SodaTotaller

After many dollars spent on bottled sodies around the city, I've decided to make a short little review list for those who also love sodie! Plus it will help me remember which ones I dug. This list will be expanded upon often! (Newer entries will be bolded.)

BIRCH BEER/GINGER ALE/GINGER BEER
Elephant Ginger Beer: This Malaysian brew starts out mild, but then YOWZA! That's a spicy meatball. Made with real sugar and ginger. Found at the MGM Geetha Indian convenience store in Skokie, 4035 Main St. Goes nicely with a Mr. Sub. A.

Fever Tree Premium Ginger Beer: Although it's advertised as "A mixer to be taken seriously" on their website, it's delicious on its own. It's sweet, but just enough to make it palatable plain; what you taste is ginger. There are even little bits of ginger sediment floating around in there like sea monkeys. It's a little pricey for the size (6.8 ounces) but it's worth it. A+.

Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer: Tastes a lot like root beer, with a caramely note and peppery finish. Would be great as a float with caramel-swirl ice cream. A.

Reggae Country Style Brand Ginger Beer: Delicious! Very nice, full-flavored ginger beer that gets quite spicy at the end. Goes really well with a nice piece of spice-rubbed salmon. A+.

CHERRY/RED/STRAWBERRY
AJ Stephan's Wild Strawberry: What a strawberry soda oughta be. Tastes like strawberries, imagine! without a sickly chemical aftertaste. A.

Boylan's Black Cherry: Way sweet and a little bitter. Could be more cherrylicious. Has a great bottle, though. B-.

Brain Wash: A belated jones for Halloween made me try this somewhat cherry-flavored swill. Robitussin, anyone? There's some crazy ingredients in here: buchu, gotu kola, skullcap, damiana, sage and jalapeño oil to name a few, although I can't taste herbs or spice. It's seriously fizzy with caffeine, which is why I drank more than two sips. After that, I realized it wasn't worth it. There is no reason to try this at home or elsewhere. F.

Diet Cheerwine: This tastes a bit like a cross between cherry Coke and root beer. Very tasty, strong, not too sweet. Looking forward to trying regular Cheerwine. A-.

Flathead Lake Monster Sour Cherry: Tasty in a kid's cough syrup kind of way. B.

V&V Wild Berry Energy Drink: This is a sugar-free energy soda, heavy on the Splenda. It is the scariest pop ever; about 1 hour after drinking it and for the next eight hours, I constantly felt as though I were teetering on a ledge. D-.

COLA
Afri Cola: Tastes a little like a flatter RC; not bad. Whatever you see on the 'net, Afri Cola does not have 250mg of caffeine, but is about average in that regard. But it comes in a sexy bottle. B.

Curiosity Cola: Wow, this is not what I expected. It tastes like something you'd take for consumption. Very heavy on the juniper; not much cola flavor. D.

Dr. Pepper (with sugar): Bottle is a nice 8 ounces instead of the usual 12. I can't really give a rating on this one since I didn't drink it in it's purest form. Recipe: 1. Desire Dr. Pepper. 2. Realize that Dr. Pepper is warm and place in freezer until perfectly chilled. 3. Forget you did that. 4. Remove frozen sodie from freezer and place in front of space heater and curious cat (optional) until defrosted enough to drink. 5. Enjoy slushy, Peppery treat and reminisce about Slush Puppies.

CREAM SODA
Killebrew Honey Cream: Slightly bitter beginning with creamy finish, not very sweet but with nice honey taste throughout. A.

GRAPE
Buddy's: Reminds me of grape Bubble-Yum. There are no real 'scores' in this section because grape isn't my favorite, so I don't think I can be fair. But I'd drink this again.

Goose Island: Not sticky like many other grapes, with winey notes and a pretty purple hue. Pie Dude: "that's what a grape soda should be."

Walt's: Yummy, but not fizzy enough for my tastes. The neat thing about this bottle: it's only 7 ounces. Nice. Pie Dude: "yeah, now that's a grape soda."

LEMON-LIME
Ale-8-1: An odd-tasting caffeinated sodie with an unmistakable ham aftertaste. Starts sweet, then gets a little bitter, then...ham?? C.

Lemmy: This sodie has been made of awesome since 1939. Less fizzy than most pops and tastes very much like lemonade. A-.

Ski: You complete me. This reminds me of 50/50, but with real lemon pulp floating around in a very non-pretentious green bottle. It's almost good for you! A.

ORANGE
Excel Orange Soda: Tastes more to me like Hall's Honey Lemon drops, but not bad. B-.

Jack Black's Orange Stash: Not very strong, a little like fizzy Hi-C. But the cap has a message inside!: Here's our toast...Skull...Crossbones! If anyone can explain this, please let me know. B-.

NOVELTY
Jones Hanukkah Four-Pack: In order from best to worst:
Chocolate Coins: Tastes like a phosphate. Delicious, too bad it's seasonal. A+.
Apple Sauce: Really tastes like applesauce. Great for fans of apple sodas. A.
Jelly Doughnut: Tastes like a random red pop, maybe with a hint of strawberry. B+.
Latke: WTF? Perrier without the lemon lime twist. An insult to latkes; fried potato soda would be an improvement. (See this post also.) D-.

Looks Like Orange/Tastes Like Grape: Says what it is. Not an incredible grape soda, but a good basic one. Really neat, trippy label. B.

Orange You Glad for Change Cola: Another brainchild from Jones: Obama soda! Cola with a hint of orange. It's okay, but not my cuppa tea. B-.

ROOT BEER
Americana Root Beer: Really fantastic brew. Vanilly, caramely, not too strong or too wimpy, a good old-fashioned taste. A+.

Barrel Brothers' Root Beer - Creamy Vanilla: Not bad, but not very root beery. It's very light and tastes like Cream Soda & Root Beer's lovechild. Disappointing as a root beer, but interesting as a cream soda; probably would be good for the crazy root-beer averse. C+.

Bawls High Caffeine Guarana Root Beer: Plain and simple with a slightly minty, herbal taste. A lot tastier than I thought it was going to be. It has 80mg of caffeine; with coffee at 95mg+, I don't know how this qualifies as "high caffeine" unless they're comparing with other root beers that generally have none. A-.

Dorothy's: Thoroughly mediocre. I've never had a root beer I didn't like, but this one is a definite C. Not bad, but it didn't stand out and had no interesting flavors, although the label is pretty good on it's own. Better in a float, but use some strong ice cream, like beany Breyer's.

Dr. McGillicudy's: Very herby with a hint of spice, though I can't place what herbs are in there. B+.

Fitz's: Wonderful. Old-fashioned taste, strong, creamy. I downed my half in about 3 seconds. Spicy without being mediciney. Reminds me ever so slightly of Oogie's Restaurant's brew in Peru, IL (best root beer EVER), but not quite there. A.

Goose Island: I probably had this one on it's own, and it was tasty enough, but brother, does it make a great float. It's so creamy and flavorful, but not overpowering, and pairs perfectly with creamy vanilla ice cream.

Millhouse: Simple, tasty beer just right for floats. B+.

Olde Brooklyn: Tastes an awful lot like cream soda. Good taste, but not if you're hankering for root beer. B.

OOgave: Not bad, but a little flat. Not as much bite as I like in a root beer. Made with agave nectar; comes in a few other flavors (found at Whole Foods). A-.

Route 66 Beer: Perfect root beer: caramely, licorice-y, slightly spicy and strong. Great for sippin'. A.

Triple XXX: Good, but not as good as expected with a name like that! B.

Wild Bill's Root Beer: WOW that is some fine root beer. Thick, not very fizzy, with a strong, unique taste. I think I taste mint, caramel, vanilla and cloves? The bottle is very unassuming with only A rare, smooth beverage written under the name. I agree. A+.

OTHER!
AJ Stephan's Raspberry Lime Rickey: Very sweet; like drinking raspberry pie with a twist of lime.

Always Ask for Avery's Swamp Juice: The label touts this soda as "totally gross" and "SODAsgusting" complete with a picture of a creature that looks like the lovechild of The Grinch and Mr. Burns. The color of the drink, if I may steal the words of Gordon Ramsey, makes it look like it came out of the Suez Canal. But I loved its cherry Jolly-Rancher/lime pixie stick flavor. This one would be a sure hit with the kids for Halloween. A.

Baron's: What? You love curry gravy? You'd drink it for dessert if you could??? Well now you can. But be warned: my non-Indian friend tried to buy this at an Indian-centric grocery and was promptly told: "That is not for you." F.

Dr. Enuf: An energy-boosting, vitamin-rich sodie that tastes like a less biting ginger ale. Quite tasty, but it also doesn't make you jittery or batshit. And since it's got vitamins, it's healthy too. A+.

Filbert's Banana: Such a delicious, artificial taste that reminds me exactly of a banana Moon Pie with out all that pesky chewing. A little bitterness in the aftertaste. B+.

Pakola Ice Cream Soda: I don't know why they call it "ice cream", as there is no ice cream in it. It tastes like a cross between cream soda and Pine Sol with a hint of saffron. D.

Snow - Cranberry Mint: There is no other word for this besides vile. The taste could only be better than antifreeze. I think this is what fruit-scented car air fresheners would taste like. F. (On second thought (2/09), this is better than Baron's; F+).

Snow - Mint: If you think drinking toothpaste would be great, this is the soda for you. That said, it might be okay with hard liquor, and lots of it. D+.

Waialua Soda Works - Lilikoi: I looked at the label plenty of times before I noticed it said Passion Fruit in tiny letters that almost matches the label. Despite the rather unpleasant scent, it's not a bad soda, but I'm not the biggest fan of passion fruit, despite really wanting to like it. C.

Winberrie's Country Wine Soda - Rosé: Just what you'd expect a fizzy rosé wine to taste like, although it's non-alcoholic. A-. Good with a nice prosciutto/fresh mozzarella/basil/oil & vinegar sub.


ALCOHOLIC FIZZY BEVERAGES
Blast by Colt 45 - Strawberry Lemonade: If you like Kool-Aid and 7-Up mixed together with malt liquor, this is for you. It's too sweet, but it comes in 7oz bottles so you're not stuck with a lot. The nice part is it gets you nice and toasted in half the time. Plus, Snoop Dogg likes it. B.

I picked up a few bottles from America's Market the other day, but I've since recycled the bottles and don't remember all the brands:

COLA:
Burghoff's Puma Cola:
Not strongly carbonated. A little less sweet-and-sticky than the gold standard (Coca Cola), vanilla added, more spice notes. Excellent.

ROOT BEER:
Bulldog:
Recommended by Dimples at America's Market. Very high vanilla notes. Includes honey, which changes the sweetness profile slightly. Slight tongue-numbing from the spices and wintergreen. Excellent.

JoelF wrote:
COLA:
Burghoff's Puma Cola:
Not strongly carbonated. A little less sweet-and-sticky than the gold standard (Coca Cola), vanilla added, more spice notes. Excellent.

Puma Kola is actually a Sprecher product. Indeed a nice cola...I like the vanilla element.

You know what somebody needs to make? Banana soda. And grapefruit.

Squirt and Fresca are supposed to be grapefruit sodas...

Banana soda. And grapefruit.

I've never seen banana, but there's plenty of grapefruit. I love Ting (of course that may because it means I'm either in Jamaica or eating Jamaican food somewhere) and Jones makes a pink grapefruit.

Oh, right, Ting! I liked that, but I guess I thought it was lemon-lime. It's been awhile.

Izze makes a terrific grapefruit soda.

Pie Lady wrote:You know what somebody needs to make? Banana soda. And grapefruit.

I believe Filbert's still makes a banana soda. Make a drive down there and buy a mixed case or so (prices are way cheaper than what is on that link, though I have not been in a year or more, so call to confirm). The Black Cherry is a favorite

Filbert's
3430 S. Ashland Ave.
Chicago, IL 60608
773-847-1520

because i don't like overly sweet sodas, but do like a fizzy drink on occasion, I make my own cherry soda.

I use red tart cherry juice concentrate (the brand i buy is cherry ridge juice). I mix about a tablespoon and add about 8oz (or more) of soda water. this drink is so refreshing over ice. i also like to add a little fresh squeezed lime, and on more than one occasion, some vodka. the concentrate lasts for a very long time in the fridge.

leesh wrote:because i don't like overly sweet sodas, but do like a fizzy drink on occasion, I make my own cherry soda.

I use red tart cherry juice concentrate (the brand i buy is cherry ridge juice). I mix about a tablespoon and add about 8oz (or more) of soda water. this drink is so refreshing over ice. i also like to add a little fresh squeezed lime, and on more than one occasion, some vodka. the concentrate lasts for a very long time in the fridge.

I make a similar drink using Greek sour-cherry syrup.

Boylan's Black Cherry - way sweet and a little bitter. Could be more cherrylicious. Has a great bottle, though.

Pie Lady wrote:Boylan's Black Cherry - way sweet and a little bitter. Could be more cherrylicious. Has a great bottle, though.

I had that at Jerry's sandwich shop last weekend before the Festival of Barrel Aged Beer. Would agree about the way sweet. My wife thought it tasted like cough syrup, I found it to be more palatable though as you noted could have used a more robust flavor.

in the category of homemade soda, I like to make Thai Ginger Soda. Nice thing is that the syrup is good for things other than soda -- like iced tea or over ice cream.

Cynthia wrote:in the category of homemade soda, I like to make Thai Ginger Soda. Nice thing is that the syrup is good for things other than soda -- like iced tea or over ice cream.

Here is a surprising suggestion that is precisely the opposite of the above: Faygo makes a very decent "less-sweet" Ginger Ale quite faithful to the concept as I remember from youth, as executed by Canada Dry or Cotton Club. It has about 1/3 less calories than usual drinks, and in the ghetto store where I risk my well-being just to buy it, a 24oz is a mere 79 cents.

Sleepy? The thing to have is Dr. Enuf.

Oops, forgot to mention that others have been added since 2/11. Excel Orange, AJ Stephan's, Afri Cola and...something else...

Pie Lady wrote:Oops, forgot to mention that others have been added since 2/11. Excel Orange, AJ Stephan's, Afri Cola and...something else...

Glad to see you enjoyed the Stephans strawberry. It really is much better than any of the competition.

Have you had a chance to try the Stephans birch beer yet? I've got a flood of sodas that I need to add to my own thread (central market in austin was very good to me, in terms of quantity), but that one stood out in particular, and so I wanted to plug it here, also.

gleam wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Oops, forgot to mention that others have been added since 2/11. Excel Orange, AJ Stephan's, Afri Cola and...something else...

Glad to see you enjoyed the Stephans strawberry. It really is much better than any of the competition.

Have you had a chance to try the Stephans birch beer yet? I've got a flood of sodas that I need to add to my own thread (central market in austin was very good to me, in terms of quantity), but that one stood out in particular, and so I wanted to plug it here, also.

Nope, but I'm slowly making my way through The Wall. Sounds like a challenge...
Are you having a bitch of a time getting the AJ Stephen's caps off? Goodness! "Twist off", my eye!

I don't even bother trying to twist off caps anymore. I've always got a bottle opener that doesn't damage the cap too much handy, so I just use that. But yeah, some of these so-called twist caps seem to be frozen solid.

Filbert's Banana: for the lovers of Moon Pies!
V&V: for the really, really comatose.

I love grapefruit soda

an eastern PA favorite: A-Treat Grapefruit Soda. My parents bring me a case whenever they visit:

This soda used be available in quart sized glass bottles with rubber self-stoppers, in a 4-pack. God I miss those. Oh! edited to add: what was cool about those bottles is that the design was screen printed on, instead of a paper label or plastic wrap-around. (I'm a printmaker, I appreciate stuff like that)

I also enjoy Toronja, the grapefruit soda made by Jarritos:


on another subject, a tasty Philadelphia favorite is Black Cherry Wishniak (I do not know what makes wishniak different from black cherry soda):

Pie Lady wrote:Dr. Pepper (with sugar): Bottle is a nice 8 ounces instead of the usual 12. I can't really give a rating on this one since I didn't drink it in it's purest form. Recipe: 1. Desire Dr. Pepper. 2. Realize that Dr. Pepper is warm and place in freezer until perfectly chilled. 3. Forget you did that. 4. Remove frozen sodie from freezer and place in front of space heater and curious cat (optional) until defrosted enough to drink. 5. Enjoy slushy, Peppery treat and reminisce about Slush Puppies.

I did want to come back to this one. I'm constantly torn between drinking Dr. Pepper warm and cold. Cold is truly refreshing, but I feel like warm (room temperature or a little cooler) brings out the delicate flavor of Dr. Pepper much, much better. The almond notes especially become much more pronounced when it's not quite so cold.

Give it a try with that in mind.

Flathead Lake cherry and Goose Island Grape reviewed up north. I just made a trip to America's Market after a long absence and picked up some new flavors. Check back for more news!

Wild Bill's Root Beer...now that's a root beer!

Recently had a chance to run up to Filbert's and picked up two mixed cases of soda ($20). Only have this one poor photo...and there were 14 different flavors I picked up to try with the family.
The ones I picked up were blue raspberry, black cherry, pineappple, peach, grapefruit, banana, blueberry, root beer, fruit punch, grape, green apple, orange, watermellon, and mr newport (lemon-lime). I didn't get to try all the flavors unfortunately, but about of the ones I tried:

First the BAD
Fruit Punch-terrible, couldn't even get the kids to drink it...it ended up mostly down the drain
Green Apple-not so good, not really green apple-y(?) to me, had a somewhat harsh acidic flavor

The GOOD:
Orange-much better than the mass market varieties, actual good "real" orange flavor
Banana-very much like others have noted, not banana but more like banana candy (or Moon Pie). The kids all seemed to think that it tasted like banana Runts, which I'll take their word for.
Blue Raspberry-Kids loved this one, it was ok...very much like what you would expect a neon blue soda to taste like.

The GREAT:
Root beer-The best I have had in recent memory, rich thick creamy head to this, nice depth to its flavor...and I'm not a big fan of root beer, but could be looking at a convert.
Grapefruit-very good, refreshing not very sweet and slightly tart, was my favorite until...
Black Cherry-outstanding, exactly what every soda should aspire to be! What I imagine liquified, carbonated black cherries would taste like...I would happily make the drive just for this one.

Wish I had a chance to sample the rest, but I have a big family and they all went pretty quickly. Fortunately I happened to "accidentally" not put out a few when the locusts decended. Probably not the easiest place to get to for most, but definately worth a little hassle...and I'll be back again soon.

Filbert's
3430 S. Ashland

I was in America's Market this morning (Venture Hobbies next door is going out of business - if you are at all into plastic models, RC airplanes, etc., get 'em now), and asked for a cherry soda recommendation, "because too many of them taste like a cherry life saver."

I was recommended to try the Cheerwine above all. Since there was a bottle in the cooler, I grabbed it.

I'm rather disappointed. It's a nice refreshing drink and all, but not that deep cherry flavor I'm looking for. Looking at the ingredient list (which I should have done in the first place), it's got "Artificial Wild Cherry Flavor." How hard is it to use cherry juice? It could really have used some more acid in general.

Try the Boom Chugga Lugga cherry sodas if you can find them. Specifically the cherry cola, which is well balanced and not too sweet. The cherry soda isn't awful, but I thought it was way, way too sweet.

There's also the "Caruso's Legacy" Maraschino Cherry soda, which is also pretty sweet. The cherry flavor here is more syrupy like you'd expect from a Maraschino.

None of these are that great. Cherry is a tough flavor to get right, it seems.

JoelF wrote:It's a nice refreshing drink and all, but not that deep cherry flavor I'm looking for. Looking at the ingredient list (which I should have done in the first place), it's got "Artificial Wild Cherry Flavor." How hard is it to use cherry juice? It could really have used some more acid in general.

I suppose real juice brings up the costs.

Have you tried Sprecher's Ravin' Red? It might not be cherry enough for you, but it's got real Wisconsin cherry juice plus cranberry juice, honey and ginseng, and it's refreshing and not too sweet. The cranberry gives it a good acid hit. They always have it at Woodman's.

The best pure cherry pop I've had was from Greece, and I've only spotted it once. However, any Greek market will sell Greek sour-cherry syrup, and then you can make this. (Be sure to get Greek syrup; the stuff from Slovenia, a little more widely available, isn't as good.)

I just came upon a neat little Indian convenience store in Skokie, where I found Elephant Ginger Beer. Mighty tasty, and quite a spicy kick!