Product Review: San Pellegrino Sodas

Italian bottler San Pellegrino is best known for its sparking mineral water, available in Italian (and other) restaurants. But San Pellegrino has expanded beyond simple water. By mixing the water with various fruit flavors, the company has created a line of sparkling fruit sodas. Originally available only in Europe, the sodas have been picked up by Nestle for worldwide distribution. They've found an audience through coffee shops, which often carry at least a couple of the brands. You may even be able to find them in six-packs in your local grocery store.

This review will cover the three flavors I'm familiar with - Aranciata, Chinotto and Limonata. There's also a bitters-derived flavor called Sanbitter, but I haven't come across that one yet.

I first discovered Pellegrino sodas in coffee shops. For whatever reason, I never learned to drink coffee. Can't stand the stuff. Not even mocha ice cream. But I'm forever meeting people in coffee shops for one reason or another, and I needed something to drink. Since so many coffee shops seem to carry at least one of the San Pellegrino soda brands, I ended up trying them, and found them (well, some of them) to be a great choice for those times when you want to socialize over something light, but you don't want coffee.

All three come in cans and in small glass bottles. I've only encountered the bottles as pictures on the Internet. Everywhere I've actually found the soda, it's been the cans. They use a similar design. There's background color with the appropriate fruit on it. There's a red star on the fruit, and the drink and company names around the fruit in white letters.

Aranciata

Aranciata comes in a blue can. This orange drink was San Pellegrino's first attempt at a fruit-flavored soda, first developed back in 1932. It was basically just San Pellegrino mineral water with a shot of orange juice. They've tweaked the process a little since then, but that's still the basic idea. Aranciata is a kind of watered-down orange juice with a bit of carbonated sparkle to it. It tastes a lot like Orangina.

Aranciata is pretty good, though to my taste watering down the orange juice isn't the best way to go. (I'm not a big Orangina fan either though, so if you are, you may well like Aranciata.) The sparkling mineral water does add a bit of zip to it, but at the cost of diluting the orange flavor. It's good, but it's not my favorite.

Chinotto

In a brown can, Chinotto is the most surprising San Pellegrino soda to American tastes. It's made from a bitter citrus fruit that's grown pretty exclusively in certain regions of Italy. There are also a few herbs added for flavor. Chinotto is very much an Italian thing. The juice combines bitterness and sweetness in a really odd way, and has long been sipped by Italians before meals to clear the palette. There are apparently a lot of small local brands bottled in Italy, and Chinotto is also an ingredient in Campari. The drink itself looks like a cola, but it isn't. It's closer to Dr. Pepper, but that's not quite right either.

Honestly, Chinotto is an acquired taste, and I haven't managed to acquire it. I'm not sure how you would unless you're Italian and grew up drinking the stuff. It fakes out your tongue with an initial hit of sweetness, but leaves behind a really bitter aftertaste that just doesn't work for me. It seems more suited to a thimbleful quaffed before dinner than to a big glass over ice. But if you like Campari, it's apparently similar and you might like Chinotto. It's certainly a unique experience worth trying just to say you did.

Limonata

Limonata comes in a bright green can and is basically a sparkling lemonade. The lemon isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Italian cuisine, but Italians grow their own lemon crops and have bred their own specific varieties. They use them in a surprising number of dishes, and they like their lemons really strong. Limonata is basically the same idea as Aranciata, except with lemons instead of oranges. Lemon juice cut with sparkling San Pellegrino water.

For me Limonata is the smash hit of the San Pellegrino line. A gallon of win in an 11.15 ounce can. Unlike Aranciata, the Italian lemons are intense enough that cutting them with the sparkling water doesn't dull the flavor. Limonata strikes just the right balance between sweet and tart (which is very different from Chinotto's blend of sweet and bitter). It's got a very light taste, not as heavy as a cola. I find myself drinking it in little sips instead of gulping it down. It's really refreshing on a hot day too.

So there's a brief overview of San Pellegrino's soda line. Obviously my big recommendation is the Limonata, but the Aranciata's also a good choice if you like orange sodas. Chinotto... try it once just so you'll know what I'm talking about. Maybe you'll love it. But I wouldn't start out buy stocking my refrigerator with a case of it until you know what you're getting into.

Now I just have to track down some of that Sanbitter to complete the set...