If you are a fan of the TV show Dragon's Den then you will probably remember Levi Roots and Reggae Reggae Sauce. Since appearing on Dragon's Den, Levi's famous Jerk/BBQ sauce has become very popular and he has extended his range of products with the sauce featuring in ready meals, pasties and pizzas to name a few. One product from the range that I wasn't aware of is soft drinks!
I picked this up this Levi Roots Caribbean Crush drink in a newsagents the other day. I gather that it has been around for a while now but I had never noticed it before. I am not sure if it is because I usually got for diet soft drinks so never spotted it until now, or if it just hasn't been very popular so it's harder to get hold of.
This 500ml bottle cost 99p and Caribbean Crush is apparently a carbonated grapefruit, mango and pineapple flavor drink with sugar and sweeteners. A 250 ml serving contains 86 calories and a hefty 21g of sugars, meaning that if you drank the whole bottle that is 46% of your daily allowance. That said, it's no worse than other non-diet soft drinks and if I was that bothered I wouldn't have purchased it, it is merely an observation.
The drink looks like a sort of cloudy lemonade only more yellow. I was expecting something similar to Lilt but this tasted much sweeter and syrupy. First you get the pineapple taste, then tartness of the grapefruit comes through before more the sweetness of the mango. It only has a hint of fizz and to start with I found it quite refreshing but after a few swigs it did become a bit sickly.
Verdict
Caribbean Crush was OK in small doses. I liked the combination of flavours but it was just too sweet for me and this is not something that I say very often. Like I said I usually drink diet soft drinks so I am used to the taste of sweeteners so I never notice the after taste that many people dislike. However I would say that I am puzzled by the need for sweeteners as well all the sugar, I would have thought it would have been sweet enough!
