Home > Categories > Beverages > Commercially Brewed > Ranga Gingerbeer review
It's a gingerbeer but not quite as we know it. At 4.5% alcohol, it lives up to its "refreshingly feisty" name.
Ranga is an off-dry style with ginger infused in the conditioning stage. The ginger aromas and palate provide plenty of spiciness and the dry finish gives this Ranga a touch of sophistication. Enjoy it with ice and a dash of lime on a hot summer's day.
Product reviews...
Okay this could land me in trouble. I love gingerbeer. It has been one of my favourite drinks ever since I was a child and my stepdad had his own gingerbeer bug and I would watch him make his own. But I have always known gingerbeer to be non alcoholic. This is the first alcoholic version I have ever come across, and thats where it could lead to trouble.
If you were one of those lazy kinds of people who do not read lables, you might easily miss the bit that says its alcoholic. And because its a gingerbeer, you might just take it for granted that its just your everyday gingerbeer. I know if I was not already informed, I would have been the latter and just assumed it was an every day gingerbeer. Its in a simple yet standard bottle, nothing fancy or in your face. Basic labeling. The 4.5% ALC on the lable is very noticeable...if youre looking!
Okay so it has a good tight beer cap. Harder to remove than a lot of beer caps ive come across. It smells just like gingerbeer should smell, with no hint of alcohol fumes (lol) coming through. Taste is the same - it tastes like gingerbeer should taste. Refreshing, gingery, yummy - no overshelming alcohol hitting your taste buds. I could not taste any alcohol whatsoever.
I really really like it. It would be my drink of choice for a hot summers evening or an afternoon bbq. The price is possibly a bit more than id like to pay but thats because I can't get past the 'its just gingerbeer' she really its beer lol two thumbs up from me anyway.
I am a big fan of ciders and I also really enjoy a nice ginger beer so I was excited to try this Alcholic Ginger Beer. I have tried a lot of different fruit ciders so was intrigued to try a ginger variety. My first impressions were good as the bottle and labelling were really cool I loved the bold Ranga title with the orange labelling. I also was impressed that this is made in our own country that definitely adds to the appeal.
I opened the bottle on a hot afternoon after it had been chilling in the fridge for a couple of days so it was nice and icy cold. I poured a small glass for my partner also as he was really keen to try some with me, he is a big ginger beer drinker so he was excited to try some with me. We both really enjoyed the drink, it definitely tastes like a ginger beer with a strong ginger taste and you can't even tell it is alcoholic so you could quite easily drink a few within your standard four drinks a day ;). Just be careful you don't drink them too quickly as I imagine the effects would catch up on you if you had a few.
I think the price is quite reasonable for a six pack making it about $3 a bottle which is not too bad for an alcholic drink given that you would pay that for a non alcoholic ginger beer like bundaberg. So the price does reflect the fact that you are getting convenient ready to drink alcohol. These would be quite good to take a couple to a barbeque in my opinion and this is probably an occasion when I would buy them as at home I normally drink wine.
The only thing I found with the taste is that the ginger is quite strong so you get a bit of an after burn in your mouth which made me quite thirsty. So if I was drinking more than one I would probably have to have some water too. I usually don't mind a strong ginger taste but these had a bit of a bite to them if you know what I mean. I would buy them again though as I did enjoy the taste and found them easy to drink.
This is one of those drinks that you need to keep an eye out for. It is refreshing, it tastes like an ordinary ginger beer, and the packaging is rather inconspicuous, but this is in fact an alcoholic beverage. In my younger years, I would have loved this beverage as I would be able to drink it in public without people questioning it (similar to the Stones alcoholic ginger beer).
But looking beyond how easy it would be to consume this beverage within an alcohol-free zone, I like this beverage. It is deceptively light, and refreshing, for an alcoholic drink, but the flavour is nothing exceptional. While enjoyable, there is nothing that makes it different from other ginger beer drinks (beyond the alcohol content). Myself, I prefer to be able to taste the alcohol in my drink as it helps me to gauge my intake, but I could easily use this beverage as a mixer with stronger alcohol.
So if I was planning on having a day at the beach, or a day-time BBQ, then I would certainly consider bringing these along. It's effectively an ordinary ginger beer, with alcohol somehow included. So I could combine my need for a refreshing soft drink, with an alcoholic beverage (without having to mix to drinks together or by an RTD). At $3 a drink, it is on the pricey side, but in the right environment, it would be well worth the investment.
I was lucky enough to be given some of this to review, and the hot summery afternoon today seemed the perfect time for my husband and I to try it. We both drink non-alcoholic ginger beer (although hubby is not a huge fan) but I had not come across an alcoholic version before.
The bottle label is simple and attractive and although it clearly states the contents as being alcoholic, I can see this being missed by someone just grabbing it from the fridge without looking properly - beware!
Hubby doesn't normally like alcohol, but will try small amounts from time to time, so I was keen to get his opinion on this first. Not being a huge ginger fan, he found it drinkable with a pleasant after taste, but he was quite happy with his couple of small mouthfuls and didn't want any more.
I love ginger, so in some ways the ginger wasn't strong enough for me - but it did have a nice taste and I personally didn't really notice it was alcoholic, even drinking it. But it was great for a refreshing afternoon drink, and I can see it being a great choice for a social BBQ where you want something different from the usual wine and beer. It recommends drinking over ice and I can see that it would be even nicer if it were colder. (I drank it chilled from the fridge, but straight from the bottle)
I can see this being a great choice in certain social situations, and I'd possibly buy it again but not regularly.
I LOVE Bunderberg Ginger Beer so I was very happy to be given a bottle of this to review.
I popped it in the fridge, the best way to enjoy ginger beer of any sorts, and waited for it to get nice and cool. I really like the bottle and design for this, the colouring of the label suits the colour of the bottle really well and makes it nice and clear as to what you are having. 300ml with 4.5% alcohol is a good amount, enough to give you a slight buzz but not push you off the bench. The bottle says that it does 1.2 standard drinks, it would do me as a drink just for myself but it stretches well enough that my husband and I could split the bottle and have a decent drink each.
Opening it up I could smell the ginger right away, always a good sign for me (I've had alcoholic ginger beer before and couldn't even smell it when opened) and I gave it a sip. This was a really nice drink and to me it tasted rather close to my favorite ginger beer. I found myself sipping this slowly but find myself not 100% drawn in by the flavor, however I would get this again to try.
Ginger beer is a stable in our fridge over the summer so was keen to give this a go. I questioned at first why you would choose an alcoholic ginger beer over a non-alcoholic but thought it was worth a try.
I made sure I chilled the bottle first and decided on a warm afternoon to give this a go. I took one mouthful and loved the taste. It reminded me of a natural ginger beer that I had tried at a restaurant once. That initial taste however quickly disappeared and I found that it left the lingering taste of cider (which is not a drink I enjoy). You could taste the 4.5% alcohol in it and so I gave it another mouthful. That second mouthful was not as pleasant and that cider taste made me hand the remainder over to my husband.
His initial thoughts was that the aftertaste was not very nice (even though he is a cider drinker) however as he drank the rest of the bottle he actually decided that it was very pleasant drink to drink and he believed that it would be a lovely alternative to a beer on a warm afternoon. His words 'It's very refreshing'.
So I personally would stick with the non-alcoholic version, however I think hubby will be quite keen for me to buy some of this for him over the summer months.
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