Fruit Soda

Spindrift: Cranberry Raspberry

History: Remember when you were young and you’d make mom really mad? Remember that motherly rage? The kind of anger you wouldn’t even unleash on prison inmates? Well, Bill Creelman didn’t have a monster mom. But he did have one who did not care for soda. He hardly ever drank it. Bummer, I know. She was more of a farm-to-table gal. Creelman couldn’t enjoy all the little treasures you and I did. That might be why later in life, for six years, he became addicted to Diet Coke. Then with kids of his own, they took notice. Not so healthy, dad. So in 2010, the dude made his own soda… with a twist. It all started in a little studio-sized office in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Creelman felt the market was stagnant. He wanted to make a soda that was healthy enough to impress his mom and delicious enough to satisfy his kids. That’s why Spindrift soda is all about the ingredients, specifically the fresh-pressed juices in every bottle. The company isn’t afraid to spend more as long as what they put inside the bottle is of a higher quality. “That’s what sets Spindrift apart,” says company brand manager, Caitlin Burke. For example, in each bottle of Cranberry Raspberry, there’s 16 raspberries. Even for people who don’t wear plaid or shop exclusively at Whole Foods, that’s eye-raising. According to Burke, Spindrift tries “to remain faithful to the fruit.” They claim to be the first widely distributed soda to use fresh juice as the second main ingredient behind carbonated water. And listen, if you aren’t a soda manufacturer, you’re probably not aware how difficult it is to bottle soda with fresh juice. It’s essentially a chemistry nightmare. In Creelman’s own words, “It turned out to be a disaster…. I ended up spending 5x what I budgeted.” Sounds like every girl I’ve ever dated. Eventually, they got it right. Today the Boston, Massachusetts-based (they moved) company produces seven flavors of soda, if you include their new ginger beer. Even their name was chosen to evoke thoughts of freshness. Creelman used to work down on the docks and sailboats. That fine, refreshing mist you feel when out on the ocean; it’s called Spindrift. That’s a pretty solid pitch, so we decided to put it in our mouths.

Where to get: Spindrift is most popular around the Boston metro and surrounding area. But it’s also distributed nationally. To find the nearest retail location, use the Spindrift store locator. If you’re out of luck there, you can buy it online via Famous Foods.

Nose: Smells exactly like someone put a bowl of blue raspberry jolly ranchers down in front of your nose and then drizzled some raspberry jam on top. Definitely brings back childhood memories. I’ve got the tingles – we’re off to a good start.

Taste: Raspberry; tart carbonation; mellow cranberry; light sugar. Very light and refreshing. As expected with these two fruits, this is more tart than an average fruit soda, but it’s a mild tartness that doesn’t hinder the flavor profile. It actually adds to the taste. The two fruits really do shine through in the soda. Raspberry is upfront, initially sweet and then quickly retracting into a more reserved form. If you’ve ever blended raspberries for a smoothie and tried them before mixing with the other ingredients, that’s what the raspberry flavor in this is like. In short: fresh. As a whole, this is soda with noticeably less sugar. Looking at the label confirms this at only 16 grams a bottle. Normally, most sodas contain somewhere between 30-45 grams. The cranberry lingers on the back of the tongue after the initial raspberry blast. It’s much more subtle, yet noticeable. Raspberry is the flavor you’ll remember from this soda.

Finish: Ground raspberries with no sugar and a lingering tartness that comes from the cranberries.

Rating: As people become more self-aware of what they put in their bodies, the beverage industry continues to shift… or spin. Ahem, sorry. People want fresh ingredients. They want real ingredients. They want less sugar. But they don’t want to compromise flavor. This is a continuous challenge for bottlers to evolve with the times. Spindrift is at the forefront of this new natural movement when it comes to soda. While many new bottlers are popping up with these same aspirations, Spindrift is already doing it on a national level. I don’t often shop at Whole Foods and I’m not sure if they carry Spindrift, but you gotta think these sodas would be like porn to those people. You can taste the fruit in Spindrift’s Cranberry Raspberry soda. Hell, you can see it if you just shake up the bottle. Cranberry Raspberry is highlighted by a fresh, crushed raspberry base with mild tartness and followed up by cranberry with its own variety of tongue tingles. Some may long for more cranberry flavor and others may not love the amount of acidity in this, but we’re talking about two fairly tart fruits. What’d you expect, ya weirdo? I thought this would be more like a spritzer or a fresh fruit-infused sparkling water, but I was wrong. I’ll break it down. It’s tart, but not sour. Light, but has enough sugar to keep you comfortable with calling it a soda. And natural, but not too pompous. This is perfect for the hot summer months out by the pool and crisp enough to compliment a hefty meal. If you’re into good fruit sodas, you’ll enjoy this. If you’re not into fruit, you won’t, and I also wouldn’t recommend vacationing in the tropics. Raspberry is often used as a secondary flavor in soda. It’s nice to see someone pull it off in a staring role.

Apple Beer

History: Throw your knickers on and bang your mugs together, ‘cuz it’s Apple Beer season in America. First of all, Apple Beer is not literally apple-flavored beer and contains no alcohol. In fact, it was designed long ago by northeast German “biermeisters” for those who didn’t fancy themselves a fine ale. So what is it, exactly? According to Apple Beer’s marketing director, Ashley Simmons, “Apple Beer’s flavor comes from an all-natural blend of fruit and herb extracts” with a flavor profile designed to be “light, crisp, and dry.” It has a foamy head, like a beer, and gets its crisp flavor from the peel of the apple. Don’t expect much beyond that. We tried and were greeted with the response “We can’t offer too many details.” That’s cool. I have secrets too. But legally, I’m not allowed to share them with you. With humble beginnings in Germany, today the beverage is exported around the world, from Australia to Curaçao. Apple Beer’s American debut came in 1964 in the “Intermountain West.” In this case, that means Salt Lake City, Utah. Apple Beer still maintains its peak popularity throughout western America. For you nostalgia enthusiasts, Simmons might tickle your warm and fuzzies by letting you know that “We have always been a family-owned business.” The family business is currently in its fourth generation. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to try Apple Beer, consider this: it has won the Best of State beverage award for Utah every year since 2010, including this year. It’s designed to be an all-natural antithesis to syrupy soda and is made with cane sugar and without gluten… so you can keep your fedoras on, hipsters. “With a half-century of experience, we have become a tradition in the lives of our many loyal customers,” says Simmons. Let’s see if they’re about to score some more loyalty.

Where to get: Apple Beer is distributed internationally and, obviously, across the U.S. To find the nearest retail location near you, use Apple Beer’s locator. It’s also sold online. For singles, try Soda Emporium. For 12-packs, hit up Apple Beer’s online store.

Nose: Acidic apple juice.

Taste: Apple; tartness; fig; raisin. First of all, no this doesn’t taste like beer or apple-flavored beer. That said, it does taste like apple, though the flavor isn’t what I’d call robust. Somewhere in the middle. Much closer to a carbonated cider than anything else, but not enough fizz to call it a sparkling cider. The apple flavor comes through in a burst at the beginning of each sip and is quickly followed by a cutting tartness that rides the back of your tongue likes surfer bros catching a wave. This is a dry beverage. The flavor profile is rounded out with notes of fig and raisin. Not totally sure where those come from. The ingredient label doesn’t list any spices, just “natural flavors,” but the fruitiness provides a nice balance to go along with the apple cider taste.

Finish: Tart apple cider that lingers for a few seconds, then fades.

Rating: Apple Beer is solid. It’s that friend you know you can count on at the end of the night to be your DD after you’ve stopped caring about how much your tab is going to be at the bar. Its flavor is unmistakably fall; it’s a crisply carbonated apple cider-esque soda you should be drinking as the leaves change color. So, of course, we reviewed it in July. Just a note: Apple Beer’s biggest season is actually summer, so I obviously know nothing. Apple Beer’s flavor also comes along with an acidic bite. Probably a little bit too much for me. I’d prefer to have seen the apple flavor increased and the tartness decreased. I also got some additional tasting notes of fig and raisin, and though I can’t place why, they were the best parts of the soda. This is definitely worth a try because it has a nice, familiar flavor that takes you straight to autumn. I’d estimate its likability will always be highest in summer and fall. In our opinion, this is cold weather soda. Revisit this in October.

Swamp Pop: Ponchatoula Rouge

History: Ponchatoula, Louisiana is allegedly the “strawberry capital” of the world. And for the Lousiana boys down at Swamp Pop, c’mon, that’s a lob pass. A quick history lesson: Swamp Pop is a double entendre as both the name of the company and a classic Louisiana style of music. It sort of sounds like the blues meets honky-tonk meets 50’s rock. It was a no-brainer for cousins John Petersen and Colin Cormier to introduce America to a little cajun hospitality, and bottle the state fruit in soda form. They call their strawberry soda Ponchatoula Pop Rouge. But the inspiration is a little more sentimental than the obvious. Petersen explains, “Our grandmother would call all ‘red pops’ pop rouge,” so there’s a nostalgia factor involved too. One of Swamp Pop’s two seasonal sodas, it’s designed to be enjoyed in the heat. It isn’t engineered to be your typical strawberry soda, either. This is supposed to be a lighter, more natural tasting take on strawberry. Petersen goes on to explain Pop Rouge was introduced in 2014 and “features a variety of different natural strawberry flavors. Some lend sweetness, some a slight sourness, some help to create just the right aroma, and they all work together to create a very fresh, true-to-the-fruit flavor.” What he’s trying to say is that this is sophisticated strawberry soda. This is the strawberry soda you hide from your friends and the strawberry soda you cheat on the others with. And for those who can’t stay off the other bottle for too long, Petersen has you covered, adding Pop Rogue “makes an awesome mimosa when you add it to Champagne.”

Where to get: Swamp Pop is mostly sold along the gulf coast region and is national to some extent. Cost Plus World Market carries their sodas. You can also buy it directly from their web site. To find the nearest retail location near you, use the company’s online locator. Remember, this one’s seasonal, so get on it!

Nose: Strawberry sour punch straws; strawberries. Fruity. As Peterson puts it, this is an “olfactory experience.” I’ll be honest, I only included that so I could get the word “olfactory” in. Great vernacular. Some of you will need a dictionary.

Taste: Tart carbonation; sweet strawberries. Pop Rouge is anchored by a refreshing, crisp strawberry flavor. There’s just the right amount of sweetness to tartness, I’d say it’s about 80:20. A flood of tiny little bubbles enter the mouth first. The carbonation is intense but brief and accompanied by a little bit of acidity that peaks and then transitions into a sweet strawberry flavor. The strawberry flavor profile is simple, yet rich. It’s not exactly like biting into a fresh strawberry. As you’d expect with soda, it’s a little sweeter, but the most noticeable tasting elements to the strawberry flavor are the mild undertones of sour citrus. Bite into a real strawberry and you’ll taste the same thing. This is a strawberry soda that leans much more toward a real, sweet strawberry than a strawberry candy of some type. Its flavor lingers on the tongue longer than most sodas in a pleasing way.

Finish: Tart strawberries sprinkled with sugar.

Rating: Ponchatoula Pop Rouge is one of the best strawberry sodas on the craft soda market today. I’m hard-pressed to name a better one. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say Pop Rouge is in the top tier of fruit sodas in general. Why? It’s simple, light, and flavorful. That’s all you can ask of a fruit soda. It’s a strawberry soda with a fancy name and it tastes like a strawberry soda with a fancy flavor. You can taste that real Ponchatoula Strawberry flavor, tartness and all. It has a nice balance of mostly sweet with a little sour and a nice flavor that lingers pleasantly. No syrupy, fake strawberry taste. It just works. It’s true to its roots. This is like your friend’s good-looking dad who has a beard and wears flannel, except he actually plays the part and and cuts down trees down instead of my dad who has a beard and wears flannel who looks like he wants to lure you to his van. According to Swamp Pop’s website, Ponchatoula Strawberries are the official fruit of Louisiana. They even have a festival for them down there. When you drink Swamp Pop’s seasonal strawberry soda, you’ll be celebrating too. Just don’t wait too long. This one’s only around in the Spring and Summer

Norka Beverage: Cherry-Strawberry

History: You’ve probably heard of Akron, Ohio… because that’s the hometown of LeBron James. But it’s also the home of Norka Beverage, a soda brand of which the city was proud. Note the past tense. Norka dates all the way back to 1924 and operated up until 1962 when it was liquidated. So how did we get here? Enter Michael Considine, a proud Akron resident with a history in the beverage industry. One day while at lunch with his father, Considine noticed an old bottle with its original label. He enjoyed his current job, but started thinking… what if. With the popularity of craft soda on the rise, the appeal of bringing an old classic back into the modern age was too much to turn down. “I had no idea Akron had its own soft drink,” he said. “It was a cool opportunity to bring something back in the beverage industry.” Considine started researching. He eventually tracked down the old ingredients lists and updated them for the current consumer market. Norka Beverage made its return to the world of glass-bottled soda in early 2015 with Considine as its new founder and president. The company uses only natural flavors and cane sugar while prohibiting caffeine and gluten from their sodas. Norka brought back four of the company’s original flavors: root beer, orange soda, ginger ale, and cherry-strawberry. And it’s the latter flavor that the company was founded on, the one we review today. According to Considine, Norka worked tirelessly to get it as close to the original as possible. They even conducted focus groups with people 70+ years-old who still remembered the original taste. And beyond all the details, no one really makes a cherry-strawberry soda hybrid. We couldn’t pass that up. Norka’s tagline is “Tastes better.” We’re about to find out how true that is.

Where to get: Norka Beverage sodas are sold throughout the Akron regional area and sporadically on the west coast in addition to high-volume craft soda retailers like Antiqology and Pop’s Soda Ranch. You can get your fix online via the Norka website or Amazon.

Nose: Absolute dead-ringer for Kool-Aid Bursts Tropical Punch. We used to call them “squeeze-its.” 90’s me is freaking out right now. Also a faint strawberry scent at the very end.

Taste: Cherry popsicles; mild tartness; cherry snow cone; Luden’s Wild Cherry Cough Drops (don’t tell me you didn’t love those as a kid. If you didn’t, I’ll fight you). This is more cherry than strawberry, for the better I’d say. The cherry flavor is very old fashioned, reminiscent of sucking out the cherry juice from a popsicle or a snow cone. It’s also a little tart and acidic, just enough to where the bite is enjoyable. This has a distinctive crispness, both in flavor and carbonation. Very drinkable. There is a mild strawberry flavor to this soda that floats about the flavor profile, but it mostly hangs in the background. One flavor that is very distinctive to me is the Luden’s Cherry Cough Drops I previously mentioned. That might seem like a weird reference, but I mean it in the best way. I ate those even when I wasn’t sick. If I had some, I would right now. Actually, is Walgreen’s still open?

Finish: Sweet candy cherry with a note of mild strawberry that’s very delayed. You won’t get it unless you wait about 10-15 seconds until the next sip.

Rating: This is straight-up delicious. One of the driving forces behind craft soda is nostalgia. It’s a term that gets thrown around often, usually referencing the glass bottle the liquid comes in or a retro label. But this is a soda that tastes old fashioned. This tastes like soda you used to drink as a kid, that your parents used to drink as kids. There’s a rich, old school candy cherry soda flavor with a little bit of acidity. That tartness is critical to the soda’s nostalgic flavor and gives it not only a really pleasing taste, but also a fun mouth feel. It also imparts a refreshing crispness to the soda that adds to its drinkability. This is a soda with which you’d have no problem rampaging through. Kind of like when my wife gets a hold of my credit card. The only knock on this, and it’s a minor one, is the strawberry. It doesn’t really come through that much. Personally, I like it that way, but consumers may be expecting a balance of the two flavors, and this is heavily on the cherry side. However, you could argue the strawberry flavor is part of the reason for the soda’s mild tartness. This is one of the more drinkable sodas we’ve come across in some time. Light, refreshing, crisp and full of old school cherry flavor. Norka Beverage is a blast from the past repackaged into the present, and what’s most important: they’ve preserved the authenticity of the brand’s flavors. You can taste it. This is one in which you should invest.

Death Valley Soda: Sour Green Apple

History: “We’ve been brewing beers for 20 years, but I’ve been brewing soda for 25 years,” says Rick Lovett, beer and soda brewmaster of Indian Wells Brewing Company. Lovett probably makes more soda than any independent bottler in the world. He’s currently trying to get up to 200 flavors spread out over various brands. He even wants to make the Guinness Book of World Records for it. But among all the concoctions, his signature line is the six-flavor deep, Death Valley Soda. Indian Wells Brewery is located in Inyokern, California, a small city tucked away in the hot, dessert climate of rural California, thus the name Death Valley Soda and the cowboy-influenced label. “It wasn’t any master plan. It just made sense,” Lovett jokes. The most unique flavor in the Death Valley Soda line? Sour Green Apple. Over the phone, Lovett recalls a story of his young grandson playing outside and sucking on a Green Apple Jolly Rancher. He reached his little hand up to his mouth, pulled out the candy, looked at his grandpa and said, “Popa, can you make this into soda?” Turns out he could. Death Valley Sour Green Apple is made with pure cane sugar and real Granny Smith Apples, as well as McIntoch and Pink Lady. As with all Indian Wells products, the soda’s most unique element is the water used in making it. The Indian Wells Spring is actually owned by the brewery. Its water is filtered through million of feet of granite; according to Lovett, thousands of gallons spill out to the surface every day. But the soda’s most noticeable feature is undoubtedly its bright green color that is remarkably 100% natural with no food dye used. If you think that’s hard to believe, you aren’t the only one. In order for Whole Foods to carry the soda, the natural goods supermarket made Indian Wells Brewing hire professionals to provide an independent chemical analysis on the product to prove the color was authentic. Wild stuff. “All of America is waking up,” Lovett says of the rise in popularity of soda made with quality ingredients. “I wouldn’t have produced a soda pumped up with additives and then given it to my grandson.” I understand, Rick. Now I’m about to pump this soda into me.

Where to get: Death Valley Soda is available for purchase at Rocketfizz retailers. You can get your fix online at Amazon for 12-packs. There are also online retailers selling individual bottles, but at the time of this review all were sold out. Give it a Google.

Nose: Green apple Jolly Ranchers; fresh-sliced Granny Smith Apples.

Taste: Green Apple Airheads; cane sugar. This is light. It certainly tastes like candy green apple. But the sour flavor that the label advocates is not present. A little bit of bitterness near the end that may come from the spices Death Valley uses, but no sour notes. The carbonation is soft. You can taste the cane sugar, but you can also taste some of the water’s influence in this drink. This is definitely very light, both in flavor and mouth feel.

Finish: Slightly bitter green apple. Definitely more of a bitter than sour sensation on the tongue.

Rating: Your nose and eyes always set the expectation for any soda. It shouldn’t just taste delicious; it should smell good. Whatever’s written on that label will also inevitably sway you. This smelled like Jolly Ranchers, and the word “sour” on the label would indicate there’s going to be some tartness. I anticipated this tasting like liquid sour green apple candy, hopefully with some fresh apple notes. That’s not what you get. The sour, tartness, bite – whatever you want to call it; it’s not there. You get some bitter notes on the finish, but there’s no punch to this. It’s light. A little too light. You definitely get a nice candy green apple taste in the flavor profile, but I was promised sour and did not get it. This is a beautiful green color. One of the prettier sodas in hue I’ve come across. But I feel like I got lied to here. If this was labeled “green apple” as opposed to “sour green apple,” I’d maybe rate this higher. If you enjoy apple-flavored things or are just a big proponent of fruit sodas, this is worth a shot. If you’re looking for something that makes the sour detectors on the back of your tongue flash red, you won’t find it here. Death Valley has made a fine apple soda, but the name on the label needs a little work.

Mount Angel Brewing Company: Marionberry

History: Root Beer Larry, they call him. Nestled all the way up in Mount Angel, Oregon, Larry Oien’s family has roots in the root beer business. Back in the day, his dad’s cousin was on the board for A&W. Oien has been running Mount Angel Brewing Company since 2005 from “a German agricultural city” of just over 3,000 people, as he puts it. Oddly enough, there’s a barbecue connection here. So if you love soda, Germany, and smoked meats, keep your pants on, buddy. Oien and his brother Hal purchased Mount Angel Brewing Company from the Treager family so they could focus more on their barbecue grill business. The Treager’s used to brew beer and serve food at Mount Angel. Oien and his brother dropped the beer and food, but kept the name. So even though it’s called a “brewing company,” they do not brew beer. They do, however, make four different flavors, including their award-winning root beer. Ironically enough, the award was won at a beer competition. One of those flavors: marionberry. If you aren’t from Oregon, you probably don’t know what it is. We had to make sure it was a real thing. It is, and it’s very similar to a blackberry, though not quiiiiite the same. Oien notes, “They’re quite similar. Blackberry has a more definitive berry flavor, and marionberry is milder.” Along with two other soon-to-be-revealed flavors, Oien calls marionberry one of the “flavors of the Willamette Valley.” All of Mount Angel’s sodas are made with pure cane sugar, and natural extracts concocted in Wisconsin by a food scientist. Oien says it took about a year to get the marionberry flavor right in this soda. One thing Root Beer Larry is not a fan of in many sodas today? Too many bubbles. He adds “Everything is so dang carbonated. Drink it with some air. Savor the flavor.”

Where to get: “I’ve touched every bottle twice. I’ve bottled them, cased them up and delivered them to you personally,” Oien chuckles over the phone. As you can imagine, Mount Angel is a small operation. The company sells its sodas through the greater Oregon area. They’re also available online via the company’s website.

Nose: Blue raspberry Dum Dums; blackberries.

Taste: Blackberry; mild blue raspberry; grape. There’s a very distinctive sweet candy blackberry flavor that begins on the tongue and then transitions to a mild grape taste. The carbonation is nice and soft throughout the body of each sip. There are hints of blue raspberry throughout the drink, though definitely more blackberry. The blue raspberry flavor, though, does provide the slightest bit of tartness for a balanced mouth feel.

Finish: I’m definitely tasting a grape influence at the end of each sip. I don’t necessarily think there’s any grape flavor added, so it’s an interesting flavor to appear here.

Rating: Upon smelling this, it reminds me of the same blue raspberry smell present in High Mountain Huckleberry from Jackson Hole. Mount Angel Brewing Company’s Marionberry Soda is definitely more heavy on the berry side of things than the former. There is a distinctive blackberry taste in this soda that’s accompanied by notes of old-time grape and a tinge of blue raspberry tartness. Blackberry dominates the flavor profile and delights on the tongue. The levels of sugar and carbonation in this are just right. Enough to encourage repeat sipping without overpowering the soda’s main flavors. With so many soda flavors on the market today, we often find ourselves trying them and then moving on, never to return. Reminds me of my date last week. I’m still free any this weekend… if you’re reading this. Mount Angel Brewing Company has created a beverage you could enjoy sitting in your room on your laptop or with a meal after a long day at work. That grape flavor at the end of each drink is a little bit of a mystery. I wouldn’t mind seeing it curtailed a bit and letting the blackberry ride all the way through each sip. But this is a soda most should enjoy, particularly fans of fruit and/or berry-flavored sodas. Besides, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a marionberry soda anywhere else.

Wurst Soda: Grape

History: If the mid-south U.S.A. and German Oktoberfest has a child, Mike Sloan would be their spawn. Look at that guy. You wanna be friends with that guy. In his spare time, he enjoys “collecting antique sausage-making equipment.” In fact, Sloan has been in the meat business since he was nine years-old and worked for his parents’ Swiss Meat Sausage Company for 42 years in Swiss, Missouri. In 2011, he decided it was time to create his own legacy in the industry, so Sloan began Hermann Wurst Haus in 2011, cooking up homemade sausages, brats, and bacon. Dude makes 45 flavors of bratwurst and 12 flavors of bacon, among other things. All located in Hermann, Missouri, about an hour west of St. Louis. It’s an area rich in German heritage and culture, and also home to lots of wine makers. And with all that salty meat, you gotta wash it down with something. So in 2014, Sloan introduced Wurst Craft Sodas, “The Wurst Sodas You’ve Ever Had.” Hell of a tag line. Hopefully not literal. Hermann Wurst Haus produces five traditional soda flavors: root beer, cream soda, orange, grape, and black cherry. “These are the sodas you grew up on,” Sloan adds. All sodas are made with pure cane sugar and strive for an “old-time rich, soda fountain flavor.” Today’s review, grape soda, is modeled after old-fashioned grape Kool-Aid.

Where to get: Currently, all Hermann Wurst Haus sodas are only sold in-store, located at 234 E 1st St, Hermann, MO 65041. You might want to pop in. They just received a Tripadvisor 2015 Award of Excellence.

Nose: Grape Dimetapp. Yes, I know this is a medicine, but don’t tell me as a child you didn’t love both the smell and taste of Dimetapp. I would’ve partaken even if I wasn’t sick.

Taste: Grape Nehi; sugar; grape popsicle. Pretty traditional grape soda flavor. Definitely can see the grape Kool-Aid influence. Sugary, but doesn’t leave a syrupy taste in the mouth. Tastes like a grape popsicle from which you’ve sucked out all the juice. The carbonation is soft and nice. Nothing complicated about this.

Finish: Sweet old-fashioned grape soda taste. No difference between the body, finish, or aftertaste.

Rating: This is as straightforward as it gets with fruit soda. Everyone knows what classic grape soda tastes like, and this is it. It’s definitely nothing like the more natural version made by Waynesville Soda Jerks. This is sweet, sugary, classic grape soda. This is your country neighbor in the log cabin next door. He’s not the smartest. He’s not the cutest. But damn, he can chop that wood in a reliable and timely fashion. You can count on him and you can count on Wurst Grape Soda. It’s not the best grape soda we’ve tried, but you probably won’t regret having one every now and then. Maybe drink it with a sausage. For once in my life, I can say that seems fitting in this instance.

Reed’s: Spiced Apple Brew

History: “I wanted to dose the world with ginger.” That was the mission of Chris Reed when he founded Reed’s, Inc. Surely you’ve heard of Reed’s for their famous ginger beer in green glass bottles, or as they call it “ginger brew,” due to several juices and spices not often found in traditional ginger beers. Reed himself is all about ginger. He’s also all about promoting wellness through food and beverage. That’s actually the real reason Reed’s beverages exist. He notes he spent hours upon hours researching the healing properties of ginger deep within the UCLA library. In doing so, he “came across old-world recipes for brewing tonics and soft drinks.” With so much ginger knowledge bottled up inside him, in 1989, Reed decided putting that knowledge in a different bottle, one he could sell to the public. Today Reed’s Inc. sells a variety of ginger brews, including the Spiced Apple Brew we’re reviewing today. They also have since purchased the top-selling natural root beer and cola lines in Virgil’s and China Cola. According to Reed, his company owns the top four best-selling natural sodas. Every single soda the company brews is free of preservatives, caffeine, gluten and GMOs. You can likely pick one up in your local health food store. I once dated a girl who worked in a health food store. There was definitely nothing natural about her. Today we sample one of Reed’s more atypical offerings in Spiced Apple Brew. The company’s fifth creation, the Spiced Apple Brew is a mulled cider with 8 grams of ginger and 50% (!!!) juice. Cinnamon, honey and apple pie spices are also major player ingredients as well. “In the Caribbean, ginger beers are a Christmas celebration drink,” Reed adds. I’m ready to celebrate this in my mouth.

Where to get: Reed’s sodas are nationally distributed throughout the U.S. To find the nearest location where you can buy a bottle, check out their store locator. If you prefer sitting in your underwear at home, Amazon has you covered.

Nose: Apple cider. It’s unmistakable. The kind you drink at the old time fairs in late November right as it becomes jacket season. God, am I getting sentimental? Am I going to cry?

Taste: Apple pie; cinnamon; spices; ginger. There’s a lot going on for the taste buds to process here, but once you do, it’s really nice. The carbonation in this is tart due to all the spices. You get that briefly before anything else. It quickly fades into this soda’s trademark blend of spices. We taste nutmeg, cloves, maybe a little allspice, and definitely cinnamon. This tastes like apple pie. Some of those spices you also find in pumpkin pie, and your taste buds may trick you into thinking this is a little pumpkin-y too. But it’s just the spices. The ginger in this soda gives it a nice tinge of tartness near the backend, but the main flavors that come through are those spices. There’s also a nice balance of lemon and apple juices that play really well together, and with the cinnamon. Finally, the sweetness from the honey in this is really great for a spiced beverage. Not too sweet, but enough to keep the bold spice flavors in check.

Finish: Apple pie crust with a smooth, but lightly tart honey-apple juice taste. Excellent replay value.

Rating: This is the quintessential fall beverage you drink with your friends out around the fire pit with some blankets. Then when you get really cozy, have another with spiced rum. Repeat until night night time. It’s absolutely killer. But on it’s own, Reed’s Spiced Apple Brew is just as spectacular. Some of the best use of spices I’ve ever tasted in a soda. The honey in this really gives it a natural taste. It’s the most underrated ingredient in the bottle and it provides a really smooth drink and finish. The spices are bold, but mesh well with the juices and sweetening agents. I’d recommend enjoying this with a nice meal. Its big flavors would pair well with sustenance. Its rich spices might also cause you to spontaneously grow a bushy mustache. This is the bottled apple pie grandma never gave you. Reed’s is one of the biggest players in the craft soda game today. Their Spiced Apple Brew provides a glimpse at the company’s commitment to flavor and why they’ll likely continue to be a craft soda power for decades to come.