North Star Craft Soda Orange Cola
The Orange taste is mild, but noticeable.
Coca Cola has tried lots of different flavors with their signature beverage: cherry, lime, coffee, new, and yes, orange. For some reason, they haven't widely marketed orange cola, but fortunately for us North Star Craft Soda has picked up the ball.
Like other North Star Craft Sodas, it's very sweet and syrupy--like liquid candy. Simple flavor, not complex.
I'm glad I tried it, but I won't need to try it again for a long time.
Batch Craft Soda Snozzberry
"The snozzberries taste like snozzberries."
--from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
The red color is nice. It looks fruity in the bottle, but it tastes mildly sweet and spicy.
I find the sweetness mild, but my wife finds it TOO sweet. It does not taste like anything natural that I am familiar with; kind of like spicy cotton candy. I can't identify which spice or spices make it taste spicy (nutmeg? allspice?).
The spice flavor and festive red color suggests that this would make an appropriate holiday beverage. I certainly don't need to taste it any time soon. This is a good thing, because I can't find it available for sale on Batch Craft's website. It could be because someone at Batch Craft found out that "snozzberry" is actually Roald Dahl's slang word for a penis.
Empire Ginger Beer
By Empire Bottling Works, 61 Buttonwood, Bristol RI 02809, 401-253-7117
(They don't seem to have a website! Try ordering it here.)
My wife REALLY likes Empire's Diet Root Beer, so I had high hopes for Empire Ginger Beer. All this in spite of their unassuming label--so unassuming it's peeling off the bottle, as the photo suggests.
WOW is this Ginger Beer spicy. It's SO GINGERY! My wife didn't like how gingery it was, but of course she conceded: "I guess it's all right if you like ginger."
After the ginger flows off my palate, there's a flowery taste left behind. Is this an extra flavor undertone added to the beverage by Empire's brilliant pop artisans? Or is my tongue hallucinating? If so, I enjoyed the break from reality.
I want to say that there are multiple levels of flavor, but the spice of the ginger is so overwhelming that I cannot say for certain.
I enjoyed this beverage with a spicy pizza, and it definitely kept up. I recommend pairing this with the spiciest foods you can handle: chili, hot chicken wings, szechuan stir fry, you name it.
I can hardly wait to try this again.
Serenity Sodas Pineapple & Cream
Blue Sun Bottling Co., Spring Lake Park MN 55432 (Maybe order it from here)
I expected to HATE this soda. That's why it's the last review here; I kept putting it off. I like pineapple, but I don't LOVE pineapple; and cream soda is one of my least favorite flavors. I was wondering why I bothered to put it in my shopping cart in the first place.
I'm surprised by the dark color; dark like a nut brown ale. I'd expect a pineapple soda to be pale yellow, and this is darker than most cream sodas.
I'm amazed by the fact that I actually like it. It's sweet, but not TOO sweet. A lot of these Serenity Sodas really hit hard with the sweetness, but this is soda is okay.
The pineapple flavor does not have a sharp edge to it; natural pineapple fruit has a very tart element, but this soda is smooth. The whole experience is very mellow.
My wife doesn't like pineapple, and she refused to taste it. She's totally missing out!
I recommend you give this a try, even if your previous ideas about pineapple and cream soda tell you not to.
No comments:
Post a Comment