Tiro Hibiscus

Note: After drinking, reviewing and recycling Tiro Hibiscus, I realised that I hadn't photographed the bottle. "No matter," I thought, "For the love of Pizza, where I purchased this average-in-almost-all-regards soda, is just down the road, I can easily pop down there sometime this week and grab/photograph myself another." A good plan, but unfortunately FTLOP had either sold out or stopped selling Tiro Hibiscus, and I was forced to pursue other options. The best I could come up with, aside from seeking out Tiro Hibiscus someplace else (which I may have done if it wasn't such a boring soda), was the artists rendition you see above, which took me half an hour or so to draw but is far better than wasting $4.50 on another bottle or cheap online image-theft. This was supposed to be last Friday's post, here it is a few days late...

I was pretty excited to try this, I can’t remember ever even having smelled a hibiscus let alone eaten one but I guess I expected a rose-water-esque drink, at the very least something that tasted floral. The colour of the drink furthered this conception, a pink/light-red much like a Turkish delight. The smell is very much like red cordial, and with this in mind Tiro Hibiscus begins to look quite a bit like watery raspberry cordial.

The flavour is very light, pretty much just a hint, so much so that it’s hard to pin down. Tastes nothing like rosewater/Turkish delight, not even slightly floral. The taste is very much like the weak red cordial that it looks like with a vague hint of lemon. The taste itself is pretty much all in the aftertaste; when the drink is in your mouth there really only the sensation of having bubbly liquid in your mouth with a slight hint of the flavour to come (that in itself really only has a slight flavour), a flavour that isn’t really unleashed until after you swallow, whereupon it sticks around for a good 4-5 seconds. The bottle does say “all natural subtle flavour of hibiscus and lemon” I guess.

This soda’s sweetness sits at a good level where the drink tastes sweet without tasting overly ‘sweetened’- this could be due to the relative lack of flavour overall. This low level of fizz sits well with the light feeling of the drink.
Tiro Hibiscus is made by Splitrock who predominantly make bottled and spring waters, makes sense as this is more like a ‘twist of hibiscus/lemon’ than an overtly hibiscus and lemon flavoured drink. I can see the types who are into flavoured mineral waters going ape for this, I’m normally pretty turned off by that sort of thing but I don’t mind Tiro Hibiscus, although I’m that hot on it either.

Although fairly pleasant, Tiro Hibiscus is a little bit light-on everything-wise to get me very excited. The main adjective I’d use in relation to Tiro Hibiscus is ‘agreeable’. If that’s enough for you then pick yourself up a bottle, if you want more from a soda I’d suggest leaving it on the shelf.

55/100

-LC

Available at For the Love of Pizza Northcote.