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.

Excel Black Cherry

Starting the new year off with another flavor from the folks at Excel Bottling in Breese, Illinois. Regular readers will be familiar with them, my last post featured their Orange Pineapple soda.

Over the years I've taking a shine to the flavor of black cherry sodas. No major soda lines produce it in volume. Maybe the largest maker of a regular black cherry I can think of would be Stewart's. Black Cherry can be a bit strong so it's a nice treat once in a while. This selection from Excel is decent. It has nice aeration and a pleasing black cherry flavor. However the after taste reminds me of a black cherry Hi-C or black cherry Jell-O. Still, all in all it isn't so bad as to ignore and could simply be a slight dip in quality control. I'd still venture to say I wouldn't mind sipping this by the side of a pool in the summer with a burger and fries.

Gingerbread Soda

This bottle is another product of Orca Beverages. Anyone interested in finding some strange flavors of soda will be familiar with their name. This is second gingerbread flavored soda to be featured here. I sampled a different brand last year for Christmas. 

The aroma coming from this bottle is very creamy. It smells like fresh icing for a cinnamon roll, very pleasant and sweet. The taste itself has a tinge of cinnamon and ginger... which is what one should expect from a gingerbread flavor. However there is a heavy cream flavor. It's a very sugary sweet drink as well, almost syrup-like. While Buddy the Elf would probably love this, I find it almost too sweet. I can't image not being sick to my stomach unless I sipped it slowly over several hours... that kind of sweet. While an interesting novelty beverage, I'd love to see someone do this right with a good blend of ginger and cinnamon. But happy holidays and thanks for the effort.

Excel Orange Pineapple

Excel Bottling was featured in one of my earliest posts, back in 2010, when I discusses Ski. They've been bottling sodas since 1936, but also started making beer. I used to visit Excel once a month or so when I lived out in St. Louis. It made for a nice drive through the country to a small town, called Breese. I liked that they still operated on returnable bottles with the locals, although they've moved to throw-away bottles in order to distribute farther and keep costs down.

It has a light pineapple scent with light carbonation. They use cane sugar, which I usually prefer since it offers a rounder sweetness to the taste. Despite the neon glow it's a nice refreshing beverage. The flavors are not overpowering and it's not too sugary. Don't ignore bottles like these because the decals aren't as flashy because you could be missing out on a good drink. And if you're ever near Breese, I always recommend a stop in to see their operation.

Fungal Fruit

The second of Avery's "SODAsgusting" series to appear here, the first being "Dog Drool." This series of drinks made by Avery was inspired by kids, so the names should not surprise you. 

Fungal Fruit smells a bit like pink lemonade, but its actually a mixture of lime and passion fruit as the label would indicate. The flavor doesn't really do anything for me. There are more refreshing fruit flavored sodas and the sweetness is a little too much for me. I think finishing a bottle of this would make me ill.

Leninade

What was once hard to get, slowly spread around and now you can find Leninade at numerous places that stock large selections of sodas. This soda is another Real Soda creation. Real Soda isn't an old company but they carved out a niche for themselves recreating old soda brands that had previously been discontinued. In addition they have created many of their own labels, Leninade being one of them. While the title is an obvious play on words, they went a bit over board with pun-filled slogans on the bottle. It's as if they came up with so many ideas for slogans that they just decided to use them all, but maybe that's part of their appeal. Maybe someday their website won't still look as though it was created in 1993.

I enjoy the nice pink lemonade aroma it has. The carbonation is light, but it should be for a lemonade variant of any kind. The flavor is that of a pink lemonade with a hint of grapefruit, however the flavor is a bit weak. I was expecting something stronger when a bottle says, "Get hammered & sickled," but I guess it's just another pun. It's not a spectacular drink, but more of an "it'll do" that's covered with little chuckles.

Reading Draft Black Cherry

Reading Draft began in 1921, this was just after national prohibition on alcohol began in the United States. Reading lies in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, a little more than an hour's drive from Philadelphia. The company produces several flavors, but they say they have the "Pennsylvania Dutch taste." I'm not exactly sure what that means or how it can taste Pennsylvania Dutch no matter what the flavor of the soda is. Supposedly they utilize a slower technique to carbonation. Aside from their soda production they also sell beer and wine making supplies, but do not make any themselves.

It smells deliciously deep. It is well carbonated, but doesn't tingle at the tongue. The cherry flavor is very well balanced. It's not overpowering. This is a good dessert soda, it has nice staying power on the tongue. I think what balances it so well is there is a touch of saltiness at the finish which keeps it balanced and as I've mentioned before, cane sugar has a more rounded flavor than high fructose corn sugar. Overall this is a nice drink.

Barr's Originals Dandelion & Burdock

Barr's Originals is a lineup of old fashioned recipes from the A.G. Barr company. Although a large company today, it was started by Robert Barr in 1875. The company began in Falkirk, Scotland, a town a little north and halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. They soon grew to have a position in Glasgow as well. Barr's started selling Irn-Bru in 1901 and is still a Scotland original available in the UK. In 1959, the Glasgow and Falkirk divisions merged. In 2012 there were plans for the company to merge with Britvic, but those plans later fell through.

This is only the second dandelion and burdock soda I've found and the last one I had was long enough ago that I don't really recall the taste. For those who haven't read my previous post about this flavor... yes, dandelion as in the weed. Burdock is a type of thistle. Dandelion and burdock is one of the oldest flavors of soda so just getting to taste it should be considered a bit of a rite of passage. 

The smell is light and airy with a tiny bit of anise. The carbonation is moderate, but the flavor is like that of a chicory. The tongue has a different concentration of taste receptors in different areas, so I sometimes taste a soda by holding it in my mouth in different areas. With the front of my tongue I taste virtually nothing. The front of the tongue is strongly associated with sweetness. When I move the liquid to the the back of my mouth the areas associated with bitterness and sour come alive. The odd root-like taste of this makes the mouth water though. I personally don't care for the flavor, but I do recommend that fans of soda at least try it.

Fentimans Cherry Tree Cola

Fentimans has been featured on my blog many times as I work my way through their catalog. Read more about their history in one of my earliest posts here.

This bottle has a delicious ginger aroma when I pop the cap off. If I closed my eyes I would think I was in a Christmas shop. The flavor is less cherry than potpourri in a bottle. The flavor isn't amazing, but the scents sure are. The drink looks positively flat until it's tipped, but has just enough carbonation to make it alluring. Thankfully, they've balanced the ginger to keep it from overpowering the rest of the herbs and not to burn like a ginger beer. Again, I think the best think about it may be the smell. I'd like to get some more of this around the holidays. Definitely try a bottle of this for yourself if you can. 

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.