Lester's Fixins Pumpkin Pie Soda

Lester's Fixins is a line of very un-soda like foods in soda flavors. Their Peanut Butter & Jelly and their Bacon flavored sodas are pretty widely known for their novelty. Rocket Fizz produces the Lester's Fixins flavor line. 

I can't be sure, but the reason Pete's Pumpkin Patch may no longer exist is that they are both made by Rocket Fizz. These seem to taste nearly identical. The only difference might be a touch more of the nutmeg/all spice seasoning in the flavor. It wouldn't make sense for Rocket Fizz to make two pumpkin flavored sodas so they most likely re-branded Pete's into the Lester's Fixins lineup.

Pete's Pumpkin Patch Soda

Strangely, the website listed right on the front of the bottle is no longer active. There's not much information online on any history of this soda, but it is currently produced by Rocket Fizz. 

Opening this bottle is like heaven. I love pumpkin pie and all the beautiful spices that go in it. Taking a nice whiff off this bottle it smells like I'm inhaling lines of pure nutmeg grounds. It's oddly missing much flavor. I was expecting a bright flash of flavor across my tongue but there really isn't any. The spot on the tongue you want to wash it over to get any sense of flavor is on the sides of the back of your tongue. It dos have a nice amount of carbonation. All in all, it's a lot lighter than I expected but a nice fall drink.

Bruce Cost Passion Fruit Ginger Ale

In 1984 Bruce Cost issued a cookbook of recipes using ginger, called "Ginger: East to West". Beginning in 1989 he started using his own ginger ale at his restaurants in California. Operations then moved to Chicago and later to New York. 

Unfiltered is listed flat out on the label, but it should be evident by the large amount of pulp in the bottle. I'm a fan of ginger ale so quite curious about a passion fruit ginger ale. This soda is made with cane sugar, ginger, passion fruit, and turmeric. There's a unique scent from this bottle. It has a smell like that of opening a drawer in a centuries old desk found in the back of an antique shop. Turmeric is related to ginger and both have been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years in Asia. This bottle has a great deal of carbonation, releasing a hiss with each sip from the bottle. The flavor is a bit medicinal. I don't really get much of the passion fruit flavor. Instead it has much more of the ginger and turmeric flavor. The drink straddles a bit of a line between main stream ginger ale like a Canada Dry or Schweppes, and the stronger, sometimes hot ginger beer. I like the nostalgic, apothecary-like aura this brings, but it isn't something I'd be drinking every day. It would probably make a very cook cooking ingredient or act as a good mixer for some drinks, especially a Moscow Mule.

Buddy's Orange Soda

Buddy's comes to us from Arneson Distributing in Sleepy Eye, Minnsota. Although their website makes specific mention to the rise of soda during the prohibition era when beer makers turned to sodas, it actually appears Buddy's was born in the 1970's. In '72 the Arnesons bought an existing beer distribution company but grew into producing their own root beer, 1919 Classic Draft Root Beer. This later led to additional flavors. I'd suspect it was because of their existing beer distribution they were able to gain a foothold in bars and restaurants. 

It gives an aroma like orange sherbet. The carbonation is middling, not to much or too little. This is a pretty decent orange soda. It isn't as sugary as many on the market which may become sickening after a third of a bottle. Instead it straddles a nice zone of sweetness and the acidity of orange juice. If you sometimes drink a soda with brunch, like I sometimes do, this would do nicely.

Private Selection Bourbon Barrel Cola

Private Selection is a Kroger store brand so this and other soda flavors under than label can be found at Kroger grocery stores. 

This soda smells like a cola is expected to. If your nose is sensitive enough you may just pick up the tiniest hint of whisky hidden in the tail end of a big sniff. There's very little carbonation in this soda. The flavor of the beverage is quite the opposite from the smell. It's more like that of a non-alcoholic beverage than a cola. The primary taste to me is that of the bourbon with little room left for the cola flavor. Since I'm not a big fan of the whiskey family, which includes bourbon, this doesn't win any points from me.

Polly's Pop Pineapple

Here's another bottle from Polly's Pop. Find more about the history of Polly's Pop on my previous post, here. 

This bottle has very little carbonation. I find that both the pineapple scent as well as the taste are quite cheap. The smell is entirely artificial and the flavor is a bit off. It tastes a bit too chemically made. I've had many pineapple sodas but this one falls short.

Private Selection Huckleberry Hibiscus Cream Soda

Private Selection is a Kroger store brand so this and other soda flavors under than label can be found at Kroger grocery stores. 

This soda smells like a rich cream mixed with an almost pomegranate scent. It's a very sugary cream aroma. It has adequate carbonation with large bubble size. The flavor has a mix of cream flavor at the forefront followed by a strong floral flavor. Hibiscus is a strange flavor. I find that it is alien and familiar at the same time. You pick up hints of flowers but also berries, sometimes even a bit grape. I wouldn't expect something so original from a grocery brand but this is one I would recommend just for the experience of the flavors mixing together. It's relatively rich so something I recommend sipping in the evening.

Dry Malali Watermelon

I can't say I've ever had a watermelon flavored soda in my life. The sodas from Dry seem to be in a perpetual re-branding since the labels seem to change so often. You can see my first post on Dry Juniper soda here, and my second on Dry Blood Orange here. 

Their watermelon smells exactly like cutting into a ripe watermelon. This bottle has ample carbonation. Like the other flavors of Dry, their flavor profiles are light. Its almost remiss to call it a soda as its closer to a seltzer water. However, there's a touch of aftertaste to this which reminds me of tonic water. Tonic water is a bit bitter due to quinine. It isn't a bad soda, but true to the original intent of Dry it seems better suited as mixer or use as a cooking ingredient.

Havana Banana

Havana Banana is one of the flavors from a lineup of dictator/political foe themed sodas created by Rocket Fizz. Rocket Fizz is a niche candy and soda shop with franchise locations around the country. They have a range of current, vintage and off the wall sodas. 

This soda has a pungent banana extract scent. The smell immediately reminded me of the banana in the Runts fruit flavored hard candies. It has a very strong flavor too. It's almost like banana chips and artificial banana flavor together. There's very little carbonation. But, let's face it, this isn't made for taste. This is a member of a special line up created for novelty purposes.

Mountain Dew Green Label

Mountain Dew has experimented with a wide range of flavors over the years, some to an extent that it boggles me how you can call it Mountain Dew if it has nothing in common since so many people associate Mountain Dew with a specific flavor profile. Green Label has been used in two different methods by Mountain Dew. In 2007 the "green label" products were a line of limited edition aluminum bottles with artwork by many artists in the motif of the "eXtreme" sports crowd they were courting in their promotions and sponsorships in those days. In 2017 however, it isn't clear if their new Green Label drink has anything to do with that marketing or if it is an off shoot of it, since Green Apple Kiwi doesn't strike me as being in the same line up as some of their "extreme" flavors like "voltage", "code red", "live wire" and "supernova". One curiosity of Mountain Dew's market spread is that of both the action sports crowd as well as video gamers who are by and large inert.

For more on the history of Mountain Dew in general, see my earlier post here. I was expecting a satisfying "pffffsshhhhh" release of carbonation when I opened the can and got none at all, making me wonder if this was even carbonated. In tasting it, I can confirm it has carbonation. It is much more apple flavored than kiwi. It's a tart apple like that of the peel of a ripe granny smith apple. The kiwi is tasted in its aftertaste. The flavor combination is not something I'm wild about and reminds me more of some of the energy drinks on the market, which is probably fitting given Mountain Dew's target market. 

Rocky Mountain Soda Company Pike's Peak Prickly Pear

Rocky Mountain Soda Company was opened in 2009 by Chris Koons, Rory Donovan, and Drew Fulton to make unique sodas/mixers for their distillery. They also now own Oogave sodas. Rocky Mountain Soda Co. makes small batch non-GMO, gluten free, kosher, and vegan sodas. 

Prickly Pear is made with beet sugar and it had a really nice fruit aroma that is mostly pear but with a hint of citrus. The carbonation is thin. The fruit flavor of the drink is short lived. It tastes very pear-like but the flavor disappears quickly. I like eating pears and drinking squeezed pear nectar but this soda is so light I was hoping for more. I feel like it's closer to sugar water. I think this particular offering from them would be better as a drink mixer than as a straight soda.

Fanta Grape

I've reviewed several flavors of Fanta. You can read more about the history of Fanta on the first Fanta post here. 

The smell of grape Fanta always makes me think of the smell of Dimetapp cough syrup. It's lightly carbonated and very sugary. I don't drink a lot of grape sodas but they usually make me think of childhood or the filling of a grape jelly filled doughnut.

Bawls Ginger

This is the second flavor of Bawls to be featured on the blog. Follow the link here for the previous review on their root beer. Bawls is popular among gamers and programmers for its high levels of caffeine, one of the reasons I've only ever found it at computer equipment stores. 

While it has the typical aroma of a ginger ale, the taste is a bit unique. It has a touch more ginger spiciness than ginger ale, but much less than a ginger beer. What makes it interesting is a botanical punch of after taste that sort of drifts up the back of your mouth into you sinuses that makes you think you're smelling it rather than drinking it. It's not unpleasant but not exactly the flavor of ginger ale I grew up with. If you let it drift over the taste buds at the side of your tongue it presents and almost bubblegum-like flavor. It does pack plenty of carbonation which gives it a great tingle and aids in that botanical scent I mentioned before.

Polly's Pop Cream Soda

Polly's Pop from Independence, Missouri is back on shelves but isn't a new name. Started in 1923 by Louis and Dorthea Compton, they sold 10 flavors. Louis was reportedly a friend of Harry Truman, an Independence native. Louis Compton ran the company until he retired in 1948 and his in-laws, Vernon and Vic Givan, continued on until the company shuttered in 1967.

Local lawyer, Ken McClain and his wife Cindy, resurrected the brand in August of 2016 in Independence. Since at least one report I read stated Mr. McClain used several chefs to create the flavors, 6 of which were for sale when they began, its probably safe to say the recipes aren't original and its more of a nostalgic label. In any case, they reportedly purchased their bottling equipment from Fitz's. Fitz's bottling company, another story, was based out of St. Louis. But some time around the late 1990's to 2000 they had another location in Kansas City's Union Station, which later closed. I remember visiting Fitz's in Union Station at that time to watch the bottling through the windows. 

There isn't a lot of carbonation but the scent is very strong from this soda. They use cane sugar in the current incarnation of Polly's. The flavor is like that of a rich vanilla ice cream so I definitely give them points for this recipe, but I don't have any way to compare to the original recipe. It's smooth and will make a great dessert beverage after a meal or at the end of a warm summer day.

Mountain Dew Dew.S.A

Mountain Dew has several flavor offerings these days. This is a new release I discovered which combines their red, white and blue flavors called Code Red, White Out and Voltage into a single flavor. For more on the history of Mountain Dew, take a look here.

It has a berry scent to it. The color is a brighter purple with a back light than the picture here suggests. There's a sharp mixed-berry flavor when it hits your tongue but the flavor dissipates over the back of the tongue. I think the mixed-berry taste is dominated by raspberry, which makes for an unusual distraction from main stream soda flavors.

7 Up

In 1920, Charles L. Grigg left Vess to create his own soda company, Howdy, which is also based in St. Louis. Howdy's original offering was Howdy Orange Drink, later Howdy Orange Soda. It took a reported 11 years to complete his formulation for a lemon-lime flavored soda that was originally called Lithiated Lemon-Lime. Lithiated referred to the chemical lithium citrate, a pharmacological mood altering drug. Before you jump out of your skin at that thought remember that many early sodas were first developed as health tonics by pharmacists and there were others using lithiated citrate at the time as well. Lithiated citrate was removed from the recipe in 1948.

The name was later changed to 7 Up Lithiated Soda and then changed again to just 7 Up. The name 7 Up was arose along with early advertising, which called it "7 natural flavors blended into a drink with a real wallop." 7 Up eventually became the star of the Howdy Corporation so the entire company became the Seven-Up Company.

In a strange act of diversification, Westinghouse purchased the company in 1969 and then sold it to Philip Morris, the tobacco company, in 1978. Hicks & Haas bought 7 Up in 1986 which later led to merging with Dr Pepper and then with Schweppes.

Although the recipe is different from the original, they currently use high-fructose corn syrup, which somewhat contradicts their claims of being 100% natural depending on your stance of what "natural" means. Among their advertising successes are the "Fresh Up, the "Un-cola" and Spot. I think if most people were asked what the "Un-cola" they'd say it was 7 Up. That tagline actually came out in the 60's but must have become popular again during the cola wars providing people with an easy alternative. For people in my age group, I think we can all remember Spot advertising in the early 90's. Spot as a cartoon character took on the role of company mascot in advertising and appeared on merchandise, there was even a Nintendo NES video game featuring Spot.

In terms of taste, I'm not sure I need to describe to most people what 7 Up tastes like. It's got a pleasant lemon-lime scent and middling carbonation. In terms of carbonation levels in the two most popular lemon-lime sodas I will still give Sprite the edge. I personally feel 7 Up has a more lime-like aftertaste. Overall, it isn't a soda I drink that often but can still enjoy. Although I generally pair lighter flavored sodas with light meals... I can also say that this can pair well with something like barbeque sauced dishes because of the palate cleansing aspect it can have.