I just saw this oddity in my weekly Aldi flyer, Orange Cream Soda. Has anyone tried it?

I haven't tried it, but I've seen it in Walmart as well.

bruce cost's ginger ale (original)
carbonated water, cane sugar, ginger, citric acid

it tastes like ginger. not too much heat, good clean ginger flavor, a little too sweet. not much to say about it.. it tastes like ginger syrup mixed with carbonated water, which I guess is what it is. The balance isn't quite there, though. B

bruce cost's ginger ale (jasmine)
carbonated water, cane sugar, ginger, jasmine green tea, citric acid

the above, but with green tea. Ginger is much less prominent, about tied with the tea in intensity. If you think about this as more of a carbonated iced tea than a tea-flavored ginger ale it works better. Not sure why that is. And thinking about it in that vein, as a carbonated iced tea, I think I'd like it more if it used a good black tea and had a little bit of lemon juice or oil. It's fairly unique, though. B+

One interesting thing about these sodas: they're very cloudy, full of bits of ginger. You're told to shake gently before opening, but even once you do that, the ginger settles to the bottom of the bottle very quickly -- within 5 minutes. This seems to result in a sort of sandwich effect with the flavor -- the first sips are strong and gingery, the middle of the bottle is more sweet and mellow, and the final swigs are the strongest of all. It might put some people off, but I think it works well.

gleam wrote:bruce cost's ginger ale (original)
carbonated water, cane sugar, ginger, citric acid

it tastes like ginger. not too much heat, good clean ginger flavor, a little too sweet. not much to say about it.. it tastes like ginger syrup mixed with carbonated water, which I guess is what it is. The balance isn't quite there, though. B

I haven't had an opportunity to try the bottled version yet, but the mixed-to-order version sold at Big Bowl is full of vanilla and citrus overtones.

I do know that they make this from fresh ginger, rather than an extract.

If anyone gets a chance to taste Hot Lips Soda, let me know what you think. I think the nearest place you can buy it is Davenport IA, but I believe it is available on line as well. Check it out, hotlipsoda.com
I'm particulary interested in the raspberry soda (or as we say out here in the sticks....pop).

razbry wrote:If anyone gets a chance to taste Hot Lips Soda, let me know what you think. I think the nearest place you can buy it is Davenport IA, but I believe it is available on line as well. Check it out, hotlipsoda.com
I'm particulary interested in the raspberry soda (or as we say out here in the sticks....pop).

I reviewed the raspberry hot lips soda upthread. It's outstanding.

Now how did I miss that? Thanks Gleam. Now I've got to buy some.

I did a search but didn't find anything. Has anyone tried Vermont Sweetwater's Maple Soda? I just learned about the company on Selectism.

Fentiman's:

Dandelion and Burdock: Anise and bubblegum actually seem to be the predominant flavors. Extremely odd, and actually surprisingly tasty. I really enjoyed this a lot. It's very medicinal, but not in a bad way. I think it would be really polarizing, though.. a coworker described it as "slightly better than dayquil." Results in very odd-tasting burps. A-

Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger: Tastes exactly (exactly!) like canned mandarin oranges, except a little less sweet and lightly carbonated. It's pretty delicious if you like actual orange flavor in your sodas, this would be tough to beat. More soda-like than pellegrino aranciata. A

Victorian Lemonade: Tart, tart, tart. Very authentically lemony, very sour. Would make a great mixer, but hard to drink on its own. One of my coworkers preferred it to the orange, but not me. B- as a standalone soda.

Shandy: Pretty good quality near beer + lemon. Pretty refreshing, but no real hoppiness. I liked it a lot as a soda that tastes like beer, but I think beer lovers wouldn't be impressed unless they had to give up the real stuff. A-

I've still got the ginger beer and cola left.

Hey Gleam...when are you going to post some new reviews? I've got our local specialty store working on getting in Hot Lips Raspberry soda.

Only two recent ones were the Fentiman's ginger beer and cola. The cola was very cola-y with a lot of baking spice aroma on top. Cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. Pretty good stuff, but I'm still happy with Coke. B. The ginger beer was nothing special at all. Real ginger flavor but nothing distinctive about it. C+.

If you succeed in convincing them to stock Hot Lips, do let me know.

I tasted some kind of Swedish Christmas soda at Tre Kronor the other night (I think Cathy2 might have brought it, but I'm not sure. Hopefully someone remembers the name). It had a distinctly Dr. Pepper taste profile, but not as tooth achingly sweet and possibly a bit more subtle in the flavor dept. as well. I liked it well enough, but I doubt I'd make it a daily drink. Luckily, it's only available seasonally.

stevez wrote:I tasted some kind of Swedish Christmas soda at Tre Kronor the other night (I think Cathy2 might have brought it, but I'm not sure. Hopefully someone remembers the name). It had a distinctly Dr. Pepper taste profile, but not as tooth achingly sweet and possibly a bit more subtle in the flavor dept. as well. I liked it well enough, but I doubt I'd make it a daily drink. Luckily, it's only available seasonally.

Pretty sure you're talking about Julmust. We were at Tre Kronor last weekend for Santa Lucia and they offered this (pretty much just as you described, too - "a Swedish Dr. Pepper") in addition to glogg, sans the booze. Noticed it for sale by the bottle next door at the Sweden Shop as well.

whiskeybent wrote:

stevez wrote:I tasted some kind of Swedish Christmas soda at Tre Kronor the other night (I think Cathy2 might have brought it, but I'm not sure. Hopefully someone remembers the name). It had a distinctly Dr. Pepper taste profile, but not as tooth achingly sweet and possibly a bit more subtle in the flavor dept. as well. I liked it well enough, but I doubt I'd make it a daily drink. Luckily, it's only available seasonally.

Pretty sure you're talking about Julmust. We were at Tre Kronor last weekend for Santa Lucia and they offered this (pretty much just as you described, too - "a Swedish Dr. Pepper") in addition to glogg, sans the booze. Noticed it for sale by the bottle next door at the Sweden Shop as well.

As a lover of Dr. Pepper, I didn't think it tasted like Dr. Pepper at all. I'll admit, my mother hates it (she's the only one in my family of origin who despised it.).

I had this Swedish soda at the Holiday party the other night. I thought it tasted like cough syrup. I guess for those that think Dr. Pepper tastes like medicine, I could see that. I had no desire to finish the bottle I had, unfortunately.

I tried Goose Island's Spiced Ginger Ale...tastes like sweet soap. Yack!

If you succeed in convincing them to stock Hot Lips, do let me know.

Sorry Gleam...they couldn't stock the stuff. There is some sort of minimum purchase required, and it was just too much stock for this small speciality store. These are the places closest (to me anyway) that sell Hotlips Soda retail.

Big Foot Expresso/Cup of Joe
1603 5th Ave
Moline, IL. 61265

The Village Corner Deli
1030 Mound St.
Davenport IA. 52803

And of course one always has the option to order it by the case through the internet.

Has anyone recently seen/heard of Dr. Slice? It was in the Pepsi "Slice" line, and I would assume from the name it was a Dr. Pepper competitor. I seem to recall it being more red and sweeter, but other than that I don't remember much about it. It was available in northern Wisconsin in the late 90's or early aughts but I haven't seen it since.

Also a lot of people seem to like Fanta lemon, the kind imported from Poland or maybe some other countries too. Anyone try this and know where to buy it?

I received a juicer for my birthday and I'm looking for juicer recipe books and/or websites.
Anybody have a tip for me?

Thanks

toria wrote:Also a lot of people seem to like Fanta lemon, the kind imported from Poland or maybe some other countries too. Anyone try this and know where to buy it?

There's a Fanta thread here. You can find Polish Fanta at many Polish markets in Chicago, such as Gilmart (5050 S Archer) where this photo was taken.

Breaking News...I'm going to sell Hot Lips Raspberry Soda this year at my You Pick Berry Farm! I'm sure as heck am NOT going to make much (if any) money on this deal, but I thought it would be a fun appropriate thing to offer. So if you come out to pick berries, here is your chance to try this soda!

I may have done some of these before.


mr q cumber by ehfisher, on Flickr

Best served at room temp, which maximizes the cucumber aroma and flavor. It tastes like cucumber and sugar water, with maybe a hint of citrus. It's really very good, very refreshing. A-


fitz's root beer by ehfisher, on Flickr

Classic root beer, not too heavy on any of the flavorings, but stronger on the mint than on the vanilla after the main bite wears off. Just missing a little something. B


leninade by ehfisher, on Flickr

A total gimmick soda. Sweet pink lemonade flavor with nothing at all distinguishing about it. C


olde rhode island molasses root beer by ehfisher, on Flickr

A very unique root beer with a very, very strong molasses taste. If you like molasses (and I do) then this will be a pleasant surprise. After the sassafras flavor finishes, you get that powerful molasses hit and then vanilla. Really not like any other root beer on the market. Probably most like a molasses-flavored AJ Stephans Root Beer. B+

edit: whoops, grabbed html accidentally.

carousel green apple soda by ehfisher, on Flickr

very sweet green apple candy flavor. like a sour apple blow pop without the sour. C


saranac shirley temple by ehfisher, on Flickr

well, it tastes like a shirley temple. do you like shirley temples? B-


squamscot root beer by ehfisher, on Flickr

Traditional root beer. It gets hard to differentiate between all of them, honestly. This one reminds me most of Goose Island's, but just not as good. It seemed great in comparison after the two really bad root beers I had before it. B-


briar's root beer by ehfisher, on Flickr

This was one of those. Reminded me of a third tier off-brand root beer, but less sweet (so the nasty poor quality artificial flavors dominate). That said, I was able to finish this one, unlike the Clover Classics one. D


jack black's blood red cola by ehfisher, on Flickr

Bitter gimmick cola -- dyed red to match the pirate theme. Don't make a cola if you aren't going to put some effort into it, people. D+


journey caribbean creme soda by ehfisher, on Flickr

If you like coconut and sweet creme sodas, you will probably love this. I hate coconut and I'm not a big fan of sweet creme sodas. I'm not even going to grade it, because the very strong coconut aroma and flavor made it a one-sip-and-dump.


clover classics root beer by ehfisher, on Flickr

And this was just truly a bad, bad, bad root beer. Chicago made, too -- same bottler as Berghoff and Green River. Berghoff root beer is actually pretty good. They should just stick with that one. In googling this one, I actually noticed another guy rated it 181st out of 183 root beers he's tasted. It's certainly the worst root beer I've ever had, so please stop me before I try "Super Chill Birch" and "HyVee Diet". F

Gee Gleam it has been a while. Did you lose your passion for soda?

along with a ton of weight

actually, I do have a big backlog from Galco's in LA and Rocket Fizz in Phoenix, just haven't had the urge to upload the pics + post the writeups. At Galco's I had a chance to sample pretty much every Hot Lips soda. They're all very good.

OK folks. Rather than letter grades on this batch, I'm gonna color code the names of the sodas. Here's the key:

Outstanding: A top-notch soda, worth every calorie and every burp. Seek these out. Pay shipping for them. Drive 100 miles for them. Equivalent to an A/A+.
Very good: Not quite top tier, but really good. Look for these near you. Equivalent to a B+/A- roughly.
Good: If you stumble across a bottle of these sodas, pick them up. You'll enjoy them, but not worth a special search. Equivalent to a B-/B
Average: If you're really thirsty, these might hit the spot. Not worth bothering with otherwise. C/C+
Sub-par: Not truly noxious, but bad. Likely worse than a major-brand equivalent (if one exists). You won't spit it out, but you probably wouldn't bother finishing the bottle. D/D+/C-
Terrible: Avoid at all costs. A failure of a soda in all respects. D-/F.

So with those in mind, here we go!

spring grove lemon sour
tastes exactly like those gas station sour lemon hard candies. not a bad thing.


avery's raspberry
sweet, raspberry candy flavor. not very "real" tasting


thomas kemper marionberry
rich, sweet berry aroma and flavor. clearly blackberry-family. great.


reading draft blueberry birch
cloyingly sweet, terrible fake blueberry flavor, light birch flavor. explosively carbonated.


americana honey-lime ginger
crisp ginger flavor, honey/lime imperceptible


buderim yank style ginger brew
very cloudy, less ginger bite than the aussie style, maybe a bit sweeter.


avery's dry orange soda
odd sort of skunky flavor. real orange, but very off.


empire spruce beer
EXTREMELY unique taste. christmasy. no other way of putting it. Sky Blue mainly because of how unique it is.. gotta try it once.


empire pineapple
sweet, fake pineapple flavor.


buderim aussie style ginger brew
not as good as bundaberg, but very tasty and good ginger heat.


derr's orange pineapple soda
pineapple flavors taste real, orange flavors taste fake. overall not bad.


reading draft root beer
unremarkable standard root beer. slightly above average.


simpson spring sarsaparilla
good root beer aroma, weak flavor


hotlips black raspberry
raspberry flavor really comes up slowly to wallop you as you swallow. great.


hotlips blackberry
great blackberry flavor, lightly carbonated, not too sweet, could be a little heavier on the blackberry.


hotlips pear
because it's so lightly carbonated, it tastes a lot like straight pear juice. not as successful, but again, great real fruit flavor and aroma.


hotlips cherry
not very sweet at all, very lightly carbonated. not a great aroma but a really nice cherry flavor.


hotlips boysenberry
juicy aroma, barely carbonated, not too sweet, but a little mild on the boysenberry flavor.


hotlips cranberry
wow, huge aroma hit, then tartness and a little bitterness from the cranberries. fantastic if you like cranberries.


vintage soda canadian cola
very two-dimensional. kola bite and bitterness and then not too much else. a little clove, a little citrus oil maybe.


margo's bark root beer
molasses, wintergreen, vanilla, cinnamon. spicy and smooth. a really pleasant root beer. not an afterthought at all.


fentiman's rose lemonade
very refreshing. very pure lemonade taste with a hint of rose.


fever tree ginger beer
this is meant as a mixer, and i think it shows. strong ginger heat, caramel/ginger aroma. needs some rum.


jamaica's finest ginger beer
pure ginger burn. stick to d&g.


sweet blossom lavender
extremely subtle. i think any more lavender and it would be overpowering. another one i'll never crave but am glad to have tried


sweet blossom jasmine
bitter, real jasmine tea flavor. not sure i'll ever crave it, but it is what it says on the label. jasmine tea soda.


waialua mango
taste is fine, although not great. aroma is like mango beauty products, not an actual fruit.


waialua kona red
I don't really know what kona red/coffee fruit is supposed to taste like. like the other waialua ones, this is aromatic, not too sweet, and well carbonated. i don't like the flavor as much as the pineapple/passionfruit, though.


waialua lilikoi/passionfruit
again, very clean heady aroma, nicely carbonated, not too sweet. the passionfruit flavor feels a bit less authentic than the pineapple, but is still very good


waialua pineapple
very pure, strong pineapple aroma. not too sweet, nicely carbonated, good real pineapple flavor. not as good as pineapple juice, but very close. truly refreshing.


d&g ginger beer
like candied ginger. clean ginger heat, not too sweet. would probably be a great mixer.


frucade - orangenfructsaftlimonade
orange/lemon. skunky aroma, nearly no carbonation, tastes like old off-brand orangina. WTF germany.


taylor's tonics chai cola
wow. strange, completely unlike any soda out there. not even like a sweet tea or sweet chai, because it's carbonated. not bad, just truly bizarre.


manhattan special gassosa
just like 7up except less sweet. good if you like that kind of thing.


rat bastard root beer
molasses and herbs. strongly herby, not a traditional root beer

Yey...Gleam is back! Loved all the reviews. You are making me crazy for Hot Lips Soda, but I have to admit the Rat Bastard Rootbeer caught my eye!

razbry, you may be happy to hear that there's a coffee shop in Wicker Park that is listed on Hot Lips' product locator:

Caffe Streets
1750 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622
http://caffestreets.com/

I haven't had a chance to verify this, so you may want to give them a call and see what they have.

gleam wrote:razbry, you may be happy to hear that there's a coffee shop in Wicker Park that is listed on Hot Lips' product locator:

Caffe Streets
1750 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622
http://caffestreets.com/

I haven't had a chance to verify this, so you may want to give them a call and see what they have.

I called them this week. They have a limited selection of flavors, but no raspberry.