Swamp Pop Noble Cane Cola

I like finding small producers like this and learning about their story. In Lafayette, Lousiana, around 2012, John Petersen, already the owner of a retail store, and his cousin, Collin Cormier, owner of a food truck named "Viva la Waffle" decided to start creating sugar cane cola. Lousiana has long history of sugar cane farming and with the sales of colas at Collin's food truck they jumped into the game. The name of the soda is a bit of a play on words taken from a musical sub-genre in the region called Swamp Pop dating back to the 1950's in the Acadiana region. The genre is a mixture of rhythm and blues, country and french music styles. When Swamp Pop was born they experimented in making their own flavor profiles but later turned to commercial flavor chemists. Their line includes flavors of a kind of regional nature such as praline cream and a strawberry soda named after the town of Ponchatoula's annual strawberry festival. 

Starting with the bottle, I'd have to say I really enjoy the aesthetic of their labels. The familiar scent of kola nut and maybe cinnamon. It feels slightly viscous when tasting it and almost creamy thick. Some of that no doubt stems from the smoothness you find from using sugar cane. The flavor is quite unique for a cola. I expected something cheap tasting with just a pretty label, but this is surprisingly good. I give this a strong recommendation and look forwarded to finding their other flavors.

Cicero Beverage Co. Lime Soda

Cicero Beverage Co. is located in Chicago, IL. My grandfather grew up in Cicero, when it was still populated heavily Czech/Bohemian residents. 

St. Patrick's Day is the perfect day to review this soda. Although Cicero Beverage makes several sodas of different colors, Lime was the best choice for today because the river on the label changes color based on the soda. For those outside of the U.S. that read this blog, Chicago, which has historically had a large Irish population, dyes the river green on St. Patrick's Day.

The soda itself is well carbonated. The flavor is a bit lacking though. There are some good lime sodas, but I often find bottlers that create a very hard-candy type of lime flavor. It's not a bad lime, I've had much worse I think. But it's not amazing either. I am interested in tasting some of their others in the lineup because they do offer several flavors and some are intriguing.

Sioux City Prickly Pear

It's been a few years since Sioux City appeared on the blog and it just so happens I found a new flavor.

It has an exotic aroma, like a passion fruit. The prickly pear cactus, pictured on the bottle, does produce a fruit used for food. However, looking at the ingredients, it appears the flavor of this drink is entirely man-made. Boy, this drink is pungent. The flavor is quite unique. It is both fruity like a mix of passion fruit and cranberry, but acidic and just a tiny bit bubble-gummy. It also reminds me of a lychee soda. I recommend trying this at least once for the sheer strangeness of the flavor.

Cola Turka

In 2002, Pepsi and Coca-Cola dominated the growing soda scene in the country of Turkey. But with an growing nationalistic movement, 2003 saw the birth of Cola Turka from a company named Ülker. The same year of their launch, Chevy Chase made some controversy for starring in a couple of commercials for the drink. It wasn't being in the commercials that fueled talk, it was that the commercials, filmed in New York City, show Americans being transformed into Turks by drinking the cola. This was during a time of heightened political and and religious tensions with Muslim countries. Cola Turka can be found in some European countries as well and they make two other versions, Light, and Cappuccino, a mixture of cola and cappuccino flavors. 

While I can't read the ingredient label, because it's in Turkish, it smells of kola nut and cane sugar. It's a dainty little glass bottle, but well made. The carbonation is pleasing, but there's nothing about the taste of this cola that would differentiate it from Coca-Cola, other than perhaps being slightly less sugary. So other than being just another cola, it would seem this is more of a national symbol you may drink to make a statement. Other than that, thanks to my mother for bringing this bottle all the way back from Turkey for me.

Fentimans Rose Lemonade

Rounding out this spate of lemonades, I'll be tasting this rose lemonade. Fentimans began back in 1905. I enjoy finding their sodas because they do a great service to the classic era of sodas when the Victorian Age pushed their creation through quack health marketing in pharmacies. In addition, Fentimans actually brew's their sodas rather than just mixing chemicals with sugar. 

This lemonade is made with lemon juice, fermented ginger and rose oil. As I usually do when I open a bottle, I place my nose over it and inhale deeply. Smell is deeply associated with taste. When I smell this bottle I immediately feel like I've opened a 150 year old armoire in an antique shop. It has hints of cedar, ginger. The color is a very light pink as well. It has an usual taste as well, tart and pine-like. Like some of their other flavors, the fermentation process lends it a tiny kick as though it was alcoholic, but it is not. I've not tasted anything with rose oil before so am not sure what to make of it but it does not taste like any standard lemonade you'd expect. I welcome you to try it out.

Fentimans Victorian Lemonade

Continuing in a recent series of lemonades, we move on to another of Fentimans sodas. Regular visitors will have seen several flavors from Fentimans over the years I've been writing this blog. 

While not heavily carbonated, this doesn't smell like lemon. It has a sweet citrus scent but more reminiscent of pineapple. This lemonade is made from fermented lemon with some ginger and herbal extracts. It certainly taste fermented. It is very sour and tastes as if it were spiked with vodka. My mouth is watering from the tartness it delivers. It isn't unpleasing, though I doubt kids would like it unless you notice they have a real penchant for sour candies. I'm not going to pass judgement on this one and just say that it's worth a try to see if it's for you.

World Market Limoncellino

Sweet and aromatic... this bottle smells like the freshest lemonade. It's very tart and as you'd expect just like Italian limoncello liqueur. It is rich and somehow very sweet and very sour at the same time. The carbonation is smooth, with slight, tiny bubbles. The effervescence is more like an addition to the flavor than to the texture. While not something I'd consider an everyday drink, I highly recommend it as a breakfast or dessert beverage. 

Nesbitt's Honey Lemonade

Nesbitt's has a colorful origin. You can read about that here, at my first post for Nesbitt's.

At first whiff, this soda smells no different than any other high fructose corn syrup filled lemonade and the bottle doesn't appear to have much carbonation. The flavor is light compared to most lemonades. It isn't heavy, overly sugary or even very tart. There's no taste of honey, if anything I sense a pear-like flavor when hitting the taste buds on the sides of my tongue. This is a pleasant drink. It's refreshing and not the kind of drink that sickens you from sugar. I give it a thumbs up.

Oogave Cola

Oogave is a line of certified organic, caffeine-free soda made with agave nectar. There seem to be a number of sodas these days using alternative sweeteners. It hails from Denver, Colorado, where it began in a natural food restaurant in 2005. 

It's strange how natural sodas of the cola flavor generally have a much stronger kola nut, cinnamon and nutmeg smell to them. That smell doesn't appear at least in the same way with major brands. The drink itself tastes like a bottle of nutmeg. It's not to say it's bad, but it conjures a winter holiday feeling in my mind. It's like it should be served with gingerbread cookies. It's a decent cola, but be prepared for the difference in flavor due to the use of the agave nectar compared to cane sugar or corn syrup.

Sprecher Ravin' Red

Ravin' Red is a cranberry-cherry blend flavor from Sprecher. You'll find more on Sprecher at this link for the first Sprecher I reviewed. I'm not sure if they've recently expanded their flavor line up or not, but I hadn't seen this one before. 

I expected a strong aroma from this, but got almost none. What I smelled was something akin to a honey-cream scent. I find this blend interesting. I enjoy cherry and cranberry, but the blend is strange. The tastes seem to shift in that I pick up cranberry, then might get a strong cherry hint followed by something of a cherry-cream. The drink is tart, as you'd expect from either cherry or cranberry. This is a novel try at something usual but I don't think they pulled it off well. I don't think I'll be buying another 4-bottle pack. I am glad to have tried it though I think Sprecher does better on other options.

Live Kombucha Cola

So this is an interesting bottle I found recently. Live Soda was started in 2012 by a guy named Trevor Ross, who'd already created a line of nutrition bars. The goal being to create a healthier soda-like drink. The bottle intrigued me when I found it because it says it contains enzymes and probiotics and is certified organic. The enzymes and probiotics are intended to naturally aid your digestive tract. Now, honestly, I'd never heard of kombucha so I had to look this up. Kombucha is a tea drink made from either black or green tea fermented with yeast and helpful bacteria. The fermentation process of the tea also gives it a little bit of natural carbonation. There are lots of different attempts out there on grocery shelves of trying to make sodas better for your health, so lets see how this one is.

I will tell you right away that this stuff smells awful. I think the best way to describe it is the smell of stale beer and black tea. After getting a whiff of it I'm a little scared to even taste it. Firstly, although this is their cola flavor... I taste nothing that resembles cola. The drink itself has a lot of carbonation, fizzing a lot with each tip of the bottle. I've given this several sips now and have tried letting the flavor rest on my tongue but I just can't get past this taste. To be fair I've never been a fan of any kind of tea, be it black, green, iced, whatever. I'm sure it will probably do wonders for your digestion, but I simply can't recommend this unless you really like tea. I'm not against giving their other flavors a try however, I'm not going to be seen sitting around sipping this stuff.

Lemmy

There is very little out there about the history of Lemmy. I feel it may take some involved digging at the library, but I can tell you that trademark records do confirm the date on the bottle. The Lemmy trademark dates to 1939 and was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Many vintage soda brands that died off or were bought up by larger companies and later culled during the 70's and 80's and Lemmy was no different. But many of these brands/flavors have been recreated and distributed by Orca Beverages in Washington. 

It has a nice fizz with an tasty tartness. I think the tartness covers the normally smooth texture afforded by using cane sugar, which Lemmy uses. This drink is refreshing and I like it enough to say I'd drink it often if it weren't only available in niche stores or online. Would definitely be welcome on a sunny patio.

Excel Black Cherry

Starting the new year off with another flavor from the folks at Excel Bottling in Breese, Illinois. Regular readers will be familiar with them, my last post featured their Orange Pineapple soda.

Over the years I've taking a shine to the flavor of black cherry sodas. No major soda lines produce it in volume. Maybe the largest maker of a regular black cherry I can think of would be Stewart's. Black Cherry can be a bit strong so it's a nice treat once in a while. This selection from Excel is decent. It has nice aeration and a pleasing black cherry flavor. However the after taste reminds me of a black cherry Hi-C or black cherry Jell-O. Still, all in all it isn't so bad as to ignore and could simply be a slight dip in quality control. I'd still venture to say I wouldn't mind sipping this by the side of a pool in the summer with a burger and fries.