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.
