Schweppes and Kinley's Mandarin Drinks

When I recently tasted and reviewed Fanta's new Lemonade together with my friend, he told me that the orange Fanta is one of his favorite sodas. We also talked about the differences between lemon and orange flavor in many other drinks, so when I saw that both Schweppes and Kinley have a new Mandarin flavored drink I thought I would invite him over for a "taste testing party".

שוופס וקינלי מנדרינות

 Schweppes's Fruit Mandarin Drink

This is the first of the "Schweppes Fruit" line of drinks that I have ever tasted, so I had no idea what to expect and I can't really compare it to any of their other flavors.

After my first sip I though "I really did not enjoy that at all!" Not because of the mandarin flavor, I just could not get past the "saltiness" of the drink.

My friend didn’t mind the saltiness as much as I did but he didn’t either love this drink. He said, for what it is; a fruit flavored carbonated water, he thought it lived up to being exactly that. He made sure to point out that if you're looking for a sweet orange soda he doesn't think this is the right choice for you.

Even though neither of us loved Schweppes's Fruit Mandarin Drink, we both thought it had a nice orange aroma and a good amount of mandarin flavor.

Bottom Line: My friend said "for me this drink was just "OK", I prefer sweet carbonated orange sodas and I'm still somewhat addicted to Fanta's Orange soda."

I'd have to admit that the Schweppes Fruit Mandarin Drink did grow on me, but it reconfirmed yet again that I don’t love heavily carbonated drinks. If and when I would grab a "fizzy" drink I would go for a lightly carbonated one, something closer to Sanpellegrino's Lemonade, that I recently reviewed.

1.5 Litter Bottle - 6.99 NIS

Kosher Badatz


Kinley's Mandarin Drink
The first noticeable difference between this Kinley drink and the Schweppes drink is the color. Even though both drinks are made from all natural food coloring and they both have more than 10% real fruit in them they still look quite different.  Kinley's is a yellow-orange whereas the Schweppes one is much more of a proper mandarin orange color.
 

The next major difference is that the Kinley drink is a diet drink, making it only 7 calories for 100 mL, whereas Schweppes's is 32 calories for 100mL and has sugar in it.

At first I thought that maybe the Kinley one was ever so slightly sweeter but when I tried to do a blind taste test, a few days later, I couldn't really tell which one was sweeter. I think my final conclusion was that they are equally sweet, but in fact neither of them is really all that sweet.   

The Kinley drink has a slightly more gentle carbonation and I prefer that, but the Schweppes one has a little more of a "tangy taste" and I kinda enjoy a more tangy drink. So for me they each have a pro and a con.
  

My friend said he didn’t love or hate the Kinley drink, for him it was "neither here nor there" he added, "if it was the only orange flavored drink on the table, I would drink it, but I don’t think I would go out and buy it on purpose".

 
Bottom Line: My friend said If he had to pick he would choose the Schweppes drink, simply because he thought the mandarin flavor was more authentic in that drink. I agree it has more of a mandarin taste, but for me the carbonation is a bigger deal ,so although I don’t think either of these will become a product I purchase regularly, if I had to pick between these two, I would likely go for the one that I thought was slightly more gently carbonated and somewhat less "salty"; the Kinley one.

1.5 Litter Bottle - 6.99 NIS

Kosher Rabbanut Ashkelon

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

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