Nesbitt's Honey Lemonade

Nesbitt's has a colorful origin. You can read about that here, at my first post for Nesbitt's.

At first whiff, this soda smells no different than any other high fructose corn syrup filled lemonade and the bottle doesn't appear to have much carbonation. The flavor is light compared to most lemonades. It isn't heavy, overly sugary or even very tart. There's no taste of honey, if anything I sense a pear-like flavor when hitting the taste buds on the sides of my tongue. This is a pleasant drink. It's refreshing and not the kind of drink that sickens you from sugar. I give it a thumbs up.

Oogave Cola

Oogave is a line of certified organic, caffeine-free soda made with agave nectar. There seem to be a number of sodas these days using alternative sweeteners. It hails from Denver, Colorado, where it began in a natural food restaurant in 2005. 

It's strange how natural sodas of the cola flavor generally have a much stronger kola nut, cinnamon and nutmeg smell to them. That smell doesn't appear at least in the same way with major brands. The drink itself tastes like a bottle of nutmeg. It's not to say it's bad, but it conjures a winter holiday feeling in my mind. It's like it should be served with gingerbread cookies. It's a decent cola, but be prepared for the difference in flavor due to the use of the agave nectar compared to cane sugar or corn syrup.

Sprecher Ravin' Red

Ravin' Red is a cranberry-cherry blend flavor from Sprecher. You'll find more on Sprecher at this link for the first Sprecher I reviewed. I'm not sure if they've recently expanded their flavor line up or not, but I hadn't seen this one before. 

I expected a strong aroma from this, but got almost none. What I smelled was something akin to a honey-cream scent. I find this blend interesting. I enjoy cherry and cranberry, but the blend is strange. The tastes seem to shift in that I pick up cranberry, then might get a strong cherry hint followed by something of a cherry-cream. The drink is tart, as you'd expect from either cherry or cranberry. This is a novel try at something usual but I don't think they pulled it off well. I don't think I'll be buying another 4-bottle pack. I am glad to have tried it though I think Sprecher does better on other options.

Live Kombucha Cola

So this is an interesting bottle I found recently. Live Soda was started in 2012 by a guy named Trevor Ross, who'd already created a line of nutrition bars. The goal being to create a healthier soda-like drink. The bottle intrigued me when I found it because it says it contains enzymes and probiotics and is certified organic. The enzymes and probiotics are intended to naturally aid your digestive tract. Now, honestly, I'd never heard of kombucha so I had to look this up. Kombucha is a tea drink made from either black or green tea fermented with yeast and helpful bacteria. The fermentation process of the tea also gives it a little bit of natural carbonation. There are lots of different attempts out there on grocery shelves of trying to make sodas better for your health, so lets see how this one is.

I will tell you right away that this stuff smells awful. I think the best way to describe it is the smell of stale beer and black tea. After getting a whiff of it I'm a little scared to even taste it. Firstly, although this is their cola flavor... I taste nothing that resembles cola. The drink itself has a lot of carbonation, fizzing a lot with each tip of the bottle. I've given this several sips now and have tried letting the flavor rest on my tongue but I just can't get past this taste. To be fair I've never been a fan of any kind of tea, be it black, green, iced, whatever. I'm sure it will probably do wonders for your digestion, but I simply can't recommend this unless you really like tea. I'm not against giving their other flavors a try however, I'm not going to be seen sitting around sipping this stuff.

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.