Pepsi Nitro Vanilla Draft Cola

Following on the heels of today's earlier post on Pepsi's Nitro Draft Cola, is this second Nitro option with the addition of vanilla. Just as mentioned previously, these sodas are aerated using nitrogen rather than traditional carbon-dioxide. As expected, there's a vanilla scent emanating from this can that the other one didn't. Similar to the regular draft cola version the extremely tiny bubbles made by the nitrogen provide a very smooth experience. The vanilla isn't too heavy handed but artificial tasting, not like a dollop of vanilla ice cream or anything. Its good but my personal choice would be to prefer the regular draft cola offering out of the two of them. As a side note, I do like the metallic, copper lettering with the choice of navy blue and cream colors of the can. 

Pepsi Nitro Draft Cola

I'm glad I grabbed these when I did as it turns out that Pepsi has recently discontinued their Nitro beverages. Available in both draft cola as well as vanilla draft cola flavors, these cans contain a "widget" which infuses the drink with nitrogen when opened. This is similar to the widget pioneered by Guinness for their stout beers. The idea seems to be that the nitrogen creates a smoother texture to the drink, probably owing to smaller bubbles than those made by carbon-dioxide. 

I happen to be traveling at the moment so I don't have any glassware available, but I've just noticed that the can advises to "pour hard" the chilled soda into a glass after opening. Since I've no glassware on hand, I'm going to be drinking these straight from the can. Cracking the top startled me with the sound from the widget. I thought the can was going to fizz out and spill all over the place, before realizing it was just the sound from the widget. There's a definite frothy head to it, very similar in texture and color to the head of a properly poured draft of Guinness. Wow, I would not have thought simply changing from traditional carbon-dioxide to nitrogen would have such a remarkable difference. The drink does taste creamier and silky in texture. It's a mellow, creamy cola flavor, but not in a vanilla or ice cream float sense. I wish I'd tried this sooner so I could have enjoyed it more before Pepsi discontinued. Hope they'll reconsider someday and bring them back. Maybe we should try aerating sodas with other inert gases too!

Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream

I've covered many varieties of Pepsi cola in the past, including their Wild Cherry. But they recently released this Wild Cherry & Cream variety. I actually waited a little bit after first spotting it in the wild because it was only available in 12-packs, but sure enough the single bottles eventually followed. Always difficult to justify buying a 12-pack of a new flavor you don't know you'll even like. This bottle released a strong vanilla aroma when opened and carries an expected level of carbonation for a Pepsi. A few sips in I'm still letting it linger on my tongue to gather what I think about it. Personally, I find that there isn't enough cherry flavor while at the same time an over abundance of vanilla cream flavor. It just seems skewed to me. I would have liked a heavier cherry taste with an iota of creaminess to just give it a slight separation from a cherry cola. Additionally, I think it's a bit to artificial in a way that leaves a tad of a chemical aftertaste. Sadly, this flavor isn't quite up to par for me. 

Stubborn Orange Hibiscus

Another bottle of the Stubborn brand. I'm picking up more of a ginger scent from this bottle than orange. The carbonation is good, but I really don't pick up orange flavor. It's citrus-y but closer to lemon than orange. Hibiscus is supposedly tart and floral, which I sorta of get. There's an obvious sourness to this soda but I'm just not getting anything I would call floral. Depending on the area it hits on the tongue it feels like a muted ginger combined with citrus. 

Pepsi Lime

Pepsi has a couple of recent entries into the arena of flavor varieties of cola, hand in hand with Coca-Cola's flavor shenanigans. 

You'll probably need to pay very close attention to pick up the tiniest hint of lime in the smell off of this, it mostly smells like plain Pepsi cola. I've only taken a few swigs to contemplate it, but it's not coming across very well. It's got the taste of cola mixed with household cleaner. As I continue to taste it, it grows on me in a very small way. The lime isn't heavy-handed, but I just don't feel like lime and cola are the greatest flavor combination. It would probably take me an entire day sipping away on this to finish an entire bottle. That tiny tinge of lime does have a lingering aftertaste that reminds you of lime again. I'd say as a limited edition its worth trying, but I doubt it could stand as a regular flavor. Thankfully, I was able to find this flavor available in single bottles. Unlike Coca-Cola they haven't learned that its harder to get people to drop $10 on a 12-pack for a new flavor they may not like. If you're interested in trying this hopefully you'll be able to find a single bottle too. They've released a peach flavor too but I've found no single bottles of it around yet.

Pepsi Soda Shop Black Cherry Cola

Another of Pepsi's Soda Shop releases, this particular one is a Black Cherry Cola. The Soda Shop series is meant to invoke some of the flavor combinations old soda counters used to produce. Let's see how this one tastes. 

There's a deep cherry aroma like that from a cough syrup coming from this bottle, so I'm already delighted. It does taste reminiscent of many cough syrups or cherry cough drops. Thankfully they used real sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. It helps the flavor a lot. It would be much sharper with corn syrup than sugar. It's pleasant, not too syrupy or overly sweet, so I definitely recommend picking up a bottle. 

Stubborn Black Cherry

As it turns out that the Stubborn Soda brand is actually a subsidiary of PepsiCo. This must be either one of those excuses to test experimental flavors or one of many attempts by giant corporations to fly under the radar as a craft/niche product. Interestingly, it appears they are using stevia as a sweetener and the ingredients list purple carrot juice concentrate for coloring. 

Not sure what to make of a soda that list tarragon in its flavor profile, but technically this is black cherry with tarragon. I've no real meter to judge what tarragon tastes like though. A web search seems to describe tarragon as bittersweet and somewhat comparable to anise. It seems to have plenty of carbonation since it fizzes up well each time I tip up the bottle. The color is not as dark as you usually get from black cherry sodas. You'll definitely pick up a black cherry flavor, though not one with a lot of depth. It has a tartness to it though that I think is owed to that tarragon. All in all, I find it a bit of a miss as it's too tart for me to enjoy. I prefer a sweeter black cherry with rich berry flavor. 

Schwip Schwap Cola & Orange

Here's an interesting find I came across in London. From PepsiCo Deutschland comes this interesting flavor combo. I can't find evidence of other flavors from the Schwip Schwap label, so it may only be the cola and orange option. It sounded intriguing and there are certainly precedents for it where both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have released lime and lemon combinations with cola. 

It does smell like a glass of cola with a slice of orange added for garnish. However, I find the orange flavor is overpowering the cola taste. This is much more like an orange juice with a touch of cola added than the other way around. The concept seems solid, but the taste isn't really there, in my opinion. Nonetheless its supposedly popular in Germany. 

Pepsi Mango

Now we move on to another flavor variation of Pepsi cola with this interesting mango blend. Some of these flavor combos fall flat on their face and I feel like after the years of Pepsi and Coca-Cola both releasing vanilla and lime versions, they both kind of went wild with flavor options. 

It definitely has a citrus rind scent. I would actually venture to say it's less like a refreshing smell and more of a musty smell... but then I can't recall having smelled mango outside of a mixed melon tray. As someone who doesn't eat a lot of melon, I find this drink interesting. It has a pleasant amount of carbonation, which I'm sure helps disseminate the fruit smell. The flavor of mango is strong and hits you right up front. There is still a cola taste but it follows at the end. I could see pairing this with breakfast, as just about any citrus or fruity soda goes well with breakfast dishes in my opinion. Overall it's quite flowery but not unlikeable. It's intriguing and one I'd recommend trying if possible. 

Starry

If you don't pay close attention to the soda aisles at your local grocery store you'd be forgiven for not noticing that Sierra Mist is a soda of the past. Launched in 1999, PepsiCo created the lemon-lime flavored Sierra Mist to compete with Coca-Cola's Sprite. Well, as of last week, PepsiCo has unceremoniously dropped the Sierra Mist brand. The replacement, branded Starry, is now here. Upon last weekend's trip to the store I was encountered with a stand full of the drink. Now, I'd not heard of the brand before and to be honest the label, design, even the name of it are down right generic. I had to inspect the bottle to find it was a PepsiCo product. Sierra Mist never sounded or looked like lemon-lime to me, it's packaging always made it look like it was more in competition with Fresca. That name and packaging design could very well have fought against its success for all we know. I fear looking at "Starry" the same fate might await, particularly since I've seen nor heard of an ounce of marketing for it. And the name! What were they thinking with a name like Starry? It sounds more like an animated character from Rainbow Bright.

In any case, the beverage is sparklingly clear, resembling the new clear packaging of Sprite. It has a lemon-lime scent no different from Sprite. I've never been very fond of lemon-lime sodas myself. My personal favorite was always 7 UP because that's what my grandmother always had and to this day I find it more crisp than the sticky sugariness of Sprite. But, eyes closed, you'd be hard pressed to taste the difference between this bottle of Starry and a bottle of Sprite. But PepsiCo's marketing department has their work cut out for them, I think they've already got an uphill battle. 

Pepsi Soda Shop Cream Soda Cola

Coming back around to some Pepsi flavor variations, Pepsi released some vintage-inspired "soda shop" flavors to try to invoke some of the nostalgic flavors of old soda fountains. Noticeably, the ingredients list real sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup. However, that does not mean cane sugar. 

The bottle carries a hefty cream smell, very vanilla. Unfortunately, as taste goes, I feel the cream flavoring is too heavy handed. It masks any cola flavor and has a strong sugary taste. This might be something you can handle from a 12 ounce can, but something this sugary sweet will get sickening by the time you get halfway through a 20 ounce bottle. 

Pepsi Wild Cherry

Just a short time ago I finally posted on classic Pepsi cola here. Now we come to Pepsi Wild Cherry... released in 1988, though for some reason I recall the novelty of tasting a Pepsi Cherry my mother brought back from Canada around or before that time that was not labeled "Wild". In any case, this was a catch-up effort three years after Coca-Cola had launched Cherry Coke in 1985. 

What I'm most excited about was that I was able to find this in a glass bottle. As mentioned in the original Pepsi post, it's much harder to find Pepsi in glass bottles than Coke products, though a lot of that is due to infiltration of so-called "Mexican Coke". So it was something of a small victory for me when I found this. 

Most of these well-known flavors from already popular brands don't really need a taste review since most people know what they taste like. This bottle has a light cherry scent, carried by heavy carbonation. The carbonation consists of pleasantly tiny bubbles, unlike some of the big bubbles you often get from soda fountains. It's been a long time since I tasted Pepsi Wild Cherry... and it's a more subtly cherry flavor than I remember, and I like it. 

1893 Original Cola from Pepsi

 

Here's the final flavor in the 1893 series I was able to get. Unfortunately the Black Currant Cola was not easy to locate. I imagine if they released this series at all in the UK it would have been a popular flavor there because there are a number of popular drinks with currant flavoring there. 

So this particular can describes a "dark brown malt flavor" as well as "a touch of aromatic bitters", both of which are already giving me some ideas of what to expect. Of the flavors in this 1893 series this one has that smell of Pepsi cola. I would not say it has a very malt-like taste. However, the bitters a very forward but not too strong. It does conjure an "old-world" feel to it. I think this would be a really nice permanent flavor. 

1893 Ginger Cola from Pepsi

 

Another selection from this 1893 series... 

This one has a very sharp aroma of ginger. A little like the smell of fresh cut cedar mixed with an antiseptic. It reminds of some very strong ginger beers I've had in the past. Though I often find ginger beers over powering the scent is enticing.

I would put the taste of this drink on par with a light ginger beer. As I've said, some ginger beers are very strong and leave your mouth burning. This one provides a little of that "heat" and is stronger than a ginger ale, but is lighter than those types of suffocating ginger beers. There's really almost no cola flavor though. If you wait long enough after a imbibing a mouthful the ginger starts to fade and the back of your tongue might pick up subtle notes of cola, but that's about it. So it's a strong one to be prepared for if you want to give it a try. 

1893 Citrus Cola from Pepsi

 

A little while ago Pepsi created a craft series of sodas named 1893. There were four flavors including Original Cola, Citrus Cola, Ginger Cola, and Black Currant Cola. This can of Citrus Cola contains the same number of calories, 150, as a can of classic Pepsi cola. 

I do find the packaging of this series very nice. An elegant touch in tall, slim cans for a craft experience. Interestingly, they chose orange for the color of this Citrus Cola can, which made me think it would be imbued with an orange flavor, but the can mentions grapefruit essence. I do quite like that the label states the ingredients are Fair Trade Certified though. Opening the can does reveal a grapefruit-like aroma. Though the can does not mention cane sugar, based on the softness of this I think it may in fact use cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Cane sugar being far superior in my opinion and often, I find, giving a softer sweetness. What I like about this is how rounded the overall taste is. There is no overt cola flavor and yet the fruitiness is light and unassuming. You'd be forgiven for even believing this was a cola drink at all, let alone something from Pepsi. So far it has my endorsement and makes me look forward to some of the other flavors in this series. 

Pepsi Fire

Now that I've finally got a post up on regular Pepsi, I can turn some attention to some of their interesting flavor combinations. 

Coke may have released a Coca-Cola Cinnamon flavor, but Pepsi was a little more inventive with their take on a cinnamon cola by naming theirs Pepsi Fire, invoking some of that heat that cinnamon can bring. Side note... unlike many spices and herbs used in food, cinnamon is actually the ground bark of a bushy evergreen tree grown in southeast Asia, primarily in Sri Lanka. It's a little humorous to me that these companies are now experimenting with cinnamon and cola. When I was a kid I would experiment with drink concoctions in our kitchen, often adding cinnamon. Though I do not think there is any actual cinnamon spice added to this, but probably more to do with some artificial flavors. 

It's got that sweet cinnamon scent I like. I don't actually feel any heat from this in my mouth. There's a tiny tingle well after taking a drink, but nothing like I would expect from something with Fire in its name. The more I drink of it I do get a little better sense for it and it grows a small bit. The smell and taste seem very reminiscent of an alcoholic beverage with ginger. In fact, I bet someone who enjoys a variety of cocktails or ginger beer would probably find this to be an adequate mixer. 

Pepsi Blue

Pepsi Blue was originally sold in the early 2000's but was re-released for a limited time last year when I tossed this bottle in the fridge. Thankfully, despite the plastic bottle it seems to have held its carbonization pressure just fine. Pepsi Blue is a "berry" flavored soda.

It smells of a blend of blueberry and raspberry. Having tasted a number of different berry flavored sodas over the years I can see why this flavor didn't last as anything more than a novelty. It's overly sugary to begin with, but the "berry" flavor rings both unnatural but too front forward as well. It probably doesn't help matters that human brains aren't readily prepared for foods that are such a shade of blue outside of some candies for kids. 

Crystal Pepsi

 

The infamous Crystal Pepsi. Originally a short-lived marketing effort from Pepsi in the early 1990's (1992-1994) competing with other clear and lighter colored soft drinks like Clearly Canadian. Caramel coloring was added after all, but the clear color was thought to also give an appearance of a "healthier" alternative at a time when consumers were paying more attention to such things. This actually prompted a Clear Tab from Coke as a rebuttal. 

Crystal Pepsi would eventually fail to win much favor, and was discontinued, but it entered the zeitgeist, capturing the imaginations of young millennials in no small part due to advertising and comedic parodies of the product. In the middle of the 2010's a limited re-release of the product appeared and went just as quickly. 

Sadly, while I may have found this bottle, it's too old to be any good. The carbonation is gone and it tastes much more like flat Sprite than a Pepsi cola. 

Pepsi Cola

Long overdue, I'd been putting off this post just because I know the drinks that have been around longer have more history to cover, not out of any sort of preference. In fact, I sit firmly on the fence between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. A lot of people have hard stances one way or the other, but I find them equally enjoyable as regular colas. I have stronger opinions though when comparing Diet Coke to Diet Pepsi, or Caffeine Free Diet Coke to Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi. 

I've discussed in the past that the birth place of many sodas were in local drugstores, and Pepsi is right in there too. Caleb Bradham, of New Bern, North Carolina, was creating his own cola concoction at the end of the 1800's. In 1893 it was first known as "Brad's Drink". Did he think "Bradham's Drink" was too much of a mouthful? The name changed five years later, when in 1898 it became known as Pepsi-Cola. The popularity of the drink grew, but Pepsi-Cola fell on hard times after World War I due to the cost of sugar. The brand would trade hands to Charles Guth in 1931. Guth hired someone to improve the recipe, and as it so happened was the president of the Loft, Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of candy in the 1920's. Loft had a chain of Happiness Candy retail stores with soda fountains in them. Guth used his new Pepsi-Cola acquisition to replace Coca-Cola in the candy stores. In 1941, the previously separate Pepsi-Cola Company, merged with Loft under the Pepsi-Cola Company name. The current landscape of food and beverage might look very different had Coca-Cola purchased Pepsi-Cola on one of the many occasions they reportedly had to do so in the 1920's and 30's. 

In 1961, the name of the drink was shortened to simply, Pepsi, and then the Pepsi-Cola Company merged with snack maker Frito-Lay in 1965 to become just PepsiCo. Pepsi would go on to create a number of unique ad campaigns, most-notably they kicked of the Cola Wars of the 1980's with the Pepsi Challenge, a guerilla marketing effort based on blind taste tests showing people preferred Pepsi to Coke and later leading to the debacle of New Coke from Coca-Cola. Today Pepsi's beverages place second in market share to Coca-Cola, combining for 30% of soft drinks globally. 

It's fairly difficult to find Pepsi in a glass bottle. As you should know by know I prefer soda in a bottle if possible. Unfortunately, the particular curves of this bottle needs a cloth to pick up the drips like you'd use on a wine bottle. This particular bottle tastes of a little more cinnamon than you normally expect from a new can of Pepsi. Otherwise, I think everyone knows what Pepsi tastes like so I'll skip over other details. 

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.