Sonia has gotten me into sourdough. It's so much better for your gut than regular bread. After you get used to it, you miss that tangy taste if you go back to a normal loaf. Even when used for sandwiches, paired with soup, or turned into croutons for a salad, sourdough is superior in almost every way.
That said, this product isn't very sour at all. You can't taste that typical sourdough starter like you can in the really good stuff. I guess they didn't want to make it too sour since the tartness might detract from the apple cinnamon sweetness they were going for as well.
There are little pieces of apple all through the bread. They lend a nice wholesome harvesty vibe. There's some brown sugar sweetness in the background, which is nice. It's not too extreme. If anything, I almost wish it were a tad sweeter. This is definitely not a dessert bread.
But that can be a good thing. It's more versatile that way. Sonia made a turkey and brie sandwich with hers and really enjoyed it. She said it works way better than regular bread for that type of application.
She also made French toast which worked far better than I imagined it would. You don't really think of apple cinnamon going with eggs necessarily, but the whole concoction was surprisingly delicious, with or without maple syrup. I was just fine toasting a slice or two, adding butter, and munching on them the old-fashioned way, too. Of course, it's quite convenient that they're already sliced. Some sourdough you have to cut yourself.
My parents always had Perrier water on hand for some reason. It only came in glass bottles back then as far as I know. They let me try it as a youngster, and I actually loved it. It was hard to go back to traditional flat water after getting used to Perrier. I remember my old babysitter-slash-adopted grandmother Minnie used to call it "Pierre water." Bless her heart.
For years, I was a soda freak. I drank more Dr. Pepper than water as a teenager. Then I switched to diet sodas as a young adult. In my thirties, I started drinking these flavored sparkling waters in a can. I'm a pretty big fan of all the sparkling waters: Bubly, La Croix, Polar, Waterloo, you name it—and my favorite right now is Topo Chico. So good.
The tangerine taste isn't nearly potent enough. It's there, but it's very faint. You can taste vanilla, but it's such a strange vanilla. As much as I love vanilla flavor, it doesn't really lend itself to water. It needs a bit of creaminess or sweetness to work. Citrus flavors like tangerine make excellent additives to water, sparkling or otherwise, but this one simply doesn't have enough of it.
$3.49 for 8 cans. Kosher. Zero calories. I'd buy any of the other flavors I've tried again before this one. Still, I'm sure some folks will enjoy it just fine. Sonia and I will both go with seven out of ten on Trader Joe's Tangerine Vanilla Sparkling Water.
