-ish punch with minimal vodka taste and transitions to a sweet/sour fruit punch taste with a bit more vodka taste coming out towards the end.

The aftertaste is more alcoholic than the taste, but the vodka flavour doesn't last very long as the sourness takes over. As I mentioned before, I like this better than Sucking Lemons. I think I will get a few more of these next time I am too lazy to mix drinks.

Scores:
Cost - $2.95
Taste - 7.5/10
ABV - 7%

Overall - 7.5/10...more sour than Sucking Lemons with minimal Vodka taste

Sucking Lemons Vodka Beverage Review

You can figure out why I bought this...if you can't, just take a look at the can.

That worked like a homing beacon for me. I was walking fast through the isles carrying my bottle of Robust Porter to the register when something bright in the corner of my made me stop and look. Yep, I bought a can.

So does it live up to its name? I will make it quick and painless - it doesn't. Instead of the strong citric taste I was expecting, I got a sweet lemon juice with a mild vodka flavour. OK, there is a bit of sourness, but it wasn't as much as I had expected. I really wanted this to be similar to a half and half vodka cocktail I make where I squeeze a lemon or two and add a lot of vodka. That cocktail is in the 20's and does not taste like vodka at all. Give me a few of those and I am done for the night.

However, this vodka beverage can be saved one of two ways - squeeze in a lemon or two...or just add in some lemon juice if you are way too lazy or don't have lemons.

To those who make this drink - if you are reading this, please release a version 2.0, "Sucking More Lemons" (also, please credit me) which is packed with lemons or citric acid. I would love it.

Scores:
Cost - $2.95
Taste - 6.5/10
ABV - 7%

Overall - 6.5/10...not as lemony as I expected

Seagram 2012 Review

I bought this can a few weeks ago only because I could not tell what its contents were, which made me a little curious. The only thing that tipped me of as to what this might taste like was the ingredients list - vodka, rum, whiskey and gin among some other ingredients such as sugar. Well, I love all those things!

The beverage has a copper/amber/iced tea-like color and is just a touch hazy. The aroma is a mix of alcohols with rum being the dominant one, followed by the whiskey. The vodka and gin are almost not noticeable. From the non-alcoholic aromas, some caramel and an acidic note are present - not much there.

The taste is where the vodka appears and takes the lead. Rum starts you off, but within moments a strong vodka taste takes the lead. The taste is way too alcoholic and imbalanced to make this an enjoyable pre-mixed cocktail. The alcohols used clash and don't compliment the non-alcoholic ingredients and flavours...whatever they might be. Caramel, some lemon/lime and a tiny bit of apple were all the flavours I could sense, but they were all overpowered by the alcohol. Yes, this was a very difficult to drink cocktail and I don't think I can recommend it to anyone. Also, the drink is very sweet and you can really start to feel the headache coming towards the end of the can.

Seagram did an excellent job on the can, though. It got my eye and made me spend the $3.

Scores:
Cost - $2.95
Taste - 4/10
ABV - 6%

Overall - 4/10...clashing flavours and too alcoholic

Urb'n'lili Cosmocran Review

Among the hundreds of beer reviews on this site, there are a handful of pre-mixed cocktail reviews as well as the occasional wine and hard liquor review. I rarely get coolers and when I do, they are for guests or for my girlfriend and I usually don't bother reviewing them. This one, however, is an exception because I couldn't get over its premium price of almost $14 for a 4 pack of 300 mL plastic bottles.

Sure, it looks like a lot of thought and money went into the design of the bottle, the label and the marketing, but I just could not get over its high price. For $14 I can make my own coolers because I already have some of the ingredients. The only thing I would need is a 200 mL bottle of vodka, which retails for less than $10 and perhaps a fresh bottle of juice. If I were to get frozen one, I could save a few dollars. With that in mind, I stole a bottle from the fridge and set it aside for a later review.

The cocktails smells a lot like a spiked energy drink with some cranberries. It is non-carbonated, which makes it easy to drink and doesn't make you feel bloated or want to burp every few sips. I can see how this might appeal to a certain demographic.

The taste is sort of mellow until you feel the 7% ABV which makes it a bit harsh. There is a pleasant white grape flavour with some cranberries, but I cannot get over the vodka harshness. I think this would have tasted much better if the percentage was brought down a bit, or if other ingredients were used that could neutralize the vodka taste.

Finish is pretty smooth, until the vodka gets its turn, and a nice green tea note can be detected. Unfortunately, since one of the main ingredients is sugar, there is a build up of sweetness that tells me "don't have another one or you will regret it" half way through the first bottle.

This cocktail is OK, but it is nothing worth picking up over your regular 4 pack of coolers/cocktails for less than $10 for a few reasons - it is all marketing, it is an extra $4, it is just as sweet. If I were to remake this cocktail, I would eliminate the added sugar and lower the vodka percentage to something that would not interfere with the taste. That way, I can probably get people to drink more of these thus buy more of these. These are my $0.02.

Scores:
Cost - $13.95
Taste - 5.5/10
ABV - 7%

Overall - 5.5/10...the scores is heavily influenced by the price and the lack of something original

Hound Dog Peach Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka Review and Cocktail

LCBO released their early summer 2010 magazine some time ago and I, being the loyal customer that I have always been since the day I turned 19, bought a bottle of one of the new spirits they were advertising. This is Hound Dog Peach Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka and yes, it is a peach sweet tea flavored vodka, which unfortunately does not retain its 40% ABV. The spirit is not expensive at $24.95 CAD for a 750 mL bottle, but it is in limited quantities so by the time you read this review, there may not be any left in stock.

You guessed it, this does not have the typical vodka color, or should I say lack of. It has a bourbon-like darkness and very schnapps-like aroma. OK, I cannot simply put all the schnappses into one category, but I have only had 2 kinds of schnapps in my life - peach and mint - and this definitely smells like the former. The peach aroma is so strong, that I cannot detect any hints of vodka. The taste...wow...the taste. OK, now that I got you excited, the taste is a blend of peach schnapps and vodka, and this time you can definitely taste the vodka. The spirit starts off as a sweet peach schnapps, but quickly changes itself into more of a flavored vodka as it goes down. While in your mouth, you can detect some earthy and woody notes that can only come from the barrels, or from tea leaves. The afterburn is similar to that of doing shots of vodka. Yes, shots of vodka, because this is not the smoothest spirit I have had. I think I have to dig very deep to find a cheap whiskey or scotch with the same roughness. With the burn out of way, this is a very unique spirit which could be great on the rocks of served very, very cold. I am not a big fan of sweet peach schnapps due to a couple of incidents in the past, but I can see myself drinking this in a cocktail...which leads me onto the next section:

The Cocktail

I am not much of a mixologist so I rarely come up with creative ways of mixing alcoholic cocktails, which is why I will just follow the recipe listed on the back of the label:

• 2 oz Hound Dog Peach Sweet Tea Flavoured Vodka
• Tall glass, half filled with ice
• Water to top off
• Sprig of mint and lemon twist

I wish I had some club soda to try it fizzy, because the recipe above was a bit too flat for my taste. At first I used a lot of ice and the little water that fit in the glass was not enough to dilute the sweetness and the vodka taste so I once I finished the cocktail, I made myself a second one with only 4 ice cubes. This time there was enough water to turn this into a cocktail resembling peach iced tea. It was good, I liked it, but I think I can make the same thing by making peach iced tea and adding some plain vodka. Perhaps putting less of the vodka and some fresh lemon juice can improve this cocktail. Give it a shot.

Edit: I mixed another cocktail and this one went a little something like this:

• 3 ice cubes in a tall glass
• 1.5 oz of Hound Dog Peach Sweet Tea Flavoured Vodka
• 4 oz of grape/raspberry juice
• 3 oz of apple juice

I liked this combination a lot more than the suggested one. The acidic juices give the cocktail a nice bite and a refreshing taste while the peach flavour still makes an appearance, but it is no longer similar to that of peach schnapps. I loved this.

Scores:
Cost - $24.95 CAD for a 750 mL bottle from the LCBO
Taste - 6.9/10 for the vodka and 7.4/10 for the suggested cocktail, 9/10 for the one I made

Overall - 7.15/10...you guessed it, it is just an average of the scores from the vodka itself and the suggested cocktail