Spindrift Ginger Ale

This can of Spindrift ginger ale is a bit of a conundrum. Firstly, its another one where the can artwork, shelf placement, and single can sales made me believe it was a store's private label. Secondly, the can says 'Soda' right on it. While investigating their website, near the top of their FAQ page they mention that they've phased out their sodas in favor of sparkling water. Further down the page they still have a section dedicated to sodas, explaining that they removed the cane sugar previously used when they began back in 2010, now preferring to use squeezed fruit juice with no added sweeteners. So I think its very confusing messaging. I believe they are trying to use the term 'soda' as part of a brand name, while also discontinuing the production of soda??? I don't know. I think their marketing team should have thought this through better. The can has an expiration date of 2026, so is what I'm about to taste soda or a soda branded sparkling water? Very strange indeed. Of note is that they list a whopping 20% fruit juice content, which is very high for a soda these days, particularly in North America. The entire can is just 32 calories as well. 

A fresh crack and the hiss of carbonation greets me when opening the can which is always nice. The scent is a bit of ginger but also a tad bit lemony. Its flavor is very ginger heavy. You could even say this straddles that fine line between a ginger ale and a ginger beer. After a few swigs and sitting with the finish a bit I think I'd classify this more on the ginger beer end of the scale with a bit of a ginger kick in the back of the throat with each tipple. 

Culture Pop Black Cherry

The second flavor from Culture Pop to be featured is this black cherry selection. As a reminder, refer to this earlier post for information on probiotic sodas like this one. This can weighs in at just 45 calories and includes most of the same ingredients as their other flavors, including the probiotic bacillus subtilis. The scent is sweet. Despite having just purchased this can a couple of days ago the drink is flat. The taste is both sweet and sour. I get a touch of sweetness at first, but it then changes to a bitterness, particularly on the sides of the tongue. It sometimes even tastes a tad salty. I'd rate this flavor below their strawberry and rhubarb option.

AJ Stephan's Lemon & Lime

Its been a while since I've reviewed a soda from AJ Stephan's line up. The color of this soda is what I'd call "toxic waste green". When open it smells distinctly like lime. After a few swigs I'd say it also taste much more like a lime soda than a lemon and lime. That being said, I've had better lime sodas. I'll continue to keep an eye out for more from AJ Stephan's so I can try some of their other flavors. 

Culture Pop Strawberry & Rhubarb

I haven't seen Culture Pop on the shelves around where I live, but I discovered them on a recent trip through the South. Culture Pop is another brand of probiotic sodas made in the recent trend of companies attempting to make healthier soft drinks. They claim to use organic fruit juices and organic spices to create their flavors. Their website states that they use natural fruit juices as their sweeteners rather than artificial sweeteners or real sugar. The probiotic ingredient is listed as DE111 Bacillus Subtilis.

This can of strawberry and rhubarb lists just 45 calories and includes ingredients like white grape juice, strawberry, rhubarb, and orange juices as well as sea salt, and cardamom. It smells quite nice, very strawberry scented, similar in smell to much more sugary strawberry sodas. I find it has a very mixed flavor changing rapidly while sipping. The flavor(s) disappear so rapidly I didn't even have time to place them, though I noted it was bitter when first hitting the tongue. On the next sip I held in my mouth longer to try to pick up some of the flavoring. Still bitter tasting, but without any sort of added sweeteners that should be expected. I can also pick up citric acidity followed by a quick flash of unsweetened rhubarb. Most of these prebiotic and probiotic sodas are undrinkable. While this one is bitter, because the flavor is so short lived its much kinder to the taste buds than other "gut healthy" sodas so makes for a nice option in the realm of "healthy" soft drinks. 

Country Club Raspberry

I've heard of Country Club soda for many years but the history seems to be a bit fuzzy and I can't seem to find details online. There was a Country Club Soda company in Springfield, Massachusetts from the 1920's. This bottling plant was razed in the 1970's. However, there is also a Country Club Soda brand being produced by Refresco in the Dominican Republic and imported and distributed through New York City. Refresco appears to have only existed since 1999, but was the Country Club brand acquired through one of their many business acquisitions? Maybe I'll find more information about this from someone in the future. 

This particular bottle doesn't give off much of a scent. The taste is overly sweet and very much like drinking pure syrup. The raspberry flavor comes through but I find that the syrupiness hides what otherwise might be a more enjoyable beverage. I do wonder why we don't see more raspberry flavored sodas on the market though. 

Ginseng Up Cranberry

It's been a while since I added any new posts from Ginseng Up. You can read my previous post with a little about them here. 

The frosty red color of this drink with the black label makes it look attractive. I prefer glass bottled sodas when I can get them, but if you're going to use glass bottles why cheap out on these twist caps rather than use a true crown cap? Even twist-off crowns are better than the type on these bottles. I'd say the aroma given off from this drink is sort of like a mix of cranberry and pomegranate. It's scent is sweet and fresh like a fruit salad. Unfortunately, the flavor falls flat for me. The initial punch is very tart, nearly pucker inducing, but then you feel a finish that is quite tea-like. This finish is probably coming from the ginseng extract. Once that flavor evaporates from your taste buds the sourness felt earlier leaves you salivating. The good thing is that there is no lingering aftertaste. This choice isn't bad if you like sour candies, or super fruity natural flavors. Personally, I'd nurse it over a while, not to savor it but because of the intensity. 

Ginseng UP Cola

While this isn't the only soda infused with ginseng extract, they have been around a little while and have several flavors to choose from. Ginseng UP began in 1981, in Worcester, Massachusetts, and focuses on imbuing its products with the "healthful" benefits of ginseng and all natural ingredients, with little sugar.

While the bottle looks nice... I wish the cap was a crown top instead of a screw top since those don't make it into my collection. It has cinnamon-like notes to it's cola scent. It could use more carbonation but the taste of kola nut is a bit over powered by the flavor of tea. I'm not a tea drinker, but I've found that when cola is mixed with it, it's not terrible. In my opinion however, caffeine-free cola partly defeats the point of cola. It's a decent drink but nothing I'm going to go crazy about. 

Simpson Spring White Birch Soda

Something my Aunt discovered for me, it's nice to find some of these "historical" sodas. And Simpson Spring seems to have quite the history. Hailing from South Easton, Massachusetts, which  lies South of Boston these sodas come from spring water that has been in use since precolonial times. In the late 1800's Frederick Howard began bottling and selling water from the springs. Like many spring water bottlers, they eventually began marketing several sodas as well. It isn't a huge leap to sodas when you already have a naturally bubbling water source and all the bottling equipment needed.

There is a very wintergreen aroma arising from this bottle. It has a very nice effervescence. I was expecting a much lower carbonation from a natural spring. Perhaps additional gases are added before bottling. Unlike previous birch sodas I've tasted, that tend to taste much closer to a root beer, this is very much like drinking a certs breath mint. It's crisp and refreshing and I'd highly recommend this as a summertime cooler or after dinner drink.

AJ Stephan's Raspberry Lime Rickey

AJ Stephan's was started in the late '80's by Jeff Rose. The water used in these soda's comes from a New England artesian well and mixed with cane sugar. He supposedly has some 200 family soda recipes on hand but only bottles a fraction of that as there are currently 9 different flavors bottled. I found it very interesting to learn that one of Jeff's daughters majored in chemistry at MIT and assisted in some of the formulations of the drinks.

Aside from the simple labels this bottle sticks out due to the contrast of the red soda and the lime green label. It has a sugary-sweet raspberry aroma. The raspberry flavor is really what you taste the most with this, with just a pinch of lime that really compliments the fruit taste well. Lightly carbonated, this is an excellent summer "dessert" drink.

Moxie

I thought that Moxie would be a fitting place to begin this blog because it was one of the earliest mass produced soft drinks in America. This entry will be a two-parter since I will be discussing one of my favorite caps from my collection as well as reviewing my first taste of the drink itself, Moxie. 

Carbonated beverages owe their beginnings to old world cultures which considered bathing in or consuming the mineral waters in natural springs to be beneficial to health. The practice of bathing in mineral springs continues to this day. The earliest "soft drinks" are often considered to be sherbets developed in arabian cultures. The ingredients were grown by the doctors of the Ottoman Palace and were cold drinks made with rose hips, cherries, rose or licorice and various spices. Sherbet and the word syrup share this etymology. In the 13th century a drink call Dandelion and Burdock arose in Europe made from fermented dandelion and burdock plants, the drink was naturally carbonated. This concoction shares its origin with other drinks made from root extracts like root beer and sarsaparilla and usually contained a slight wintergreen flavor. 

In the 18th century the ability to create man-made bubbling water through the process of carbonation was discovered. This was soon called "soda water" and became a commodity due the belief in the health benefits in consuming spring waters. Before long the pharmacists selling soda water and all manner of tonics and elixirs combined the two, creating soft drinks. This is why soda fountains were common in early drug stores. 

In 1876, Dr. Augustine Thompson created Moxie in Lowell, MA as an elixir, the kind of "medicines" popular at the time and sold as panaceas for all types of illnesses. It wasn't until 1884 that the elixir came to be a carbonated soft drink. There is debate as to why the drink was labeled Moxie, however it is not due to the definition of the word. Rather, the term "Gee, that guy has a lot of moxie!" came from the drink itself. The drink was said to have such an unusual taste that not all people enjoyed it, so if someone were to have more than one of the drink they were said to have moxie. Thus the term entered the American vernacular and so someone with moxie has "nerve, determination, or force of character". 

The cap shown here is one of my favorites from my collection and has been with me since the very beginning, see my earlier post "The Start". In the early years of my cap collection I had no idea what flavor Moxie was. Eventually I learned the story about this "usual flavor" from someone and how the term entered regular usage from the name of the drink and I knew I had to taste the stuff. With the recent surge in popularity from fans of the drink it has seen a small resurgence and those not near a retailer suppling the drink in the New England market can order Moxie from a half dozen or so websites, including www.sodapopstop.com, where I procured a couple of bottles. 

Upon first sip of the Moxie… it has a licorice flavor to it, but finishes with more of a cherry cough syrup taste. It isn't overly carbonated. This is obviously a flavor derived from the Gentian Root Extract listed on the ingredients. Gentian extracts are harvested for use in flavoring bitters or the liqueur Suze. It almost tastes like an antique store. I'm a little curious if the flavor of modern cough syrups derives something from these extracts given the history of tonics. A google search reveals that the name of the herbs is a tribute to Gentius, an Illyrian king though to have discovered that the herbs have tonic properties. I have to admit that after years of waiting to see what this tastes like, I am not very impressed. It isn't something I would consider sitting down to drink with a meal or even for refreshment. It seems like an antiquated novelty. Nevertheless, I am still fond of the Moxie caps in my collection and the very essence of the word. Moxie is one of those words that matches it's meaning so perfectly. Now, towards the end of this bottle it reminds me more of potpourri, so perhaps take a good whiff and if you are so inclined, try a bottle some day if only for the experience of soda history.