Pete's Natural - Ginger Beer product reviews

I love ginger beer. I remember us making it as children and waiting patiently until it was ready. Thankfully now you can buy ginger beer in a bottle. There are lots of different brands on the market now. Some are nicer than others. I was excited when I heard that Pete's Natural now made a ginger beer I was keen to try it as I enjoyed their other products.

The first thing I noticed when I was given the ginger beer was the packaging and so did my kids. It was a standard shaped clear glass bottle with a screw top. There is a picture of a a bear chewing on ginger and holding a cellphone. "It is so cute," said my 6 year old. My eight year old has demanded the bottle for when I have finished with it, she thinks it is so cute.

When I first opened the bottle it was quiet, not a loud fizz that some ginger beers have. I let my daughters have a few sips first and they both enjoyed it. They reluctantly passed the bottle over to me so I could try it. After all I have to taste it to review it. To be honest I was disappointed with it. It was only slightly fizzy and the dominant taste was like aniseed. I'm thinking it was the mix of liquorice and star anise. There was a hint of ginger but it more because I was searching for it. Ginger beer should be ginger.

I really liked that the was no sediment at the bottom of the bottle. This also helped give every mouthful a consistent taste. For me it was a nice drink that I would happily drink again but I wouldn't call it a ginger beer. I wouldn't recommend it to people looking for a ginger beer. It would be for those that love black jellybeans.

I am a ginger beer addict. It is my most favorite beverage. Perfect for those hot summers afternoons or evenings, but also great to take along to an event when you are the sober driver or do not wish to be drinking alcohol. I do have my preferred brand of ginger beer, but am always open to others. Having tried a few of Pete's drinks before I definitely wanted to try the ginger beer.

I love the bottle. Its got the cutest little ginger honey bear on the front lol I love that they have thought outside the square with this one. There was a bit of sediment settled at the bottom, but a light shake before opening solved this within seconds. I expected to open the bottle and be met with a strong ginger smell, so was really surprised when I opened her up, and could smell no ginger at all. It was the licorice aroma that met me instead. This did make me wonder if it was going to taste more like licorice than anything else.

I poured myself a small glass (small, because in my house, it is an absolute travesty if one attempts to try Kr review goods without sharing with every member of the household lol). Expecting the licorice to be the main flavor, as stated earlier, I took a sip. Hmmm no licorice flavor at all. Another sip. No ginger taste there either. Nope, the main taste coming through is that of lemons. I felt a little disappointed, it is ginger beer after all.

My next sip, I savored a little longer before swallowing. Ahhh yes, there is the ginger now. It is very very subtle, but it is there. The lemon definitely is the stronger of the two though. It is more of a fruity ginger beer, not very sweet, although the label suggests it to be with the added honey, but no, I have definitely tried sweeter. Sadly, it does not score highly for me as a refreshing ginger drink. My son liked it, my daughter did not at all. However, I wish I had of been more prepared, I think it would be really nice added to the toffee used for toffee apples. And I am prepared to try that one day, although at $14 a 4 pack I'm not sure I will be buying it any time soon unfortunately.

Minor flaws aside, I do love that Pete's natural drinks use 30-50% less sugar than other drinks and are gluten free, vegetarian and vegan free. I do not worry so much about the latter, but for many in today's society these are important things when buying products, so two thumbs up there. and as an added bonus, its NZ made, produced and owned...cant go wrong there!

Ginger Beer is something that we will buy every now and again with the groceries, so I was looking forward to being able to try a more natural take on this tasty drink. The first thing that caught my attention was of course the most adorable bear on the label, I loved how cleverly this was presented using a bear on a ginger beer bottle, and a very natural bear in that, all decorated in necklaces and head pieces of leaves sitting in the world of nature with a bucket of fresh ginger, I loved it! Everyone with me at the time also commented on what a neat bottle this was!

I gave the bottle a wee shake to start with as there a bit of sediment at the bottom of it, once this was sorted I poured the ginger beer into 2 glasses, 1 for myself and 1 for my mother in law as ginger beer is one of her favourite drinks, and the one that she always gets when we go out to restaurants. Our first impressions were that the drink didn't smell like ginger but of licorice, we thought this was quite interesting as ginger has quite a strong smell usually.

When I first tasted the ginger beer it took me a while to find the taste of the ginger, as the first flavour I tasted was the lemon, as the flavours settled more in my mouth however the ginger was there. I didn't find this to be a sweet ginger beer, certainly a lot less sweeter than that I am used to. To be honest I wasn't a fan of this to begin with but the flavour did grow on me, it just took a little of getting used to the more natural taste. Funnily enough I found that when I went back to finish off the rest of my glass of the ginger beer quite some time later that it tasted a whole lot better, I think this was due to the fact that a lot of the fizz was gone, it seemed a lot nicer flatter.

I asked my mother in law for her feedback and she excitedly told me that it tasted how ginger beer used to be when she was growing up, and a lot more home made, apparently ginger beer didn't use to be sweet! She actually really liked the taste herself as it took her back to her childhood, straight off the bat she could taste the ginger and the lemons and said that the balance was just right, it didn't take her long to polish off her half of the bottle!

This is a ginger beer worth trying, you just need to give a little bit of time before judging it, as like me the flavours might just need to grow on you. I love that I know what every one of the ingredients on the bottle are, something that is rare to find on other such labels these days with all the additives being added to foods.

The bottle is just too cute and made me want to try this drink. The kids loved the look of the bottle too. I am also very fond of ginger beer. I have one brand of choice but I am always keen to see if any other options meet or surpass my expectations.

The first thing I did when I opened the bottle was smell the contents. I was surprised that I didn't smell ginger. I could smell liquorice and honey. The surprised me as I wasn't expecting that at all! Both of my kids weren't that impressed by the smell. I also noticed some sediment at the bottom of the bottle and I gave it a gentle tip up and down to mix the sediment in with the rest of the drink.

When I tasted the ginger beer I was disappointed as it wasn't anything like what I had expected. I think that my brain was expecting a sugar loaded taste like my usual favourite. I had to re-adjust my mindset to give a fair opinion. My first impression was that it tasted like honey, liquorice and bubbly water. I did find it quite watery. It tasted like something that we might have made at home with ginger, liquorice, lemon, honey and soda stream. Even when I tried to assess my view of the drink, I still struggled to think of it as a ginger beer. If you like liquorice and a low sugar option for a drink, I think this would be ideal. Thinking of the drink from this view, I quite liked the drink. I really had to put my preconceived idea of ginger aside as I really wouldn't think of this drink as a ginger beer.

When I compared Pete's Natural Ginger Beer with my usual ginger beer, I found that Pete's Natural had about a third of the energy as the other option. This is certainly important to me when choosing a drink for me or my family. I also really appreciate the fact that Pete's Natural has natural and recognisable ingredients. The bottle mentions that the drink is low in sugar and I only see the addition of honey as a sweetener, so this is a big bonus. I do understand that there is fine line between getting the right level of sweetness and flavour and how much sugar has to be added to a carbonated drink.

Miss Four thought that the drink was different but she kept wanting more. I would definitely prefer for her to enjoy this drink than other fizzy drinks. Mr Six and my husband were not at all impressed with the drink. The bottle says that the water is lightly carbonated. We did find that it was a bit too 'lightly' carbonated for our tastes.

I think I would choose this drink by preference if I knew it was better for me than other brands. I think that my taste buds would get used to it. Overall, although I think I could learn to tolerate this version of ginger beer, it was very different to my expectations. I could drink it if it was served to me but unlikely to be a drink I would choose to buy and drink.

I've always been a ginger beer drinker and I love my normal one but that requires me to make it first. So I was looking for something that I could pick up and take with me instead of making it first then taking it with me. Firstly I love the bottle it was appealing to me and made me want to drink it right away, which I pretty much did oops and yup didn't share with anyone.

Opening the drink took me a little while but that didn't surprise me i'm not the best person when it comes to opening those types of bottles. Once I got in, the drink didn't smell like ginger beer that I know, I smelt something like honey, but I can't really be sure. Giving it a taste I had to pull back a little as it wasn't a strong ginger beer taste, this kinda gave me a disappointment, but I carried on drinking it, trying to work it out. It seemed more watered down that a normal ginger beer, but I'm putting that down to it being natural.

I did however drink the whole thing within an hour normally its gone within minutes, I really needed to get my head around the taste of water down ginger beer. Other than that it was a nice drink in the end and I would get it again if I felt lazy and didn't want to make my normal one.

I'm not a huge fan of Ginger Beer... Ginger Ale, yes, but not the Ginger Beer... however, I took a sampler sip of this at Fieldays recently, and I decided it was pretty good... so and I knew someone who is more of a Ginger Beer fan that would be willing to try this and give me her opinions.

We both had a taste, and we both thought it was good for the first mouthful, but the more we drank, the less we liked it. The liquorice flavour just kept getting in the way of the ginger, and it turned out that even shared between us, we couldn't finish the bottle. This is definitely a drink that will be a love it or hate it kind of drink. For those who love the taste of liquorice, it will hold more appeal but die-hard fans of ginger will likely find it a bit insipid and lacking in that area.

The bottle is brilliant - the new family of label designs brings instant visual appeal to the range, this one especially, and of course being glass, the bottle itself is appealing to those of us who are passionate about recycling to get the most out of our resources and minimise landfill waste. However no pretty box ever made the contents better, and this is one drink that left me disappointed.

Overall, this drink will hold appeal for some, but it's going to prove to be a let-down to others. Liquorice-lovers will enjoy it more, I suspect.