I got a lot of sodas from the Blue Sun Soda Shop in Spring Lake Park, MN. So many curious beverages to try! I somehow limited myself to about 28 bottles of pop. Come with me, as I restrict myself to savor a bottle every 4 days (to hopefully keep the sugar from killing me).
Ginger Man Soda
By Maine Root
Breads and beverages have gone together since that ancient day when someone's sourdough accidentally fermented into beer. Similarly, imagine the great taste of spicy gingerbread cookies in a frosty glass! Maine Root makes some fine root beers and ginger brews, so I had some high hopes for Ginger Man Soda.
Unfortunately, I can see why Maine Root does not include this beverage on their website. It doesn't really taste like any gingerbread cookies I can remember.
A simple (and typical) gingerbread cookie recipe I found online includes ginger, cinnamon, cloves, molasses, and vanilla. I can maybe get a sense of vanilla from the soda, but none of the other dominating flavors.
It's sweet, with a cola-brown color, and the ingredients list "cane juice", but ironically I don't detect any molasses flavor. I mentioned the vanilla. I maybe get a sense of root beer. Other flavors are hard to pin down.
It's not BAD, but it's not the taste of gingerbread cookies (nor gingerbread) I was expecting.
I still hold high hopes for Maine Root's seasonal Pumpkin Pie Soda.
Fritzkola Kirsch
Not so sweet, but that's kind of a good thing. I estimate each bottle to weigh in at 100 calories. It absolutely tastes like cherry apple cider, which is pretty much what the ingredients say it is. The cherry flavor makes for a somewhat heavy taste.
Carbonation is not so strong; it's easy to drink on a warm summer day.
I reviewed Apple-Beer earlier, and I was disappointed that Apple-Beer basically had no juice in it, especially given that Apple-Beer heavily touts its old world heritage. In contrast, Fritzkola Kirsch is basically carbonated water and fruit juice with some sugar; which is what I'd expect from a German soda pop.
The funny faces on the logo are part of a larger story; Fritz-Kola is kind of like the Ben & Jerry's of soda pop in Germany. These 2 friends came up with an idea to start a soda business together, made a heavily-caffeinated cola in 2002, and started selling it in Berlin bars out of a beat-up VW van. It took a lot of hustle and sleeping in that van, but now Fritz-Kola is sold all over Europe. Now they're diversifying into peculiar fruit flavors.
Lime Soda
The Mojito. The Margarita. The Gimlet. The Gin & Tonic. These great Summer drinks all have the great taste of limes in common.
North Star's Lime Soda doesn't taste like real limes. It tastes like the mighty flavor of lime candy. The lime candy flavor is strong in this soda. And check out that marvelous green color!
My wife says: "Yuck. Too sweet. Too fake."
This soda is very sweet and syrupy. It's not crisp. It's not complex. I wish I could say more about it, but there's not much more to report.
I liked it. Sometimes you want to drink a big glass of lime candy. But I'm not in a hurry to get another bottle of it. It's just as well; I can't find it on their website.
Black Cherry Soda
When I was a kid, sometimes we would go to picnics with coolers full of small-company locally-bottled sodas, and my favorite flavor was black cherry soda. I have no idea why big national bottlers don't make black cherry, because it's awesome. There is a Cherry Crush, but it's only available regionally. I miss black cherry, and I have no idea why I can't get a straight-up non-caffeinated black cherry soda at my local Target.
Manhattan Special Black Cherry is good stuff! Not too sweet, not too fizzy, nicely balanced. Very flavorful.
The cherry flavor is very rich. The color is marvelously dark. The natural flavor and color is reassuring.
This is honestly the best straight-up black cherry soda I've ever tasted. Even my wife likes it!
Contains: Carbonated water, cane sugar, vegetable juice for color, natural flavor, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preservative), and caramel color.
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