Faygo Creme Soda

Well, after another long hiatus, I bring you another variation of Faygo, this time Creme Soda. Find out more about Faygo on my earlier post here. 

Whether it's called Cream Soda or Creme Soda, there's a fine line to walk between a nice smooth flavor and a repulsive chemical concoction. A word of note, I do try to find glass bottled sodas whenever possible but some drinks are either very hard to find bottled or just aren't packaged in glass. I plan to eventually discuss the breadth of packaging in another post someday.

I'll start by pointing out that this is a clear liquid. While food dyes and colorants may not affect taste, I personally find there's a psychological effect at play. Clear cream sodas start off with a one run deficit with me before I've even opened the bottle. It's that psychosomatic action I always felt had a part in the demise of Crystal Pepsi back in the 1990's. The creamy scent is very similar to Big Red. 

As far as the taste goes, I'd rate Faygo's Creme Soda right in the middle of the spectrum of cream sodas. It's not bad enough to be sharp to the tongue or have a chemical aftertaste. But I wouldn't say it's smooth and creamy enough to compete with the higher end. Mind you, in the past I've found that even "hand-crafted" batches of cream soda at expensive price points don't always mean a better tasting soda. At the end of the day, this is a good "everyday" option if you like cream soda and Faygo has a low price point to boot.

Taylor's Tonic Candy Cane Shake

The final bottle of the holiday themed four pack from Taylor's Tonic Botanical Brewery is this bottle of liquid candy cane. 

Brewed with organic peppermint and vanilla it certainly smells like a candy cane. The liquid even has the sort opalescence you see in the glossy candy cane coating. The peppermint has a cooling effect on the tongue. Although quite sweet and sugary, something in the recipe gives it a touch of tartness as well. While it isn't the most pleasing soda it is the best tasting of this themed bunch. I'd say the best part of it would be the lingering coolness the peppermint leaves in the mouth. All in all you can save your money and pass up this pack and head for tastier waters.

Taylor's Tonics Gingerbread House

Moving onto the dessert portion of Taylor's Tonics holiday themed pack, I have this bottle. As someone who enjoys both ginger ale soda and gingerbread cookies I have high hopes for this one. 

It has the beautiful aroma of cloves. A peek at the ingredients shows it also includes organic ginger, cinnamon and molasses. But that smell of cloves really is reminiscent of gingerbread. Oooh, but the taste is a doozy. It gave quite a kick. Think of sour brown sugar molasses. For some odd reason I almost feel like a need to chew even though it has the same watery thinness of any soda. High hopes are quickly dashed as I can only imagine drinking this thinned down with vodka to both weaken the bottled flavor as well as make my taste buds forget it.

Taylor's Tonics Cranberry Dream

Another bottle from Taylor's Tonics here is Cranberry Dream. 

I'd have to say this is the first beverage of any kind I've had made with balsam fir needles as an ingredient, among some spices, herbs and juices. But it has the smell of vanilla like a cream soda. Wow, the flavors are a bit wacky. The first thing I sense is not like a cranberry juice, but rather like chewing on a christmas tree twig. Yes there's a twinkle of tart cranberry flavor that hits, but it's very slight. This taste of fir trees is so strong I get the feeling a flock of birds would do better off drinking this than me. My advice, try it because it's strange, then put it down.

Taylor's Tonics Eggnog Fizz

After a a long hiatus due to relocating and other things I'm bringing you all a holiday themed post tonight. I've found a four pack from Taylor's Tonics Botanical Brewery out of California called the Holiday Fizz collection and Christmas day is probably the most opportune time to taste it. 

Taylor's Tonics is sort of a fusion brewer. By that I mean that they take old fashioned brewing techniques and collections of herbs and spices in their drinks. According to them, they also aim to include at least one thing with a health benefit to each of their concoctions.

Here I've got a bottle of Eggnog Fizz made with organic Vanilla, Nutmeg, Ginger and Allspice as well as some sort of rum flavoring. While eggnog is okay, I've never been someone who drank it with aplomb just because it's the holidays. It's aroma is strong with the scent of allspice and nutmeg. Though I'm no chef, my love of pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread has made me acutely aware of those smells. It also carries a hint of cream soda. 

At first sip I find it rather drab. The scent of the spices is not backed up in the flavor... it's only a moment after hitting the palate that you taste a wisp of the spices. I was expecting more of a creamier feel but that isn't so. The egginess you get with a homemade batch of eggnog only rears its head in the aftertaste left in your mouth. Let's face it... these theme packs are more of a novelty, and that's okay. However I do expect more, so this is a bottle you can skip.

Skeleteens Brain Wash (Blue)

Another bottle from the now defunct Skeleteens company. You can read up on their Fukola Cola here. Skeleteens was chasing the "counter-culture" of the beverage world with sometimes unusual flavors and what could be described as "individualistic" branding and marketing. 

If you've noticed that the title of this post indicates this is blue, it isn't because I'm pointing out an odd color. No, it's because Skeleteens, for some odd reason, made both a red and blue version, though I believe they are different flavors.

This stuff smells blue. It's a fruity kind of grape scent. Upon first glance the stuff looks an earthly dark blue color with scary bits of stuff floating along at the bottle's neck. I'm hoping that the bits on the inside of the bottle are due to the many herbal ingredients used and not because they used dirty bottles. And while the color is dark and foreboding on a counter or shelf, it's a beautiful royal blue when backlit by something as bright as my monitor.

A first sip packed an unexpected kick to my mouth. It's only lightly carbonated but tastes of lemon or orange peel and has a tart punch. The more sips I take the more I'm also picking up on an herbal oil of some sort but can't place my finger on. The tartness also leaves my mouth watering a bit after each swig. It gives a hint of a woodsy aura in the aftertaste. I should also say that my head feels a bit stretched after half a bottle, as though the base of my brain is sinking while the top is rising. I wonder if the name came from this. One thing is for sure, sodas with strange mixtures of herbs always hide a surprise in their bottle. And yes, my tongue and lips are deep blue.

Shasta Diet Ginger Ale

The second Shasta soda on the blog is this diet ginger ale. You can read more on the history of Shasta on the earlier posting here.

A very sharp ginger ale scent arises from this drink. This is very similar to what most describe as "pale dry" ginger ale. It has a bit of bite to it, but it appears slightly later than many other brands after first hitting the mouth. The bite appears mid-palate to me. The flavor is a bit strange. Yes it tastes of ginger, but closer to ginger beer which is sharper to the tongue but this also carries a touch of the chemical tones you sense in cheaper beverages. Overall this is not a soda I'd recommend bothering with.

Shasta Cola

In 1889, a group of men from Baltimore, Maryland founded a resort and health spa at Mt. Shasta in Northern California. It was in these times that many health spas sprung up around the country near natural springs for the "curative effects" of the mineral water or naturally carbonated water from these springs. Due to the popularity of their spring water they began bottling and selling it elsewhere too. In 1931 they grew their product line to include sodas by flavoring their naturally carbonated spring water.

Shasta was a pioneer in the concept of selling soda in cans as well as the use of wholesalers as a method of distribution. Consolidated Foods purchased the Shasta brand in the 60's and then sold off in 1985 to National Beverage Corp. who also produces the Faygo soda line. Today Shasta is predominately known as a value-focused brand in grocery stores and has a very wide variety of flavors. 

Shasta Cola has a similar cinnamon-like aroma of Pepsi. Upon taste it is close to that of Pepsi if you want to use that as a baseline. The finish has more of a cinnamon tinge to it, finally followed by a slightly chemical ending on the back of the tongue. But really, this is a very good Pepsi or RC Cola replacement.

Doc 360

I stumbled upon this drink at a local gas station but hadn't seen it before. It's a competitor in the spice soda family that Dr Pepper and Pibb are in. I'm unsure how long the drink has actually been on the market, but it can't be too long as there isn't historical information to find. A quick google for it shows that this may be a regional product from a company called LinPepCo out of Nebraska. LinPepCo, as the name implies, is also a franchisee of Pepsi products. Based on the fact that it isn't listed as a Pepsi brand I'm guess this to be regional. You'll find that many franchisors that produce and bottle national brands have also created their own brands throughout soda history, and why not when you've already got the distributing foothold that comes with the national branded products. 

This beverage has the slight cherry-sweet aroma that is similar to it's competitor, Pibb. In taste, it is in fact much more similar to Pibb than Dr Pepper. The spiciness is too slight, but there is ample carbonation, and a leading cherry-spice flavor. The flavor falls from the tongue rapidly, but there is a tiny cinnamon after-taste that appears after a total lull in any flavor. This isn't a bad facsimile of Pibb at all, so I can recommend it if you like that family of soda flavoring. 

Schweppes Ginger Ale

Schweppes Ginger Ale stems from the efforts of Johann Jacob Schweppe. Schweppe was born in 1740 in Hesse, Germany, but moved to Geneva, Switzerland in 1765 where he became a watchmaker and jeweler. Schweppe was also an amateur scientist, as it seems so many enlightened gentlemen were in those days. Using processes developed by Joseph Priestley, an English scientist who studied gasses and is credited with the discovery of oxygen, Schweppe created carbonated mineral water. He founded the Schweppes Company in 1783 in Geneva to sell his bottled drink, later moving the business to London. Around that time he also invented a bottle with a rounded base which forced the bottles to be stored on their sides. Storing the bottles on their sides meant the cork stayed moist and preserved the carbonation much longer. The company eventually folded in 1795. 

Erasmus Darwin, an English doctor and grandfather of Charles Darwin, had become a fan of the drink and spread it's popularity. Because of this, Schweppes went back into business and by 1831 King William IV of England had taken to the drink sending it's popularity higher. The burgeoning British Empire meant the drink was taken all over the world. In 1969, Schweppes merged with Cadbury, becoming Cadbury Schweppes. Cadbury Schweppes later spun off their beverages into a new company called Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

There are two ginger ale brands I generally stick to drinking and while Schweppes is one of them, I don't care for it in cans. There's something about the little iconic green bottles I grew up with that makes it better. The bright green glass and the way they fit into your hand like little grenades makes them different than all the others.

Schweppes has lots of carbonation, which I like from ginger ale. Ginger ale is one of the best drinks to sip on with an upset stomach because carbonation will aid in burping to when you have too much acid in your gut, and ginger is naturally soothing to digestion. This is also a nice drink because it has the bite you want from ginger ale, but no overly so, and also has a sweetness to balance it out nicely. Overall this is a great beverage alone or as a mixer. But get it in the little green bottles!