BUBBLE UP, Soda Pop Review

BUBBLE UP

Bubble up, “A kiss of lemon, kiss of lime”. I used to drink this one when I was a kid too. I remember it being good and just like 7Up. There was always 7up and Bubble Up. I have no idea why it ever died out. Maybe there was a Ninja fight to the death between the owners of the two companies or something.

I was looking forward to this one. I was curious if it was just as good as 7up and as good as I remembered.

First whiff was good. There was the lemon lime smell, clear and strong.

The flavor of the first sip was great. A flood of memories, but also crisp, clean lemon and lime. Not too sweet, but sweet enough. They hit that magic balance between not sweet enough and too syrupy. Very nice.

THe lemon is really strong. It’s nice. There not too much citrus acid bite, but just a hint of that.

It mostly tastes like fruit, like citrus. They got that fruit flavor to come to the center stage.

Very nicely done. This is better than 7up. 7up is more acid, less sweet, and a lot less fruit. This is twice as good as 7up.

It must have been that Ninja thing, because this stuff should be on every grocery store shelf.

INGREDIENTS: “Contains: Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Benzoate (A Preservative), and Flavor derived from Lemon and Lime Oils.”

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SWEET BLOSSOM SODA – LAVENDER, Soda Pop Review

SWEET BLOSSOM SODA – LAVENDER

How good could lavender soda be? I do like lavender. I am a guy, but I’m in touch with my feminine side. I can handle that.

I expected this to taste like perfume. It should be all flowery and taste like soap. Everything else that I’ve seen that is scented with lavender is soapy.

This is soda that you should make your 13 year old boy drink when he says a bad word, right?

I open the bottle. It smells like, well, like nothing. There’s not really a scent to it.

That’s strange and unexpected.

I take my first sip. There is sweetness. It’s fresh and crisp.

Totally unexpected. This is really good. I like it a lot.

There is some lavender flavor in there, but it’s not unpleasant at all. It adds a bit of fruitiness to it. You get the most lavender in the aftertaste.

It lingers at the back of you mouth in a very pleasant, Summer day kind of way.

Images of mountain meadows on a sunny day pop into my head.

Yes, I like this a lot. I will be buying more of it. You can really tell that it’s made with real cane sugar in a glass bottle. It’s got that fresh “real” goodness to it.

Don’t let the lavender scare you off.

This is good stuff. Don’t waste it on your 13 year old son.

INGREDIENTS: Filtered Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Natural Lavender Extract, Citric Acid and Vegetable Juice for color. Pasteurized.

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BOYLAN BOTTLEWORKS DIET BLACK CHERRY, soda pop review

BOYLAN BOTTLEWORKS DIET BLACK CHERRY

This is described as “A sweet, tart black cherry soda. Sweetened with Sucralose.”

I like black cherries. I want to like diet soda pops. I want to like this soda pop, but I have my doubts.

I pop it open and the smell if like black cherry soda. It’s that familiar smell of, I don’t know, jelly? candy? something. Something smells very familiar. It’s sweet and fruity. It smells of childhood.

I have hope.

I take a sip. I wait. My taste buds explode with the flavor of black cherry ice cream that I had as a kid. This is sweet, but not too sweet, and very fruity. Very, very black cherry. Very, very good.

I smile wide.

I take another sip and I’m 9 years old, eating a black cherry ice cream cone from the drug store. This takes me back.

I smile some more. This is great soda. I love this stuff. I could buy more of this stuff.

Great aftertaste. Just the right amount of everything. There is nothing wrong with soda.

Wait! Did I say this is a diet soda? This tastes like real cane sugar in there. I need to check the label. Yes, it’s diet. Unbelievable, but true.

This is an amazing diet soda. This is an amazing black cherry soda. The fact that it’s both, means that there will be more of this in our house soon. I can not recommend this enough.

INGREDIENTS: Carbonated Water, Natural Black Cherry Flavors, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Red 40, Sodium Benzoate (Preserves Freshness), Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium.

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Hotlips Soda Boysenberry Soda, soda pop review

Hotlips Soda Boysenberry Soda

How good is boysenberry soda going to be? Wow. I love boysenberry pie and ice cream. This is going to be great. I’ve been waiting for this one.

The first smell after you pop off the lid is faint. It’s sort of like boysenberrys, I guess, but it’s not very strong. Is this going to live up to my expectations?

I take a sip. As I’m sipping, I think that it’s not bad, but there’s not a lot of flavor here at all. It seems watered down. I was expecting the strong sweet of pie filling, but it’s just a nice, fruity flavor, but even the fruit isn’t strong.

Oh well. Maybe next time.

At the end of the sip, it hits me. The full flavor of boysenberry, like you picked them right off the vine and shoved a fist full in your mouth. Wow! Big flavor.

This was at the end of the sip, not during. The flavor was unmistakably boysenberry. It was full and strong, not too sweet, not like pie filling, but like fresh berries, right off the vine.

I take another sip and again, there’s not a lot of flavor at the beginning. I stop and it hits me again. Very different.

It seems like it’s watered down, then it slams you with the full force of flavor. Very nice.

I’m liking this as I drink the whole bottle. I’m almost done when I get another surprise. Boysenberry pulp! It’s got real boysenberry pulp in it. This is nice, very nice.

I read the contents again:

INGREDIENTS: Carbonated Water, Boysenberries Grown in the Pacific Northwest, Cane Sugar, Organic Lemon Juice, Contains Boysenberry Pulp!

Yup. That sounds right. Nothing artificial about this. Strange experience drinking it, but the aftertaste flavor is amazing. I do like it. Maybe not a favorite, but it’s definitely good. I like it.

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Fitz’s Diet Root Beer, soda pop review

Fitz's Diet Root Beer

How good can diet root beer be? I do like some diet drinks, but root beer needs that full, sweet flavor to be good.

I have some hope. I open it and smell. It smells like real root beer! Smells good.

This might limit my credibility, but my favorite root beer is A&W. I grew up on that stuff. I remember buying A&W in a quart sized waxed paper cone.

This smells like A&W root beer. It smells really good. It’s got a strong, full root beer smell. Things are looking up.

I take the first taste. I’m surprised. It tastes like real root beer! It’s got a full, sweet taste. It’s good. It’s got the root beer aftertaste.

The only thing bad I can say is that the aftertaste is not quite as sweet as “real” root beer. I can tell that it’s not real cane sugar in there, but just a little.

Compared to a “real” root beer, it’s not bad. I’d give it a 8 as a real root beet. As a diet root beer, it’s a 10 out of 10. This is the perfect diet root beer.

You can not get a better diet root beer than this one.

But we’ll keep trying to find one.

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Sweet Blossom Soda – Jasmine, soda pop review

Sweet Blossom Soda - Jasmine

I’ve been looking forward to this one. “Sweet Blossom”! How could that be bad?

Well, I was afraid that it might be too sweet. I do like the smell of jasmine on a Summer night, but it could easily go over the edge towards the sweet and perfumery side.

I open the cap and smell it. Not much. I try again and there’s really not much of a smell. I’m disappointed. There’s a faint smell of something flowery, but not much at all. Where’s my jasmine?

I take the first sip. Pow! The sugar hits me. This is powerfully sweet. This is a big flavor, hidden behind that faint smell. I’m shocked. This is a cane sugar, pure and simple.

There, on the back of my tongue, I get the jasmine. It’s not flowery. It’s interesting, complex even. I like it. The sugar is almost overpowering, but the aftertaste of jasmine is like a secret gift. It’s a rich, full flavor, but it’s not what I expect.

I expected it to be flowery, but it’s more on the fruity side of things. I would even say that it tastes like apples. Clean and crisp, sweet and fruity, just short of too sweet, and some strange essence of jasmine in a way that’s unexpected.

This is very good stuff. I would definitely buy this stuff again. I love it, but it’s not what I expected at all. I expect some general note of “artificial flavors” along with a drop of jasmine, but when I read the contents, it’s just sugar, citric acid, and jasmine. That’s it. Amazing.

I taste apples.

INGREDIENTS: Filtered Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Citric Acid, Pure Jasmine Extract and Caramel Color. Pasteurized.

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JACK BLACK’S BLUE CREAM SODA, Soda Pop Review

Jack Black's Blue Cream Soda

I really didn’t want to try this one after the last soda pop with a skull and cross bones on it, but this could be totally different. I was getting ready to ride my bike and thought maybe this was an energy drink. It’s not.

The label says “It’s better to live for something than to die for nothing.” Of course, I think it’s better to live for nothing than to die for something too…

First smell was a good sign. It seemed sweet and fresh and not too bad. Was this going to be too sweet? I was intrigued. I think I’m going to like this.

First sip and, yes, this is a creme soda. Straight up creme soda. This is good. It’s smooth. It’s got the creme flavor. No bitterness at all. Very nice.

Not getting anything that’s “blue”, which is kind of funny that I would think that “blue” is a flavor.

The worry is that it might be too sweet. I hate the sticky, syrupy sweetness of some creme sodas, but this one is nicely done, laid right down the middle of the sweetness spectrum.

It’s got a nice, fresh sweetness to it, just the right balance. I’m surprised that it’s not cane sugar. It’s got a clean sweet flavor.

I’m very impressed with this one. I really like it. I like it a lot. It’s a nice, fresh, clean, sweet, creme soda. I’d buy it again.

Plus it’s got a skull and cross bones on the label! How cool is that?

INGREDIENTS: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Yellow #5 & Blue #1

Wait! What is this? The web site says “High Fructose Corn Syrup”, but the bottle says “Cane Sugar”. I knew it! I knew it tasted like real sugar. I’m getting the knack for telling when it’s got real sugar. It really does make a difference.

This stuff rocks!

It's better to live for something than to die for nothing.

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DOUBLE COLA, Soda Pop Review

DOUBLE COLA

I opened the bottle and the smell definitely had twice the aroma. This was going to be good.

I took a sip and the cola taste hit me like a bus. This lived up to the “double” name. It’s flavor was really strong.

It was like they took a regular Coke and boiled it down so it was twice as strong. I could imagine someone boiling down a pot of Coke until it was thicker and syrupy, then yelling “It’s ready, master!”. It tastes like that.

I like cola, but maybe not this much. This really had the cola taste.

It was also made with real cane sugar, which really has a different taste than the corn fructose stuff. The initial taste was of the cola flavor, but it was followed by the sweetness of the sugar. The aftertaste was really sweet, mixed with the bitter cola flavor.

Very interesting stuff.

Here’s what’s in it.

INGREDIENTS: Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Carmel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Caffeine, and Natural Flavorings.

If you think Coke is too watered down, then you’ll like this one. It’s got a great, full flavor, with a sweet aftertaste.

I liked it, but I’m probably not going to get another one.

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