Saranac 1888 Shirley Temple

While primarily a beer brewery, Saranac crafts several flavors of sodas as well. Saranac 1888 is owned and operated by the Matt Brewing Company, purportedly the fourth-oldest family-owned brewing company in the U.S. Francis Xavier Matt was a German immigrant to the U.S. in 1880. Having worked at the Rothaus Brewery in Baden, Germany, his skills were applied as a brewmaster for breweries in Utica, New York. He created The West End Brewing Company out of the remnants of the Charles Bierbauer Brewery. Like many breweries in the U.S. during the prohibition era they relied on brewing soft drinks to keep the lights on. Utica Club sodas made by the brewery offered non-alcoholic malt drinks and ginger ale. Post-prohibition, Utica Club became a label for a primary line of beer. The brewery eventually changed names again to the Matt Brewing Company producing beer under the labels Utica Club and Saranac. In 2000, the Saranac label began bottling soft drinks again. 

This soda has a very sugary cherry-pomegranate smell. The flavor is truer to a pomegranate taste, which is much more true to the use of real grenadine used in a true old-fashioned shirley temple. It has a little zing at the end of a swig as well. Decent effort overall.