(Post theme: TAYLOR SWIFT SONG by sam ツ)

Last time: Lemon and Te Aroha, and now something a little different. I recently took a trip to Madrid (for work), and rather than dedicating a post to each drink I tried along the way (and polluting the list with lots of non-NZ drinks), here’s a single post with mini-reviews of the lot. A few of these were picked up on the flights and stop-overs either side of the trip, rather than in Madrid itself, but I have lumped them all together here.

A recurring theme: most of the plastic bottles have those annoying attached lids that are now standard across Europe. I will stop noting it after this paragraph, but consider it implied unless otherwise stated. It’s so weird that here we are forbidden from putting the lids in the recycling, and there you can’t remove them. Can’t Europeans learn to dispose of them properly? They are worst for anything shaken since you can’t drink from the bottle without mess or complex movement.

Lemonaid Maracuja. 330ml glass bottle. Had on the flight from Frankfurt to Madrid. An extremely mild mousse, and I could barely feel the bubbles, although I suspect the altitude and cabin pressure contributed to that, so it might be different on the ground. Nice, and I would drink it again. Best with ice. 7/10.

Enjoy Naranja. 500ml plastic bottle. A very weak orange juice, a tad better than Raro, but not by a lot. 3/10.

Kas Naranja. 330ml can. A bit Fanta-like. 6/10.

Colacao Energy. 188ml (!) plastic bottle with a foil top (and no cap on top of the foil, like you would get in New Zealand). A generic chocolate protein drink, but so small that it is barely tasted. 5/10.

Enjoy Limonada. 500ml plastic bottle. A weak lemon juice. 4/10.

Don Simon Fruit+Leche Multifruita. A carton with a plastic lid, maybe 250ml. I think this is meant to be a fruit smoothie, but it is not a good one. 4/10.

Solevita Vital Magnesio. 330ml plastic bottle. Very nice, quite thick, mango (and something else?) juice. 8/10.

Tasty Food in a Bottle Banana Paradise. 500ml plastic bottle. Like a pretty decent, although simple, banana smoothie. 8/10.

Milbóna Batido Chocolate. 200ml carton with an attached straw. Quite cocoa-y chocolate milk. 5/10.

Freeway Limón Limão. 330ml can. A fairly generic lemon soda, but nice enough, with a reasonable twang. 6.5/10.

Solevita Anti-oxidante Vitamina E. 330ml plastic bottle. Not bad, and tastes a bit “healthy”, in the way that a ginger shot does, but drinkable. 6/10.

Tasty Food in a Bottle Vanilla Dream. 500ml plastic bottle. Not a great vanilla taste, and not as good as the banana, but not bad. 6.5/10.

Refresco Sabor Naranja y Mango Con Gas. 250ml can. More orange than mango. Very unsweetened, which I think is the point. 4/10.

Tasty Food in a Bottle Berry Island. 500ml plastic bottle. Like a decent berry smoothie. The banana one was slightly better, but this is better than the vanilla. 7.5/10.

Kong Strong Energy Sabor Mango. 500ml can. A reasonable tropical-juice-flavoured soda, with a bit of the usual energy-drink taste. 6.5/10.

Cacaolat Original. 1l plastic bottle. More cocoa than chocolate. Ok. 5.5/10.

Solevita Smoothie Maçã, Manga e Maracujá. 250ml plastic bottle. A quite thick smoothie with more mango (?) than banana taste. 5/10.

Hip Pop Berries and Cherries. 330ml can. Weak, with no sugar taste. A faint taste of some lolly, I think maybe the purple Fruit Burst? 3.5/10.

Innocent Zumo + Vitaminas Vaca Bayas Frambuesa Cereza Manzana Guaraná. 330ml plastic bottle, with an unusually shaped attached lid. An odd fruit juice, with an aftertaste of apple, but the main taste maybe berries? 4.5/10.

Weider Protein Shake Chocolate Flavour. 330ml plastic bottle, also weirdly compressed. Quite thick, and again, not a great chocolate flavour. 5.5/10.

Eneryeti Fresh Yeti Candy Plátano. 500ml can. Unfortunately, I had this only an hour or so after brushing my teeth, and it still had a bit of a toothpaste taste mixed in. Trying to factor that out: nice, I think. That sort of generic “candy” flavour that in New Zealand might be called “bubblegum”. 7/10.

Eneryeti Fresh Yeti Piruleta. 500ml can. Again, not tried with a completely fresh palate (I was somewhat rushing drinks right before leaving the hotel). Fruitier, but not as good, I think. 6.5/10.

Milo Calcium Plus. 240ml can, from a vending machine in Changi Airport. Small but refreshing, like a watery, cold Milo. Milo seems big in Singapore, for some reason. 6.5/10.

Joluca Mango Pineapple. 330ml can. An ugly sugar-free taste, and not enough fruit flavour. 3/10.

Bionade Elderberry. 330ml glass bottle. On a flight, so the usual caveats. Had both with and without ice. I’m not sure I like elderberry. 4.5/10.

HPP Juice Get Fresh With Me Apple Mango. 250ml glass bottle, cold-pressed. An ok, generic juice. 5/10.

All up, a fairly mixed bag (Madrid is at or near the bottom in my preference of places for work trips), but my preferred way to explore a new place. The standouts were the Solevita Vital Magnesio and the Tasty Food in a Bottle Banana Paradise, both at 8/10. Back to one-at-a-time reviews, and to Aotearoa, next time.