Waialua Pineapple

The bottled beverage trade has had a rich history in Hawaii with several hundred companies having come and gone between the 1860's to the present. In 2003, husband and wife team Karen and Jason Campbell opened Waialua Soda Works and began making sodas inspired by Hawaiian ingredients. The Hawaiian islands are well known for pineapple crops and appropriately the first offering from this company was a pineapple soda. They now have four other flavors including root beer, mango, vanilla cream and lilikoi.

I like pineapple juice at breakfast and I love a good pineapple soda on a warm day. Today it was sunny and began to feel more like summer again as I drove on the highway with my windows down and the temperature passed 80˚  for the first time in ages, so it's a fitting day to add this one.

This bottle has a sugar-sweet scent and a light color, no neon yellow for these folks. There's a great balance of carbonation in this drink as it fizzes up a little when tipped back. It's deliciously sweet but very tasty and they really hit the pineapple flavor well with a ohh-so-tiny creamy finish. As I savor this soda I can clearly imagine laying on a remote Hawaiian beach sipping away at it. I'll be looking for their other flavors in the future and if you happen to find a bottle on vacation in the islands I'd recommend an ice cold bottle of this. 

Ski

The other day I made a trip out to a little town in southern Illinois called Breese. Here in this small town sits the Excel Bottling Company. Excel is a soda bottler in the good old fashioned sense. Locals here put down a deposit on a wooden crate of 24 bottles which they can mix with whatever combination of flavors they want. When the bottles are empty they return the bottles for a refund on their deposit or pay for another round of full bottles. The empty bottles are washed and refilled with any of a number of flavors. Not many bottlers exist like this anymore. I've personally tasted most of their offerings. Among flavors such as grape, root beer, pineapple, orange, cream soda, and strawberry, Excel licenses and bottles regular Double Cola as well as the Double Cola-owned Ski soft drink. 

Ski has a fanatical following and was created in 1956 by the Double Cola company. I will have to address Double Cola on its own entry someday but Double Cola began in 1922 as the Good Grape Company in Chattanooga, TN. 

Ski has a unique citrus flavor and is made with orange and lemon concentrate, a little of which is visible in the bottle. The taste of ski is one of those which is difficult to describe. It smells like lemon and orange and has a good carbonation level in that it tingles when held in the mouth. The lemon flavor is more noticeable than the orange. I think some of the difficulty in describing the flavor comes from the confusion that it looks like the lemon-lime flavors most people are more familiar with so when their palate gets a hold of Ski it doesn't quite know what to make of it. The orange in it is what I think lends the "frosty" overtone to it. What I mean by that is that there are some new drinks out there of various chemical origins which have "ice" or "frost" in their name to smooth the flavor and this soda reminds me of that albeit with natural flavors. Ski is primarily made by smaller, regional bottlers like Excel to the point that some think their local area is the drink's origin, but in fact it's just a highly regionalized offering. So if you stop in a small town in one of the Southeastern states look out for Ski signs, I definitely recommend giving it a go. 

Boylan Cane Cola

Boylan Bottling Company was founded by William Boylan in 1891 and oddly enough their first offering was a birch beer soda. Boylan uses cane sugar in all their varieties. I have always appreciated their vintage styling but am not a fan of all their flavors.

This posting relates to one of my favorites from Boylan, their Cane Cola. It has a sugary cola scent and is one of the sweetest tasting colas I can remember drinking in a long time. The cola flavor isn't as deep as Coca-Cola, and yet it still seems like just the right balance. There is a very tiny metallic after-taste but most would probably not notice that unless they really took their time savoring it. The sweetness of the cane sugar and level of acidity are very close to the taste of Royal Crown Cola. I can tell you that there is something about the finish of this drink that isn't easy to pinpoint and yet strangely makes me think of smoke-filled flea markets and I have no idea why. I should note that most cola's obtain their caffeine from the kola nut, which is a natural source of caffeine, but strangely the label on this cola makes mention that the caffeine is from coffee. It makes me wonder if this affects the flavor in any way. Either way, if it was possible to make this soda zero calorie without sacrificing an iota of it's flavor I'd probably be drinking more of it. If I'm ever able to locate their Diet Cane Cola I'll just have to put that to the test.

Crush Cherry

It seems like all sodas with a fruit flavored line up started with orange, and Crush is no different. And just like Fanta, Crush now has a wide variety of flavors, though many are only available in specific regions. Crush began in 1916 as Ward's Orange Crush but is currently owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

This was my first taste of Crush Cherry. I found it at a small gas station during one of my forays into downtown for work. Any time I need to pull off the road for a quick stop or have a few minutes to kill I like to pop my head into small gas stations along the highway or in parts of town I don't often frequent because you never know what they are going to have in their refrigerators. I have found everything from obscure glass bottled sodas to my first tastes of Fanta Pineapple.  So if you're looking for something different I advise you to do the same.

I found Crush Cherry to have the scent of grenadine and an average level of carbonation, maybe even a bit on the low level for a plastic bottled soda. It has a very rich cherry flavoring that might even make some people sick after drinking too much. It's similar to drinking cherry flavored candy. I know I've used that analogy before but sometimes the sweetness of a beverage only lends itself to that kind of connection. All in all it's not a bad departure for someone that already enjoys cherry cola.

China Cola

China Cola was developed by the Hangzhou Wahaha Group of Hangzhou, China in 1998. Hangzhou Wahaha focuses on the food and beverage industry and China Cola takes third in market share in China behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In China the product is sold as "Future Cola" and uses a nationalist marketing campaign by naming it "The Chinese people's own cola". In America, China Cola is a licensed product of Reed's, Inc., which makes several beverages of its own. The bottle seen here to the left shows a bit of an asian theme. In China, where the copyright laws are more lax the packaging resembles that of Coca-Cola.

There is no sudden release of carbonation when opening a bottle of China Cola but you can still feel the effervescence in your mouth. Unlike some colas this drink has a rather light cola aroma. Upon first taste I find it to have a pleasing cola flavor with a very light herbal finish. There is no herbal after-taste but you will be able to taste it in the finish as it passes the rear of the tongue when you swallow. Among the cane sugar, this cola also contains an interesting variety of ingredients including: szechuan peony root, cassia bark, malaysian vanilla, oil of lemon, lime and orange, nutmeg, cloves, licorice, and cardamon. The herbal finish I mentioned earlier definitely tastes of nutmeg and cloves of which I am so familiar with due to my penchant for pumpkin pie. The list of included herbs were, according to Reed's, chosen for "their effect on digestion and the liver". In researching the ingredients it appears that peony root is believed to relax muscles, cleanse the blood and act as an emotional stabilizer. Cassia is a cinnamon tree, and may have some effects on blood sugar. In traditional Chinese medicine, cassia is considered one of the fifty fundamental herbs. Cardamon, also called cardamom, is of the ginger family and used as an antiseptic, antispasmodic, and digestive among other things. Nutmeg is often used to lower blood pressure or soothe stomach aches and generally to detox the body. Nutmeg is often used as an analgesic and is believed to prevent blood clots. Overall, I'm a fan of this drink's distinct flavor. It isn't overpowering but more "flowery", a good blend. I would definitely suggest trying some if you have a chance.

In the future I will be reviewing Cherry China Cola.

Abita Root Beer

Abita Root Beer is interesting in the fact that it comes from a beer brewery. Abita Brewing Company started in Abita Springs, Louisiana in 1986 by brewing beer using the town's artesian well water. They now have several different flavors and in 1995 began brewing a non-alcoholic root beer with local cane sugar.

I like the look of this bottle. The label makes me think of 1920's-30's advertising. Abita has a little less carbonation than some root beers, but a rich aroma. The ingredients don't list a specific root extract, merely "root beer flavor". It has a heavy flavor and tingles the tongue perfectly. It is a pretty basic American root beer, but would go well with any vanilla tinged dessert, including a heavy dollop of ice cream if you're a root beer float fan. The heaviness of this root beer will leave you sated by the end so sip slowly and enjoy.

Cricket White Peach

Cricket released it's first soda beverage in 2002 with an aim to make a cola healthier than your average soda. Their soda's contain no phosphoric acids, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors or artificial colors. Their sodas are also enhanced with 2 cups of green tea.

Today I am tasting their White Peach variety for the first time. My first impression upon opening was a nice carbonation release. A nice amount of carbonation, which is different since I find fruitier flavors tend to have less carbonation than your colas and root beers. It has a nice peachy aroma. You can also tell right away that their claims of no artificial flavors are true because there is actual fruit pulp in this drink. It's not orange juice pulp, but there is fruit sediment in the drink when means you should tip the bottle before opening to let it mix, but don't shake it. I am not one for drinking tea, hot or iced, and this drink has a definite tea finish. After the fruit flavor passes the tongue you will taste the tea in the mix. I have to say though that the novelty of a peach soda offers a nice change. It instantly reminds me of hot summers as a kid with a bowl of cold fruit salad. I image this would be a great drink for a hot July afternoon.

Pig Iron Cola

Today's selection is Pig Iron Cola. This bottle came from a random selection I bought from Galco's. In trying to find out more about this brand I visited the website listed on the bottle for Pig Iron BBQ, which is the home page for a Barbecue joint in Seattle, WA. There is no information whatsoever on their site about the cola and it doesn't even appear on the menu posted there. Even a Google search turns up squat.

**** The following paragraph was added 3/27 ****

I contacted Celeste Lucas from Pig Iron BBQ who tells me that they developed this drink with Orca Beverages in 2006 because they were no longer able to get RC Cola in glass bottles in their region. Celeste says, "We wanted a cola that had plenty of carbonation and was sweetened with real sugar, also needed to have a bit of a bite... not too sweet and that complimented our barbeque. We really like soda out of [sic] bottle, it tastes better and has a nostalgic feel." She also informed me that while it is primarily sold out of the restaurant, Orca also distributes it to the rest of the US.

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This is a cola with a greater than average carbonation level. When twisting the cap it's always nice to hear the gases within sound as if they were being released by NASA and it tingles nicely on the tongue. As for the taste, it is very much like Pepsi so no surprises with weird herbs or after tastes. I like a cola with a heavier beef or pork meal so I can imagine it goes nicely with a pulled pork sandwich or some brisket. I also find that the acids in colas cleanse the palate from heavy sauces well, I like to imagine they "burn off" the particles in the mouth rather than merely rinse them away like a lighter beverage. As for the packaging... What's not to love about an ugly pig winking at you? Now, if I'm in Seattle I'll have to try their BBQ with another bottle.

Mason's Root Beer

First introduced in 1947 by Mason & Mason, Inc. of Chicago, Mason's Root Beer is one of a handful of classic American root beers. In the 1970's the Rheingold Corporation purchased Mason & Mason, Inc and in 1975 was Rheingold was acquired by Pepsi Co. The Federal Trade Commission forced Pepsi Co to sell off some of it's holdings and so in 1978 Mason's was sold to Monarch Beverage. Monarch had purchased Dad's Root Beer in 1986 and subsequently ended the production of Mason's Root Beer.

Although shelved by Monarch, it is possible to to procure Mason's from a company called Real Soda which licenses and recreates some older brand sodas. Danny Ginsburg started collecting bottle caps much like me as a kid and in his efforts to collect more caps began traveling around buying bottled sodas. Danny founded Real Soda as a distributor of bottled sodas and grew to the point that he began licensing older brands to recreate, bottle and sell as well.

The aroma of Mason's is rich and bold with a lower carbonation level than usual for a root beer. It tastes like an old-fashioned root beer and would be more at home in a root beer float than some root beers I've tasted. I can pick up a small hint of a licorice-like finish but it doesn't ruin the flavor. Over all it's a good root beer, not great, but good.

Ruby Red Squirt

Ruby Red Squirt is a citrus flavored drink and I may be getting ahead of myself by discussing a spinoff before the original but as fate would have it, I had a bottle of Ruby Red Squirt around. The Squirt brand has changed hands several times over the years and is currently produced under the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group umbrella of products. Ruby Red was introduced in 1993 and is labeled as a citrus-berry flavor. The drink has the citrus scent you'd expect from a citrus soda and I found it to have a slightly higher amount of carbonation than your average soda. It has a sweet grapefruit flavor without the pucker-inducing tartness. While they may have intended this to be a different flavor, in my opinion the difference from original Squirt in flavor is pretty negligible, however Ruby Red includes caffeine, which the original does not. That being said, it is a good choice for those who drink soda with breakfast or are looking for a mid-morning refreshing beverage.