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.

Pampa Tamarind

I had no idea what a tamarind was, so I did a little bit of research (I looked it up on wikipedia) and here’s what I came up with:

The tamarind, sometimes called the ‘Indian date’ is indigenous to tropical Africa, in particular Sudan, and also grows along the mountains facing the Arabian Peninsula as well as in Northern Australia, South East Asia, Taiwan, and China. It was introduced to Mexico and South America in the 16th century. The tree itself grows to between 12 and 18 metres high, with bright green leaves all year round. The flowers are small, and the five petals are yellow with either orange or red streaks. The fruit of the tamarind tree (a legume) is between 12 and 15 cm long and has a hard, brown shell. Inside this hard shell is typically 1 to 12 seeds (varying plant to plant as well as country to country) and a juicy flesh that is reddish-brown when mature. Tamarind is an ingredient of Worcestershire and HP sauce.

Considering this was my first encounter with tamarind flavour I’m in no position to describe how accurate Pampa Tamarind is, sufficed to say if tamarinds taste like a fairly bland combination of caramel and weak, flat cola then hats off to Pampa for capturing this in liquid form. I guess this soda does taste kind of like a date, just nowhere near as delicious. The aftertaste is pleasant in that it doesn’t stick around too long or suddenly go nasty, however the whole soda is thick and fairly unpleasant.

The bottle shape is nice and relatively unique, the Pampa logo is cool and the purple, red and white of the bottle work well with the black of its contents.

Overall this soda isn’t too bad, it’s just not amazing and the bland flavour coupled with the thickness of the soda means I probably won’t ever drink this again, although I would be pretty keen to try a real tamarind.

52/100

-LC

Available at Amir Bakery Brunswick and other Lebanese grocers/restaurants.