State Fair Mini Doughnut

I came across this bottle on a trip to Kansas City and needed to give it a try. This comes to us from a company called Blue Sun Bottling in Spring Lake, Minnesota. These folks have a series named State Fair Soda with some interesting flavors. Although this bottle is supposedly mini-doughnut flavored, the series also consists of chocolate chip cookies, rocket bomb pop, cotton candy, and kettle corn flavors. Hopefully, I'll be able to find each of these flavors to try in the future because they sound interesting. 

I really like the scent wafting from this bottle after opening. Mini Doughnut could be a number of different flavors since they come in a wide variety of options. The scent however makes me think of cinnamon sugar mini-doughnuts. It's a heavenly scent and now I'm wondering if the taste will be able to meet that. Mmm... it's not really cinnamon flavored, but tastes like freshly made cake doughnuts, without any real powder or frosting... much more like plain cake doughnuts with a slight buttery or fattiness. The taste is something else, very original and delicious. This would make a great dessert drink. 

Ale 81 Orange Cream

Ale 81 has traditionally been well known for their ginger ale-like soda, so I was a little taken aback when I learned they had released additional flavors for the first time around 2018. This orange cream was initially a limited edition release, but brought back as a permanent flavor to their line up. 

The bottle has a crisp carbonation release and presents the aroma of those orange cream sherbet push-pops that I always remember when I smell a nice orange cream soda. It does have a decent orange cream flavor, though it feels a tad weak. Frankly, for a bottle that reads "no artificial flavors" the finish of a swig tastes a bit chemical. So while I consider it a decent effort, in my opinion there are better orange cream sodas if that's the flavor you're after. 

Pepsi Mango

Now we move on to another flavor variation of Pepsi cola with this interesting mango blend. Some of these flavor combos fall flat on their face and I feel like after the years of Pepsi and Coca-Cola both releasing vanilla and lime versions, they both kind of went wild with flavor options. 

It definitely has a citrus rind scent. I would actually venture to say it's less like a refreshing smell and more of a musty smell... but then I can't recall having smelled mango outside of a mixed melon tray. As someone who doesn't eat a lot of melon, I find this drink interesting. It has a pleasant amount of carbonation, which I'm sure helps disseminate the fruit smell. The flavor of mango is strong and hits you right up front. There is still a cola taste but it follows at the end. I could see pairing this with breakfast, as just about any citrus or fruity soda goes well with breakfast dishes in my opinion. Overall it's quite flowery but not unlikeable. It's intriguing and one I'd recommend trying if possible. 

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Soda

I picked up this generic bottle of soda on a trip to a soda shop in Kansas City. It's produced by Rocket Fizz, who also operate a chain of soda and candy stores in North America. 

I honestly always have pretty low expectations from these sort of novelty flavored bottles, particularly the more generically labeled ones. The soda itself has a bit of a cloudy light-brown color, while the scent of it gives me butterscotch vibes. The taste is very off-putting. I immediately get the taste of wet cardboard flushing through my mouth. Only the aftertaste, a few seconds after finishing a swig, gives the slight hint of peanut butter. I have to recommend steering clear of this soda unless you're very curious. 

Fanta ? #WhatTheFanta

A mysterious, radioactive blue option from the folks at Fanta comes to me in this bottle. A variety of Fanta flavors have graced the blog before but this is something unexpected in a mystery flavor. 

Unsealing the cap a strong whiff gives hints of both powdered sugar and something akin to the smell from a bottle of chewable vitamins. I think the flavor is like a blueberry/citrus-cream, though not very nice. Something about the Zero sugar sodas from Coca-Cola always taste off to me. After getting my own impression, I decided to search Twitter for the hashtag on the label... #WhatTheFanta and see that there are different colors available in different areas. I would think perhaps they used the same flavor but just colored them differently? One post mentioned rhubarb, and they might not be incorrect there. It's not forthcoming, but that combined with a cheap cream soda flavor could be a good description. In any case, its not a pleasant flavor in my opinion.

Jones Soda Sugar Cookie

Jones Soda strikes again with another Special Release flavor, this time in the form of Sugar Cookie. This is a bit fitting based on the taste of yesterday's selection. 

A frosty, powder blue color seems fitting for this drink. The scent coming from the bottle isn't that unlike the Coca-Cola Move reviewed yesterday, but there's also the tiniest dash of something that I can't quite place. Is it the smell of a buttercream frosting? It definitely smells like a sugar cookie with frosting on it. The taste on the other hand is almost citrus-like to me. There's something tangy taking over the front of it's flavor. The sugar cookie-like taste is hidden in the background only peeking out in a flash during the finish over the tongue. For that reason, I think this is a bit of a swing and a miss. It was a valiant effort, but the taste can't quite keep pace with the aroma. 

Coca-Cola Move

Following on the footsteps of some of their other recent flavors with mysterious sounding names, such as Dreamworld, I stumbled on this release a few weeks back. I had intended to review it then, when it was first released, but wasn't able to get around to it. There are many other Coca-Cola posts and flavors to be found on this blog as well. Move is a limited edition flavor with the tagline, "Transformation Flavored." So let's see what this flavor has to offer...

Immediately upon opening the lid I get a waft of powdered sugar, like that from biting into a sugar cookie, with a hint of vanilla. The taste does bring to mind a vanilla-like feeling, but it's delicate and slight... not at all like the heavy vanilla flavor of Coke Vanilla. I would even venture to say the finish is a little bit buttery in taste. It isn't at all like what I might have expected from Coca-Cola, but it's a pleasant flavor so would recommend trying a bottle if you can find it before its gone. 

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. 

Appalachian White Birch Beer

This soda comes from the Appalachian Brewing Company, a craft beer and soda brewer based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They operate several brew pubs in the state. They currently bottle five different soda flavors, but offer three more on tap at their locations. 

This bottle carries the smell of a fresh winter snow. Birch beers have a certain woodsy scent combined with that of a soft creaminess. The carbonation is just about right here. The thing I notice about the flavor is that the typical "birchiness" is kind of muted here and I taste a different kind of sweetness. Taking a look at the ingredients they list both cane sugar and honey. I wonder if that strange sweetness is imparted by the honey. Overall, I think this is an okay soda, but not great. I'll be interested to see if I can find any of their other flavors to try in the future. 

Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry

Today I'm taking a taste of a Sprite varietal called Winter Spiced Cranberry. Yesterday's post delved into the history of Sprite, but like many sodas in the last several years, Sprite has introduced a host of flavor mash-ups under its brand name. 

While I rarely eat cranberries themselves, I do enjoy cranberry juice and the flavor of cranberry in other things so I have some high hopes for this one. This bottle has good carbonation but the scent is a little hard to place. I do smell the tiniest inkling of cranberry with a healthy whiff, but also some lemon. It's got a subtle flavor. The sides of my tongue pick up a tart berry flavor, but it feel more like a slight berry blend than straight cranberry. The rest gives me a cool winter-like feeling without being able to tell exactly what that flavor is, but reminds me of potpourri and not in an unpleasant way. Overall though, I think you might be better served just mixing actual cranberry juice with a bottle of regular Sprite and get more of that cranberry goodness.