L’Ordinaire Soda isn’t Ordinary… For all the Wrong Reasons: Taste of the Caribbean
So, here I go again picking on yet another French Caribbean soda…
I came to discover L’Ordinaire not in Guadeloupe, where it’s from, but rather in Martinique, just a few minutes before I made the mistake of spending my last few euros on a decidedly un-regal Red Royal Soda.
Compared to L’Ordinaire, though, Red Royal is almost kingly.
Yup, L’Ordinaire is that bad… Still, that doesn’t mean you won’t like it…
Before we get to that, let’s look at what’s supposed to make L’Ordinaire extraordinary. Basically, it’s meant to be a carbonated lemonade that, when enjoyed ice-cold, provides cooling refreshment on a hot and sunny day.
Ingredients include a lot of things that make any soda not-so-good-for-you: sugar, citric acid, sugar, sodium benzoate (apparently very bad for you), sugar, and some unnaturally natural fruit flavorings.
Oh yeah, and sugar.
To be fair, the actual amount of sugar found in L’Ordinaire isn’t listed anywhere on the can. You can sure taste that there’s a bunch of it in there, though.
There’s also another bit of sweetness in L’Ordinaire that effectively crushes the whole can for me.
I’m talking about Anise, which is also pretty big in Red Royal. (I’m noting a trend here.) Anise, which tastes like liquorice, is a primary flavoring in L’Ordinaire, and much as it makes Red Royal taste more like Robitussin, the effect here is equally as medicinal, though minus any healing.
To me, there’s just way too much anise working here. It overpowers whatever lemonade flavor you’re supposed to be getting, creating instead some sort of syrupy pseudo cold and flu remedy that tastes more like pineapple juice gone bad than lemonade.
No sir, I don’t like it.
On your next French Caribbean adventure, I’d advise that you skip this stuff in favor of some fresh-squeezed fruit juice, or anything without anise. If you like liquorice, though, then by all means give L’Ordinaire a try.
As for me, my quest for a French Caribbean soda that appeals to my tastes continues…
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