Warheads Sour Lemon

I haven't yet reviewed a Warheads branded soda yet. I was curious if they even still produced them since I encountered this previously reviewed sour Jones Soda made with Warheads. Warheads are of course known for their very sour candies. I find there's very little scent from this particular can. While no crack of carbonation released was heard or felt when opening, you can hear the carbonation bubbles popping away inside. I took a big gulp and I think I was expecting a much stronger sourness. I've certainly had some that packed more of a pucker inducing punch than this. That being said, it's got a decently lemony flavor and isn't sickeningly sweet. The sourness comes in towards the finish and you'll get more of it if you let it reach the taste buds to the side of your tongue. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, kids tend to enjoy these sour treats more than adults. If you like lemon, citrus, or just sour flavors you may like this one too.

Jelly Belly Lemon Drop

The folks that make the famous gourmet jelly beans have a few flavors of soda as well. Something key to Jelly Belly's success is how they can seemingly encapsulate about any flavor into a jelly bean. And, yes, they do make soda flavored jelly beans, including A&W Root Beer and Dr Pepper. 

Gustav Goelitz was a German immigrant in who started a candy business in Belleville, Illinois in 1869. The Goelitz Confectionary Company was successful enough to open factories in Cincinnati and Chicago by 1904. In 1913, the company moved from Belleville, just east of St. Louis, to Chicago. Gustav's son, Herman, opened his own candy business, the Herman Goelitz Candy Company, in California. It was in the 1960's that they began producing jelly beans. In 1976, Herman Rowland, who was Herman Goelitz's grandson, worked with David Klein to create naturally flavored jelly beans. The Jelly Belly was born and named in tribute to blues musician Lead Belly. So while there is a long history of the companies behind Jelly Belly jelly beans, the first actual sale of Jelly Belly beans wasn't until 1976. Herman Goelitz Candy Company remained the company behind the Jelly Belly until 2001 when they renamed to form the Jelly Belly Candy Company. Since 2023 Jelly Belly has been owned by the Ferrara Candy Company. Ferrara brands include Lemonheads, Chuckles, Pixy Stix, Spree, Fun Dip, and Nerds. 

The soda itself smells lemony like a can of lemon Pledge furniture polish. The taste isn't anything great in my opinion. It's basically a lemon sour with a puckering tartness but not overly tart. They've opted for cane sugar which is a surprise to me since I always picture jelly beans as being made in a chemistry lab with corn syrup. 

Twig's Sour

Twig's Beverage has been a family-owned company in Shawano, Wisconsin, Northwest of Green Bay since it was founded by Floyd Hartwig in 1951. The next time I'm up around central Wisconsin I may have to try to carve out some time to make a visit. I like the style of their logo and labeling. Although they use real sugar as their sweetener, I noted that the serving size marked on the bottle is 1.5 servings rather than the usual 1 as most bottles, which makes it look like it has fewer calories and sugar than other sodas.

While "sour" could mean many things I assumed this means something like a lemon-sour flavor. The scent when opening the bottle is indeed lemon-like. It has a decent level of carbonation and it's certainly pucker-inducing. I'd venture to say this is almost like carbonating a bottle of lemon juice extract or dissolving a pouch full of lemonhead candies into a soda. Its tasty, but I often find that sour flavors like this leave me feeling thirsty afterwards and I need some water to quench that thirst. I think kids that like sour candies would enjoy this one. 

Foxon Park Gassosa

Italian immigrant, Matteo Naclerio, founded Foxon Park Beverages in 1922 and it is still operated by his descendants. In addition to a wide variety of traditional soda flavors they also produce some unique flavors, such as this Gassosa flavor, and Iron Brew, their own take on the Scottish Irn Bru.

When uncapped, I get a light lemon scent. The soda is effervescent with delicate carbonation. Each and every tip of the bottle releases a tiny roar of bubbles rising to the surface inside the bottle. The lemon taste is slight, not overpowering. "Gassosa" is a type of lightly lemon flavored Italian drink, sometimes used as a mixer. It lives up to its name because it does provide a slight bitter bite to it but not pucker inducing. It's very much like a faint tasting lemon ice. 

Fanta Lemon

I've had many varieties of Fanta over the years but Lemon is a new one for me. The closest being the Fanta Icy Lemon I had many years ago in Ireland. I picked this can up in a foreign foods shop. I can't read everything on the back of the can since much of it is in cyrillic characters, but I picked out the "Ckonje" in the bottling address and the URL as Fanta.mk which tells me this can originated in Macedonia.

Cracking open the can reveals a familiar citric acidity. It is tart like lemon juice, but the sugars take the bite off of it so it is not unpleasant. Think, fresh squeezed lemonade with a good deal of sugar. I think it's quite tasty, but then I also like a number of grapefruit and citrus sodas.

Poppi Strawberry Lemon

Poppi began in 2018 under the name 'Mother', founded by Stephen and Allison Ellsworth. After securing venture capital investment Mother underwent a rebrand to Poppi. Aside from a stint on Shark Tank they've secured endorsements from several celebrities whilst gaining shelf space in practically every grocery store I visit. I've recently picked up a few flavors from Poppi to give a try. Poppi contains apple cider vinegar, which contains acetic acid prebiotics and supports probiotic growth and is sweetened with stevia and cane sugar. 

I like the scent from this can. It's very much like fresh sliced strawberries. Unfortunately, the taste isn't very pleasant to me. While I'm picking up the lemon, the primary taste I get is more "green", sort of like chewing on the green leafy part of a strawberry top that wasn't removed. After this passes I'm just left with a bitter lemon juice flavor in the mouth. So... not a great first experience.

Limca

Limca is a lemon-lime soda created by what was then known as Parle Bisleri, headed by Ramesh Chauhan. The story has it that Chauhan asked for the recipe for Duke's Lemonade from Duke and Sons, a well-established Indian beverage company. When Duke and Sons turned him down, Chauhan had Parle Bisleri introduce their Limca brand in 1977. In 1992, Limca was later bought by Coca-Cola in a story, I'll discuss in my next post. 

The scent from this can is very much like a cleaning product while the color is best described as an icy or cloudy white. I'm definitely picking up the lemon and lime flavors, but I find them muted. A friend said this would have a strong flavor but I'm not getting that. There is a strong forward flavor but it isn't lemon or lime. It's almost herb-like at the beginning and for some reason reminds me of the smell of the bottom of a woman's purse. And the taste you pick up from candy your grandmother pulled out of her purse. It's such a unique profile, but nothing like the lemon-lime sodas I'm used to. 

Mountain Dew Ice

Another variation out of the lab at Mountain Dew. Labeled lemon-lime, it smells quite a lot like a typical lemon-lime soda, like you might expect from Sprite. There's a normal amount of carbonation for a two-liter bottle, but like many two-liters I find they often have less carbonation than smaller bottles and cans. With a word like 'ice' in the name I was expecting some of that frosty, almost lemon and mint, flavor many other beverages that use the term 'ice' have. Unfortunately, I'm not tasting that. It's a bit syrupy for my liking, but I expected stronger, bolder flavors from Mountain Dew and this particular bottle doesn't have it. I'd recommend skipping this one. 

Sprite

The lemon-lime soda known as Sprite was born out of the Fanta brand in the late 1950's, in what was then West Germany. The dink was launched as Fanta Klare Zitrone (Fanta Clear Lemon) in 1959. If you recall from the original post on Fanta Orange, Fanta was a subsidiary brand of Coca-Cola. In 1961, Coca-Cola rebranded the drink as Sprite in the U.S. to better compete against 7 Up. 

The name itself comes directly from Coca-Cola advertising history. While Coca-Cola is often credited with creating the common depiction of Santa Claus, based on advertising beginning in 1931... there was another character associated with Coca-Cola year-round beginning in 1942, and created by the same artist. Sprite Boy was an elfin-like character depicted wearing either a bottlecap hat, or a soda jerk's cap. No advertising ever included Sprite Boy's body, just a disembodied head and hands. His image faded from use in 1958, but three years later a new lemon-lime flavored soda would bear his name. 

In 2022, after decades of being packaged in green glass and green plastic bottles, it was announced that the soda would change to clear bottles. This was stated to be due to the fact that green polyethylene cannot be recycled, a move that unfortunately means losing green glass bottles as well to maintain a consistent look. While Sprite is caffeine free, the standard Sprite flavor contains high fructose corn syrup. 

Something I can say for Sprite, is that it always has plenty of carbonation and a strong lime scent. However, as I've mentioned in some posts in the past, Sprite is not my favorite lemon-lime soda. I find it a touch too syrupy, sickeningly so if I drink too much of it. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent enough soda, but personally I prefer 7 Up. I do find lemon-lime sodas "lighter" than a cola or root beer and when you consider the citrus aspect of it I think they often go well with light meals or as a morning soda. 

Sprite Boy pictured on Coca-Cola sign

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. 

Kazouza 1941 Lemon Mint

The second of the latest flavors of Kazouza I was able to find recently is this Lemon Mint. So the aroma of this bottle is a little like a cough drop... in a good way. There's a refreshing mint smell combined with a background of citrus. The taste is odd to me though. I immediately felt like I was tasting a mint leaf. There's a greenness in that lemon like that of a leaf that seems more vegetable than fruit. The slight sourness of lemon is there too, but it's overshadowed by that leaflike taste. The taste reminds me of summer yardwork, not relaxing with a cool drink.  

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.

Fentimans Victorian Lemonade

Continuing in a recent series of lemonades, we move on to another of Fentimans sodas. Regular visitors will have seen several flavors from Fentimans over the years I've been writing this blog. 

While not heavily carbonated, this doesn't smell like lemon. It has a sweet citrus scent but more reminiscent of pineapple. This lemonade is made from fermented lemon with some ginger and herbal extracts. It certainly taste fermented. It is very sour and tastes as if it were spiked with vodka. My mouth is watering from the tartness it delivers. It isn't unpleasing, though I doubt kids would like it unless you notice they have a real penchant for sour candies. I'm not going to pass judgement on this one and just say that it's worth a try to see if it's for you.

World Market Limoncellino

Sweet and aromatic... this bottle smells like the freshest lemonade. It's very tart and as you'd expect just like Italian limoncello liqueur. It is rich and somehow very sweet and very sour at the same time. The carbonation is smooth, with slight, tiny bubbles. The effervescence is more like an addition to the flavor than to the texture. While not something I'd consider an everyday drink, I highly recommend it as a breakfast or dessert beverage. 

Lemmy

There is very little out there about the history of Lemmy. I feel it may take some involved digging at the library, but I can tell you that trademark records do confirm the date on the bottle. The Lemmy trademark dates to 1939 and was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Many vintage soda brands that died off or were bought up by larger companies and later culled during the 70's and 80's and Lemmy was no different. But many of these brands/flavors have been recreated and distributed by Orca Beverages in Washington. 

It has a nice fizz with an tasty tartness. I think the tartness covers the normally smooth texture afforded by using cane sugar, which Lemmy uses. This drink is refreshing and I like it enough to say I'd drink it often if it weren't only available in niche stores or online. Would definitely be welcome on a sunny patio.

Spring Grove Soda Pop Lemon Sour

Spring Grove is a small town of a little more than 1300 people in the far Southeast corner of Minnesota near the Iowa and Wisconsin borders. As with many sodas this story begins with a pharmacist who came up with their own concoction to start bottling. You can read more of my early blogs about how the soda industry evolved heavily out of the pharmacy industry intended as health elixirs. The pharmacist in this case was G.G. Ristey.

While the recipes are said to have remained largely untouched over time a quick scan of the label shows both can sugar as well as high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup was not introduced until the late 1950's and wasn't widely used in foods and drinks in the U.S. until the mid 1970's. There is also artificial flavor and coloring added. So the recipe you're getting isn't an old fashioned, traditional brew. However I still appreciate small production, local products. Traditionally the distribution of Spring Grove Soda has been an area about 100 miles from the town of Spring Grove. In recent years though, they've gained distributors able to sell their sodas in many states. The next time I'm in the area I will try to find some of their other flavors.

Opening the bottle releases a fresh scent of icy lemon. It is immediately reminds me of Ski, a soda I've featured here before. The carbonation isn't heavy, though visible through the glass. The liquid itself has a pucker inducing tartness to it. The tartness isn't a thirst quencher... but 30 seconds after washing through your mouth it begins to water. It's a nice change of pace and is like drinking an Italian lemon ice dessert. While I generally refrain from mentioning alcohol on this site I feel this would be a good mixer. I've mixed some vodka for a taste and it does work well as a mixer. The tartness rounds off with the vodka added. Either way you wish to try it, it's a nice little soda I could find myself drinking during the summer months.

Dog Drool

Dog Drool soda is one of the flavors available from Avery's Beverages line up of "gross sodas". This collection was inspired by the flavor mixings of children taking part in their "Make Your Own Soda" program. Relax, though. They are gross by name. Dog Drool soda is not actually made with dog drool, nor is Kitty Piddle made with cat pee.

The bottle offers a pleasant lemony scent. It tastes quite a bit like eating a lemon and orange pez candy at once and isn't overly sugary. However, I think it could use more carbonation as it is rather flat. So here's something I never thought I'd say... "I can't wait to see how Kitty Piddle tastes."

Fanta Icy Lemon

Canned Icy Lemon at Dublin Castle.

So admittedly, this post has been quite belated. I intended to post the remaining sodas as soon as I returned, but things got busy and lasted through the holidays.

I've discussed Fanta's history in some length in prior postings. So, getting to the point... I was able to find the Icy Lemon flavor in Ireland. This was a tart little soda, with the refreshing flavor of fresh lemonade but with the added frostiness you would expect from foods labeled icy. The frost-flavoring doesn't overwhelm the lemon and unlike some drinks didn't make me sick to my stomach by the end. Great refresher on a nice day outside.

Bottled Icy Lemon in a Belfast bar.

Bubble Up

Bubble Up is a lemon-lime soda with the famous motto "A Taste of Lemon, A Taste of Lime". Bubble Up began in 1919 and was originally bottled by Sweet Valley Productions in Sandusky, OH, two decades before 7 Up was introduced. The drink was later produced by the Bubble Up Company in Chicago and in 1978 was purchased by The Monarch Beverage Company of Atlanta, GA before being sold to Hedinger Brands in 2007. Hedinger licensed it to The Dad's Root Beer Company. 

Bubble Up has a perfect blend of lemon and lime flavors, it isn't sharp and is caffeine free. The carbonation feels higher than in many bottled sodas but isn't overpowering. This is a good drink to cleanse the palate, settle the stomach or just have a refreshing sweet drink. 

Watch a Bubble Up Commercial from 1980