I’m rather picky person, so I don’t drink alcohol, try to avoid drinking Coca-Cola or Pepsi and hate still water (especially Danish one). So here’s my review of what I could drink in different countries.
Ukraine
There are many different soft drinks, mostly of mediocre quality, but some are quite good. There are some good mineral waters too (the best one is hard to find outside the region where I lived, sometimes it’s hard to find there as well).
And usually drinks are sold in all varieties of bottles — from 0.5l to 2l
Germany
Mostly you get here is very good selection of mineral water, Apfelschorle and variations of Spezi (aka tyska oriktiga Trocadero). There are also some strange flavours like cherry+ginseng or bitter lemon (tastes mostly like lemon skin). Oh, and 0.5l bottles for those drinks made by Coca Cola company (seems Germans prefer local inventions to their main product) look like designed by Norwegian, the bottle is made from too thick plastic and maybe it was designed in 3D CAD without Bezier curves support.
Switzerland
Mostly the same as in Germany but with more pathos and higher prices (while in Austria Apfelschorle is called something like “sprudel Apfelsaft”, in Switzerland I’ve seen “Shorley”). That goes for most Swiss products anyway.
Denmark
Those people seem to hate carbonated mineral water (usually Danish mineral water with gas has only two bubbles to distinguish it from still water) and the only time I tasted their drink it was too sugary.
Belgium
Looks like it’s better to buy orange juice there instead.
Finland
Very good selection of drinks.
Norway
Limited but rather decent selection of drinks. The bottles look like they were made from single piece of plastic mostly with axe.
Sweden
One of the reasons I love Sweden. Excellent selection of drinks, including special seasonal ones (Julmust and Påskmust). Here’s an example of Påskmust:
And of course, there’s the ultimate drink (IMO):
There are about eight different breweries producing it, I have tried it all except for two breweries.
And I have tried all but one soft drinks from Vasa Bryggeri. Probably I should go to Norrland again.
As for mineral water, they have Ramlösa, good water from Bergslagen region and even from the tap in many regions (it’s drinkable everywhere in Sweden, but tastes especially good in some places).
I cannot believe that you publish a soft drink review without including Club Mate. Heretic!
I buy it too rarely, but are you sure the German bottles aren’t different because they are reused? They need to be more robust and easier to clean for that, so you are a little restricted in how they can look 🙂