C&C Golden Peach

With 5 more C&C beverages to go we’re nearing the end of our time with the soda manufacturer.  Today I’ve chosen a personal favorite flavor in world of sodas… peach.  Technically it’s C&C Golden Peach and I will say that adding the adjective “golden” increases m y want factor of this beverage. Look, peaches come from a can.  They were put there by a man.  In a factory downtown.  Then someone tasted those peaches and decided they should be in a soda.  Peach soda is one of those sodas that don’t need to be all natural to be good.  Since C&C is chock full of chemicals as long as this soda has a strong enough flavor and tastes like peach then they should have no issue with me enjoying it.  So let’s take a page from James and jump right on into this giant bottle of peach soda.

The familiar smell of rich, chemically enhanced, peach throws itself down my nostrils.  Like I said before, sometimes the chemicals help the cause and while I enjoy an all-natural soda as much as the next person you can’t discount peach in any form.

This has a uniquely familiar flavor to it.  It tastes like it was made with millions of peaches.  Peaches for me!  Ok, so that reference was forced... it is tasty though.  With all of the other peach sodas I’ve had one of the key traits is how sweet they taste.  C&C Golden Peach seems to understand that sweetness is important with a peach flavor beverage, but not everything.  The tart bite of a peach is what C&C used to fill the left over flavor room they had by not just loading this soda up with sugar.  In doing so I’m treated to a very natural tasting soda in terms of “does this taste like an actual peach”.  Of course it’s not going to replicate it perfectly, but C&C Golden Peach is a very strong entry in the peach soda market.  The excellent flavor is enhanced by the fact that the carbonation levels are strong enough to give your throat a slight burn and not make it seem like you’re just sitting in your house drinking peach syrup out of a can.  Speaking of syrup, the HFCS used in the making of this soda does not weigh heavily in your mouth after each sip.  I’m about a third of the way finished with the bottle and it doesn’t seem to be building on itself that much either.  Could this soda be improved?  Sure it could, it could use natural ingredients, have better bottle art, and be a bit lighter in the mouth feel department.  I’m still going to recommend you pick up multiples of it though.  Look out.

~A

If Twist had his little way he'd eat peaches everyday

C&C Tropical Fruit Punch

Today’s beverage from C&C is looking pretty appetizing to me.  C&C Tropical Fruit Punch is what sits in front of me tempting me with its potentially fruity flavor.  I don’t know what it is about today, but some part of me is craving a carbonated fruit punch beverage with some citrus kick to it and hopefully C&C Tropical Fruit Punch will deliver.  The color looks to be somewhere between bright red and deep red which is a great color for your typical fruit punch.  I never really got behind Hawaiian Punch when they did all their flavors because the colors just seemed off to me.  Blue fruit punch?  That’s like when they tried (and maybe still sell) green ketchup.  You’re not here for my opinions on ketchup though; you’re here for my opinions on soda… and I thank you for that as a ketchup blog would be interesting, but probably short lived.  I wonder if there is a ketchup blog, I’m going to find out. **time passes** It’s not a blog per say, but someone from The Nibble reviewed (or described) 42 brands of ketchup.  I don’t normally link stuff, but this person deserves some mention for trying these ketchups.  What am I doing again?  Oh, yeah!  Hopefully I’m about to drink a delicious Tropical Fruit Punch from C&C.

A sharp citrus scent slowly makes its way out of the mouth of the bottle and gently singes my nose hairs.  I’m not exactly sure how strong or watery this is going to taste.  Of course I’m hoping that this fruit punch will be on the stronger side as we all want to relive that amazing punch that we first had at the Sadie Hawkins dance that no one ever invited us to ever because of no good reason.

Well that’s odd.  C&C Tropical Fruit Punch tastes a bit like bubble gum flavored amoxicillin.  You’ve probably had amoxicillin when you were a kid.  It’s a pink milky liquid that you had to drink whenever you had an infection.  When you’re a grown up it’s in pill form, but as a child you got the sweet gum flavored liquid poured down your throat at regular intervals.  While this could be an off putting flavor for many folks I personally enjoyed the taste of amoxicillin growing up and tasting something similar to it brought back a piece of my childhood.  While bubble gum amoxicillin is the base flavor for this beverage the taste that tries to chase it away and fails is that of fruit punch.  The only time I get to actually taste something that seems like fruit punch is in the middle of each sip when my throat is punched by the fruit of said action; and while I do somewhat enjoy the medicine flavor by no means should it be the opening and closing act of this soda play.  Could I finish this bottle?  Probably, but I don’t really care to since I opened this expecting fruit punch.  That doesn’t seem like too big of an expectation does it, for fruit punch to taste like fruit punch for more than 1/3 of the time.  Ah well, at least I my mind got to be transported back to when I was a child… sick with infections.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C

Twist appears as an overgrown bacteria at his local playhouse.

C&C Mango

I’m happy to say that the next entry in the C&C collection is a flavor that rarely greets us in soda form, mango.  C&C Mango has a delightful orange (with a hint of pink) color and several slices of cartoon mango on the label.  Like the rest of the C&C collection it’s sweetened with HFCS and chock full of chemicals.  Oddly enough I have no amusing antidotes about mango, so I guess I’ll just be on my way.

A very rich and velvety mango scent welcomes my nose to its home.  It reminds me of cutting open a juicy mango and inhaling the delicious aroma it produces.  So far C&C Mango seems to be exceeding the expectations I have set for it.  Hopefully this trend continues in the taste portion.

Why aren’t there more mango flavored sodas?  C&C Mango’s flavor does not disappoint as it matches the rich and flavorful scent blow for blow.  While I wouldn’t quite equate it with drinking mango juice the powerful taste of mango permeates all possible spaces within my mouth.  Unfortunately the HFCS gums up the works a bit though as the syrupy coating sits in my mouth like a hot dog on a cool floor. 

The carbonation is fairly low which allows the mouth-feel of C&C Mango to be smooth and enjoyable; although I feel that the bubbles could be a bit more plentiful without losing this pleasant effect.  This smooth feeling ends when a brief quick of tart greets the back of your throat at your sips finale.  This kick lightens up the feel of the drink just enough to tease your mind with a different texture.  Another point in the case for more carbonation would be how heavily this sits in my stomach.  I believe that if it were a bit bubblier the weight in my stomach would be lifted to the point of not being noticed.  With all that said though C&C Mango is still a pleasant surprise that I would recommend to my fellow soda drinkers.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C

Twist loves mangoes.  He was legally married to one for 17 years until she left him in a fit of rage.  It's a rather sensitive subject that we don't talk about much around here.

C&C Blue Raspberry

Frequent readers of this site know that my dislike of “blue” raspberry began in the mid-nineties when candy companies decided to add the flavor to their portfolios.  Sadly for all raspberry fans this artificial “blue” variation of the fruit they loved so much tasted nothing like the real thing.  With all that said the soda lined up for today is C&C Blue Raspberry.  I tell you about my dislike for the flavor beforehand so you might know that this review could be written with a bit of unintentional bias.  Let me also clarify that I don’t hate the flavor of blue raspberry; it just disappoints me to a level that shouldn’t exist for such a trivial matter.  Onward.

Pleasantly upon opening this bottle of C&C Blue Raspberry I was greeted with a very raspberry-esque aroma that will hopefully translate into a raspberry-esque flavor.  My hopes are slightly raised, but my mind is still doubtful on how much I will enjoy this.

Well the carbonation levels have started this review off on the right foot at least.  Very strong and punchy bubbles take my mind off of what the flavor on the side of the bottle reads.  The blue raspberry flavor doesn’t sadden me as much as I originally predicted.  Perhaps this is a case of me growing up a little bit?  Probably not.  Soap is a familiar flavor to me when it comes to testing blue raspberry concoctions.  Thankfully C&C Blue Raspberry has little to no hand soap aftertaste which pleases the palate.  Now here is where blue raspberries weakness shows through.  Raspberry as a fruit is more tart than sweet and blue raspberry decided to take that rule and turn it upside down.  This is probably why the candy companies hopped on the blue raspberry train so many years ago… well that and the fact they probably wanted to spruce up their candy colors at the same time.  This sweeter than tart taste sensation for whatever reason does not worth with my taste buds.  The whole ordeal seems out of order to me and I haven’t really found a flavor that duplicates the feeling.  With all that said this isn’t a bad soda, but it’s nothing special either.  With my bias included I still feel good about giving C&C Blue Raspberry the score I’m about to.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C

And everything is blue for him and himself

C&C Orange

Cutting right to the chase, today’s offering that’s up on the ice block is C&C Orange.  Ah, orange soda.  So simple.  So easily figured out.  So delicious.  There are rarely any twists and turns when dealing with orange.  Sure some might be fizzier, some might be fruitier, some might be tart…er, but the underlying flavor is always orange.  It’s a familiar taste that most anyone can gauge.  C&C Orange will hopefully be stacked within column “B” instead of column “A”.  “A” is for awful and “B” is for best, right?  That’s why you have all of column “B” and only some of column “A”.  I’d have to consult my VHS copy of Aladdin to double check, so I’ll just assume I’m correct and that I didn’t just make up an extra lyric to “Friend Like Me.”  I think that’s enough loose references for the first paragraph.  Let’s just drink, shall we?

From the smell of things I’d say C&C Orange is going to stab me in the mouth with orange flavor.  The scent is chock full of citrus which blasts my olfactory glands sending signals to my mouth that it’s about to enjoy a tasty orange treat.  I promise you this, olfactory glands.  If you so much as lie to me this time I’m going to cause you pain.  I’m going to inhale my cat rendering you useless for the next week.

OK, so I wasn’t stabbed in the mouth with orange flavor, but I wasn’t betrayed so much by my olfactory glands (the most you’ve seen this word typed in a non-medical article) that I feel it necessary to murder them.  The orange flavor that greeted me was about a 7 on the strength scale, but could be improved with a touch more carbonation.  The bubble level present is higher than what you would find in many other sodas, although I personally feel that a good orange soda needs almost a caustic feel on the back of my throat.  My reasoning for this is that if you don’t commit to the bite that an orange naturally gives you then the soda can taste like orange sugar water.  Thankfully C&C Orange’s fizz is strong enough to differentiate it from said sugar water; I just think it could be increased for the better.  The orange flavoring is fairly standard among orange sodas; there’s not really a “natural orange” taste, but it’s not so sweet that I would label it as candy in a bottle.  Overall I’m not wowed by C&C Orange, but at the very least I can say it’s comparable to Orange Crush.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C

Orange you glad I didn't say banana confused me for 28 years until Twist explained it.

C&C Watermelon

Short history of my opinion of watermelon… I hate it.  On the flipside of the previous statement I tend to like watermelon flavored things.  It’ll be interesting to see which column today’s soda falls.  Oh, by the way, today’s soda is C&C Watermelon.   That was kind of like the hit TV series Flash Forward wasn’t it?  You saw the thoughts that should have come after the soda reveal BEFORE the soda reveal and yes I know that Flash Forward was not a hit TV series.  Aerosmith would do well to mention C&C Watermelon in their radio hit “Pink” as the label, soda, and label again are all varying shades of half of the color of watermelon.  The label even has cute, I guess fruit can be cute, little watermelons on it that make me want to drink this just a bit more.  Onward!

A watermelon/grapefruit smell punches me in the nose as soon as I twist the cap.  Thankfully watermelon is the clearly dominate scent as the grapefruit seems to just be there for a little filler.  Hopefully the flavor will mirror the aroma.

C&C Watermelon is much fizzier than I expected as the bubbles seem to run with razor blades down my throat.  This is a good thing even though it sounds horribly painful.  Just like the scent the watermelon flavor takes charge as his tiny buddy grapefruit holds on for dear life just hoping to not get noticed.  If you’ve ever had a watermelon Jolly Rancher then you’ll be familiar with the taste of C&C Watermelon.  While the sweetness level isn’t quite that of hard candy it’s still plenty sugary and very enjoyable.  Each sip I take begins with a quick burst of what I would consider a fairly authentic watermelon taste which thankfully (in my opinion) is covered up by the safer candy flavor previously mentioned.    I have to give credit to C&C for even trying this flavor.  So many companies could be making watermelon soda, but don’t because it’s too high risk.  C&C, with their myriad of flavors, thankfully decided to include watermelon in their arsenal.  This soda is different enough, bubbly enough, sweet enough, and tasty enough for me to recommend you give it a try.  Of course if you don’t like any kind of watermelon then you may want to sit this one out, but if you’re a fan of the fruit or the candy fruit then I definitely think it’s worth a shot. 

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C.

Although you wouldn't think it, Twist hates any pink and green color combo.  He's more of a blue and white kinda guy.

C&C Red Pop

As I continue down this road filled with C&C reviews (occasionally taking a detour or two) I stumble upon a flavor I don’t remember cataloging when I took all of the C&C pictures for the site.  C&C Red Pop is what I’ll be drinking today and I haven’t the foggiest idea of what “red pop” tastes like.  The picture on the bottle seems to resemble a red raspberry, but if that were the flavor then I assume it would say so on the bottle.  The only “flavor” listed in the ingredients is an “artificial flavor” which should be expected when your labeled flavor isn’t something you’d find growing on any tree.  I also see that my refrigerator is set fairly cold as there are bits of frozen red pop floating at the surface of this beverage.  In the “What?  No?  Really?” category the beverage itself is a bright red much like red Kool-Aid.  Ok C&C Red Pop, you’ve piqued my interest and now I shall drink you.  Onward.

C&C Red Pop smells like liquefied red and purple Skittles.  My excitement is climbing as the last beverage I had that resembled Skittles in any way was Sprite Tropical Remix (you know… the good Sprite.  Burn.) and I love, love, loved S.T.R.  I don’t think that C&C Red Pop will taste anything like S.T.R., but the fact that it has one thing in common with it pleases me. 

Sigh.  Sorry, the flavor isn’t bad it just didn’t live up to what my mind wanted it to be. C&C Red Pop has the flavor of a weakened Cherry Icee.  I wonder if I could get any cash under the table for mentioning three large brands in this review.  The Kool-Aid/Skittles/Icee people should just be throwing money at me at this point.  With that said I believe this could be an outstanding beverage if the flavor was just a bit more pungent.  Thankfully the cherry flavoring is somewhat enhanced by the carbonation.  It’s just the right amount of fizz so that I can feel it throughout the entire drinking process.  All aspects of my mouth cheer as they are greeted by the enjoyable bubbles that carry C&C Red Pop from “meh” to “pretty tasty”.  The sweetness factor really surprised me as it’s not nearly as sugary as I supposed it would be.  I was looking for a tasty red syrupy mess of sucrose when I first smelled it, but overall it seems to find a pretty good balance with the other aspects of the soda.  In my time writing this paragraph I think my feelings for C&C Red Pop have grown.  I was just going to tell you to buy a bottle, but at the last minute I feel it snuck to gain a bit better rating.  Try it and see if you agree.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C.

Twist was once called the Duke of Pop

C&C Red Candy Apple

Welcome to 2013!  It’s a new year so that means it’s time to review new sodas.  Of course that’s the philosophy that I live by every day.  Why wait for a new year to review new sodas?  Why not review new sodas every time you get a chance to?  So you see the hidden mantra of The Soda Jerks is a simple one.  Live every day like it’s your last day to review sodas.  With that said I’ve gone back to a familiar brand of soda and an unfamiliar flavor.  The brand is C&C of which we’ve reviewed several with several to go.  The flavor is Red Candy Apple and while I’m familiar with all three of those words I’ve never had the triple combo in soda form.  The label art is pleasing to my eyes as all the shades of red, mostly pinks, prepare my mind for the taste I’m about to consume.  A picture of three candy apples also entices my brain into wanting to try this soda even more.  Onward, I say.  Onward.

The scent does remind me a bit of apples, but the “candy” essence isn’t found as easily.  I was hoping for a very sweet apple aroma.  It seems I’ll have to wait and see if the taste of C&C Red Candy Apple will reveal a sugary treat.  Enough waiting.

I didn’t get the sugary flavor the coating of a red candy apple would normally deliver, but it seems I did get a decent apple soda.  Flavored much like a red delicious apple, C&C Red Candy Apple soda is immediately refreshing and lightly carbonated.  With each sip I take a slight harshness begins to build in my throat; it’s not unwelcome as it adds to the overall mouth feel of the soda.  For being sweetened with HFCS there isn’t much of a syrupy essence at all.  Overall C&C Red Candy Apple is pleasing in most aspects.  I would hear the argument that it tastes a bit watery at times, but I think watery works (to a point) in apple sodas.  Over flavoring an apple soda may give you a powerfully delicious concoction while removing its ability to be light and fruity, two very important characteristics of apples.  C&C Red Candy Apple doesn’t really deliver on its name and for that I’ll have to deduct points.  Don’t finish this reviewing thinking it’s not good though, it’s just mislabeled. 

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C

Twist was candied once... ONCE!

AJ Stephans Raspberry Lime Rickey

Today is a momentous day.  Let it be known that on this nineteenth day of December in the year two thousand twelve that I started to like green peppers on my pizza.  This honestly has nothing to do with the review at hand; I just figured that it would be amusing to have such an odd occasion documented for myself down the road.  Speaking of odd, (nice segue, no?) today’s soda flavor is two of my favorites combined into what I’m thinking will be a royal mess.  AJ Stephans Raspberry (yum) Lime Rickey (what?).  It has been well documented, like my love of green peppers on pizza, that I love both non-blue raspberry and lime flavored things.  With that knowledge existing on this plane of reality I still can’t imagine a Raspberry Lime Rickey being anywhere close to normal.  I know that cherry and lime mix, as do cranberry and lime, and strawberry and lime, but my brain won’t let raspberry and lime be a normal thing.  The ingredient list says nothing about either fruit actually being used in the making of this product, but cane sugar is fortunately present.  Enough wondering, it’s time to drink.  Onward!

Raspberry is the dominate scent floating out of the bottle and I must say it’s a rather lovely aroma at that, rich, sweet, and inviting to my nostrils.  Hopefully the taste is just as inviting to my mouth.

Ultra fizzy and not half bad.  While I’m sure that AJ Stephans would never use that as a slogan for their Raspberry Lime Rickey those were my immediate impressions.  The bubbles are small, but fierce and the raspberry flavor is a bit quieter than what my nose anticipated.  While the taste of lime isn’t dominating the beverage it does add a pleasant twang throughout each sip.  I’m not sure what strengthening the flavor of lime would do to the taste of the beverage, but I think it would be an improvement.  Give me more of that sour pucker feeling in the back of my cheeks.  Make my brain really decide which flavor it wants to taste more.  Right now the raspberry is so strong in comparison to the lime you’re never really given a chance to choose.  It’s like at the animal shelter when you’re looking at dogs and they’re two to a cage.  One of those dogs usually steps out in front of his cage mate and hogs the chain link door.  Meanwhile you have no idea what the other dog has to offer, he’s just back there trying to catch your eye while dodging a waggy tail.  There is a bit of a syrupy mouth feel at the finish, but the flavor left behind isn’t off putting.  I do wish that mouth feel wasn’t there at all as it slightly weakens a fairly solid beverage.  With that said, I will commend AJ Stephans for taking what I consider to be a risk in making a bottled soda with these two flavors.  It just didn’t work out as well for me as I had wished.

~A

Faux Fact: Twist invented the Boston Cream Pie.

Apple Beer

So I found a ton of awesome sodas at Ace Hardware and while I didn’t have an order for them I knew I wanted to try Apple Beer last.  I figured that Apple Beer was going to be the best of the bunch with a rich apple flavor and it would be my reward for a job well done on all the other reviews I’m slated to do.  Sadly this is not the case thanks to seven pounds of grey.  Seven pounds of grey is what our cat is.  She’s a little thing that we’ve had for around 6 years and has always been fairly small.  We figured she was the runt of the litter, but didn’t know because when we picked her up she was already 9 months old.  Seven pounds of grey hates having her nails trimmed to the point of drawing large amounts of blood from whoever tries to.  We’ve taken her to the vet and it takes two people and an extra fee to hold down seven pounds of grey so when we got a new Petco nearby I figured I could take her there.  Let’s now fast forward to 5 minutes after I drop her off with the salon specialist.  In that amount of time the salon specialist has found me in the store and voiced her fear of seven pounds of grey.  The giant man of a salon assistant has also voiced his fear so it’s now a three person job to get seven pounds of grey’s nails trimmed.  Ten dollars, four minutes, and three people later, seven pounds of grey has shorter nails.  I needed to relax and the Apple Beer from the fridge came a calling. 

Stare into the embodiment of violence

Apple Beer is made with pure cane sugar and apparently is a “Nineteenth century Bavarian tradition made in the Rocky Mountains since 1964”.  I’m just hoping for a ton of apple flavoring with some nice spices to boot.  The label strengthens my hope with a picture of a rustic looking apple covered slightly by a paper scroll with the words “Apple Beer” on them.  Onward!

I’m a little sad this was a twist off cap, but the scent that greets my nostrils has me quickly forgetting I ever cared about how I opened the bottle.  Apple cider soda is what my nose thinks it’s about to drink and my mouth is anxious to try it.

While I wanted a more complex flavor, Apple Beer definitely relaxed my brain within the first sip.  It’s a foamy beverage with a medium to light amount of carbonation.  Apple flavoring quickly saturates all of the available pores in my mouth.  My tongue seems to think it’s found a modicum of spice, but I’m guessing my brain is imagining it to keep itself happy and relaxed.  While there is no syrupy aftertaste the apple flavor stays for quite a while after each sip.  Since it’s a pleasant flavor I have no issue with that, but some might wish for a cleaner finish.   Overall I’m pleased with Apple Beer although as I mentioned before I wish it were a harsher beverage.  In a perfect world you would have to sip Apple Beer due to the complexities and spice that were present in each ounce.  What they gave us was a good apple soda that excelled in mouth feel and robust apple flavoring.

~A

Look how rustic the two of them are together.

C&C Green Apple

Today I pulled from my fridge one of my favorite flavors of fluid… green apple.  Now I’m not sure how C&C Green Apple will fare against the others, but I have high hopes for this brand that has already surprised me a few times.  I’m pleased that it’s “green apple” soda instead of “apple” soda because I feel that green apple gets looked over a bit more while regular old apple just hogs the spotlight.  The soda itself is a vibrant green (as it should be) and the label contains three pictures of green apples sliced vertically down the center.  Time to crack open this delicious looking manzana verde soda.  Onward!

A sour/sweet candy scent greets my nose from the open bottle.  The sour aroma is what I was looking there as you can’t have a proper green apple soda without some pain in the back of your cheeks.  Bubbles are now collecting at the top enticing me to chug this entire bottle right now, but I mustn’t as it’s my duty to weakly describe C&C Green Apple soda to you as I sip it.

Well my tongue is now crying tiny tears of letdownness.  C&C Green Apple isn’t all that sour so my cheeks are cheering with joy.  It’s different enough in flavor that I can still differentiate it from regular apple flavored soda, but it could be so much more.  This soda should have popped me in the mouth, but instead it delivers a pleasant green apple taste followed by a watery chaser.  C&C Green Apple soda is the equivalent of getting a great green apple soda, putting a large amount of ice in it, and then consuming it 4 hours later.  CURSE YOU C&C FOR GETTING MY HOPES UP SO HIGH!  Every sip I take makes me so angry for what could have been.  Do something that makes my taste buds remember you.  It seems now with my ranting I’ll remember them forever, but ask me in a year to name some green apple sodas and I can almost promise you this won’t be one of them.  Jones Green Apple blew me away to the point where I used it at my wedding.  Romano’s Sour Apple was average, but the fact that it tried to burn out the back of my throat made it memorable.  C&C Green Apple is a watery mess that I will not recommend to you.  Good day, Sir!

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C.

I forced Twist to be in this picture... you can tell by the grimace

C&C Strawberry

I often leave the soda I’m reviewing up to my fridge.  What I mean by that is sometimes a soda is sitting awkwardly alone on a shelf and I feel it needs to be reviewed to feel love one last time before an overwhelming emptiness overtakes it.  Ok, so I’m not that crazy, but my fridge did seem to guide my hand toward the C&C Strawberry soda that now sits in front of me.  What can I say about the design of this particular bottle?  It’s fairly generic looking and in no way (other than a tiny picture of strawberries) would tell me at a glance that this was a bottle of strawberry soda.  Sure I could guess “red label, red fruit”, but cherry, cranberry, and watermelon might get angry.  Honestly I didn’t have much to write about in terms of the way this looks.  I’m pretty much just padding this review with words right before I hopefully enjoy this soda. 

The scent that leaves the top of the bottle is a level of sugary that reminds me of cotton candy.  If you’re a long time reader of the site and have a memory for things I type then you’ll remember I don’t like overly sweet strawberry sodas.  Strawberries are a complicated fruit and too often their soda counterparts are just red sugar nonsense that tastes like an over powered strawberry Jolly Rancher.  Hopefully my nose is lying to me as it’s been known to do.

While not as sweet as it could have been C&C Strawberry soda does fall into the category of sugar nonsense with a red hue.  The carbonation level is high which I fell is helpful in darting past some of the negative traits of an overly sweet soda.  Bubbles tend to take your mind elsewhere when sipping on a beverage and in this case distract you from the syrupy mouth feel for at least the first half of your journey.  Now the taste is fake strawberry all the way, but honestly I’m far from surprised as I haven’t seen anything that would make C&C Strawberry soda stand out from the norm.  My comparison to Jolly Ranchers seems right on the money so I don’t feel there’s any reason to continue. 

Again I must mention that the strawberry is a complex fruit, more so than an orange, apple, or grape in my opinion and so many soda manufactures take the easy way out when it comes to producing a quality strawberry soda.  Does this soda carry a poor taste?  No, not at all, but it’s not hard to make a soda “consumable”.  C&C Strawberry soda doesn’t deserve all the flak I’m giving it right now, but it just entered my life at a time where my patience with this particular flavor of soda has run thin.

~A

This beverage was supplied to us by C&C.

Don't worry, Twist calmed me down with his rousing rendition of Let it Be.

C&C Tropic Punch

I was limited to which C&C flavor I could drink today by the amount of Thanksgiving food stuffing my refrigerator.  Actually I was thinking about not writing a review today based on how full/busy the last week has been.  Well fortunately for “Creative Me” I’ve found some stomach space and time for a cool red bottle of C&C Tropic Punch.  I picked the tropical punch today because it’s non-carbonated and that will allow a bit of a reprieve from the pressure that has been abusing my stomach walls.  Without looking too much into this I’m going to go ahead and guess that this is C&C’s version of Hawaiian Punch.  While I’m a fan of Hawaiian Punch I’ll be even more impressed if C&C came up with something more original in flavor.  Onward!

My noses recognizes a mixture of citrus, pineapple, and cherry with the later ingredient being a slight favorite in terms of how much is there.  The scent that wafts from the top is indeed similar to Hawaiian Punch which worries me that I’m dealing with a copycat drink.  Let’s find out if I’m counting my chickens before they gather moss.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was wrong about it being a copycat and happily so.  Where Hawaiian Punch likes to brag about hitting you in the mouth with the fists of its mascot, C&C Tropic Punch is a smoother concoction that seems to focus more on the pineapple and cherry flavors.  All the familiar flavors that I listed are there, but how easily it’s ingested is what’s the most surprising to me.  There’s no assault on your throat that some punch might treat you to, in fact it’s a fairly relaxing drink.  C&C Tropic Punch is noticeably sweet, but not so much that you it would overload whatever meal you might “pair” it with.  I must say that I find it amusing to picture someone pairing C&C Tropic Punch with a roasted duck or grilled squirrel, but different strokes for different folks. 

While the ratio of fruit flavors is divvied out skillfully, some may be put off by the syrupy mouth feel you get at the finish of each gulp and ultimately (other than being primarily made with chemicals and HFCS) that’s the weakest limb on the body of C&C Tropic Punch.  This isn’t a stand out beverage, but it is a beyond decent tropical punch.  Give it a shot, you’ll probably like it.

~A

How about a nice Hawaiian Twist?

C&C Banana

From the icebox a new flavor appears.  A new flavor of soda my taste buds haven’t experienced.  Brought to you by C&C Cola it’s the yellowest fruit, Donkey Kong’s projectile, and the worst tasting Runt.  Ladies and gentleman…. Banana Soda!  Honestly I’m a little bit scared to try this as I’m not sure how liquid banana is going to go over with my flavor sensors.  Here’s the short history of me and bananas.  I love bananas.  I’m allergic to bananas.  The end.  I’m not deadly allergic mind you, they just make my mouth and throat itch to high heaven.  Thankfully(?) this doesn’t seem to have any banana in it at all, unless it’s in stealth mode under the title “natural flavors”, but I doubt it.  Let’s find out shall we?  Onward!

I expected a very strong banana scent to be waiting for me on the other side of the cap, but found a rather mild somewhat creamy aroma bashfully waving hello.  Smelling this quelled some of my fears, so there’s no time like the present to get on with it.

Well that’s weird.  C&C Banana soda tastes like box made banana pudding sans vanilla wafers and banana slices.  The carbonation level is low allowing for a mouth-feel of maximum smoothness which I must say is very pleasant.  I thought that no matter what C&C Banana tasted like that the banana flavoring would make it feel like someone lowered a heavy yellow velvet curtain in my mouth after every sip.  Surprisingly, the heavy curtain is never lowered so I was able to watch the finale which was a cute baby banana gracefully tap dance off stage.  This adorable dance was a fantastically light and fun way to end my experience with this soda.    Overall C&C Banana challenged my every preconceived notion about what I thought it might be.  I expected a loud and brash tasting banana soda that lived in the pores of my mouth for hours after drinking it.  Thankfully I was wrong about how “bad” it was going to be, which is one of my favorite things to experience when I write these reviews.  Did my head explode?  Will I buy banana soda after banana soda now?  No, but I can very honestly suggest you pick up multiples of this if you ever run across it.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C.

Over the course of this review Twist kept asking me "is that a banana soda in your hand or are you just happy to see me."  It was creepy and didn't make a lot of sense, but I told him if he didn't stop I'd write this about him.  Now hopefully the joke will end and he'll GET OFF THE WASHING MACHINE LIKE I TOLD HIM A THOUSAND TIMES!

C&C Orange Pineapple

Drink #2 out of 24 in the C&C collection I have chilling in my fridge.  Today’s flavor, or flavors as it seems, is Orange Pineapple.  Now these two flavors fill my mind with tropical fun and should play well together, given their sunny history.  While I find the artwork on the bottle to be a little cluttered it does somewhat remind me of a tropical locale… maybe a dollar store in Hawai’i.  The soda itself, HFCS and all, is a bright inviting orange color which is telling me to stop writing about the outside of the bottle and start writing about the inside.  Onward!

I thought that the orange flavor would overpower and mask all that the pineapple could give, but if the scent is any kind of road map to what I’m about to experience then I’d say the flavors are represented 50/50.  Wow, that last sentence was a doozy.  Drinkin’ time!

Thankfully my nose did not lie to me.  Both the orange and pineapple flavors are represented with each taste giving a pleasant smooth yet tart mouth feel.  Of course the orange isn’t a natural orange flavor, but I wouldn’t call it “sugar water orange” either.  The carbonation is lower than expected, but still gives C&C Orange Pineapple enough fizz to make it interesting.  If I could single out each flavor (and maybe I will when I get to try C&C Orange and C&C Pineapple, but I seriously doubt they just mixed the two sodas and made this.) I would tell you that they are both slightly above average.  After each sip my tongue’s memory bank has more orange in it than pineapple and is excited to try it as a standalone beverage.  Will this beverage change your life to the point where all you’ll buy is C&C Orange Pineapple?  I don’t know, but if it does maybe you should get an endorsement deal.  As for me it sits as probably the only orange/pineapple beverage I’ve tasted and left me pleased.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C

Twist is half mango

C&C Black Cherry

If you follow us on Facebook then you know that I received a rather large shipment in the mail from C&C Cola.  I’m not sure I’ve prepared myself for the 24 flavors sitting in my fridge ranging from Banana to Watermelon and everything in between.  Ok, so maybe “everything” is a bit of an overstatement, but it’s still 24 flavors no matter how to slice it.  I thought a good way to start out our journey through C&C would be to review black cherry first.  Black Cherry is a good mixture of the weird and common that most can still relate to in terms of flavor.  With all of that going for it, it seemed the perfect jump off point.  Honestly though I just happened to pull it out of the fridge first and my brain thought of better reasons than just happenstance.  Let it be known that it seems most all, if not all, C&C creations are a conglomeration of HFCS and chemicals.  As sad as this makes me it doesn’t mean they’ll taste bad since a couple of our top drinks use the HFCS… just more of an FYI for your tongue.  Onward!

An incredibly deep cherry flavor oozes its way out of the mouth of the bottle.  It’s such a deep flavor that one might mistake it for grape upon a quick whiff.  Black cherry should be on the lower levels of cherry in terms of taste so I’m optimistic to see where this is going.

The flavor is not unlike that of sno-cone/snow cone/sno-ball syrup, but not nearly as thick.  The rich flavor the smell promised is there in a somewhat limited amount and lingers in your mouth for a few moments after ingestion.  Bubbles fizz their way around your teeth at the perfect level, in no way interrupting the taste or drinking experience to make themselves noticed.  Even though C&C Black Cherry is sweetened with HFCS I don’t get a syrupy mouth-feel at the end of each sip.  Is it as clean as something sweetened with Pure Raw Real Cane Sugar?  No, but it exceeds the limitations that HFCS can sometimes put on a beverages mouth feel.  With all that said the flavor of C&C Black Cherry could be stronger with a bit more “pop” (haha, the only soda joke I know) and occasionally a hint of chemical taste shines through, but this is not the norm.  C&C Black Cherry comes off as IBC Black Cherry’s little brother.  Not quite as strong or as memorable a drinking experience as IBC and their parents always blame him when a lamp gets broken.  As far as black cherry flavored beverages go this one is alright, but there are higher end sodas out there with a better taste.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by C&C.

Twist used a stunt double for this picture

Cheerwine

It’s Friday which means it’s time for a bottle of wine… CHEERWINE that is!  I’ve had many a folk suggest and laud Cheerwine over the past several years and finally I have a bottle in my possession thanks to the Dublin Bottling Works.  When you break the name down it does seem that Cheerwine is the perfect Friday beverage.  Both “cheer” and “wine” are things that people might experience upon arriving home from their week at work.  Since I would avoid the wine filled Friday I’m thankful that Cheerwine is a cherry soda, or at least I assume it is because there’s a tiny cherry on the bottle with the words “Unique Sparkling Soft Drink” surrounding it. I’m not sure how unique a cherry soda can be, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.  Before I go on any further I must write this sentence where I happily inform you that Cheerwine is sweetened with cane sugar.  They opted to not write “Pure Cane Sugar” and went with the less popular, but Aaron preferred, “Real Cane Sugar.”  Enough of this chatter, let’s find out exactly what Cheerwine is together (but mostly me).  Onward!

A deliciously rich wild cherry scent greets my nostrils and pats them on the back as if they’ve been buddies for years.  Hopefully this experience won’t strain that relationship.

There is way more carbonation in this than I was expecting.  Each sip fills my mouth with a multitude of bubbles to the point where I have to initially search for the flavor.  After the search has ended and all parties are accounted for I’m greeted with a pleasant cherry burst that has little medicinal flavoring… which is always a risk in cherry flavored beverages.  The cherry scent isn’t overpowering nor is it as sweet as its scent might suggest.  Cheerwine is comparable to a muted Cherry Crush and before you take that as a negative give Cherry Crush a taste and you’ll realize that you can have less cherry flavor than that and still produce a good beverage. 

Since the flavor is somewhat subdued the drink becomes more refreshing than I would have predicted.  It’s not something that I would chug after a marathon or anything, but I could see enjoying a bottle of Cheerwine under the ol’ shade tree with your best gal/guy.  The two of you waxing poetic on if you should try to sell your stallion out to stud or if you should just keep working at the market where you know everyone’s name.  She’d/He’d, listen to your story and stay silent because it’s not up to them and y’all haven’t been dating long enough that they feel sure enough to help you make such a decision.  Instead to break the silence you reach for your cool bottle of Cheerwine and take a swig, only to notice out of the corner of your eye that your belle/beau is doing the same.  Just another small moment in life you’ve now bonded over… maybe you’ll marry her/him one day.

With that all said and the last paragraph doing its best to be more story than review here’s the true true on Cheerwine.  Even though it’s flavored with artificial cherry, Cheerwine delivers a pleasant flavor that would be great if it wasn’t for the overabundance of carbonation.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by The Dublin Bottling Works

Twist literally puts the cheer in every bottle.

Dublin Tart n Sweet Lemonade

When I blindly reached into my fridge today picking out the soda I would review imagine my surprise when a bottle of lemonade came out.  I wasn’t all that surprised mind you, as I knew the lemonade was one of five beverages I could have grabbed.  You all know that we rarely review non-carbonated beverages, but of course I’m going to give a pass to Dublin since they (1) Sent us a bunch of free beverages for the sole purpose of reviewing and (B) probably make some dang good lemonade.  Like all the Dublin drinks this one is sweetened with pure cane sugar so hopefully it utilizes it well.  Before I begin I must tell you about this tiny elf-like man on the bottle greeting me amongst the retro art, as if to welcome me into his lemonade home.  Thanks, Elf-man.  Thelfman.

The lemonade is titled Tart n Sweet and I must say the “tart” comes out in droves in the smell department.  It’s not cleaning product strong, but I found my taste buds flinching in anticipation of the sour nectar that’s about to envelop them.

Well it’s not as tart as I thought it was going to be, but I’m not disappointed as it still packs a pinch.  On the “tart-scale” from 1-10, with 1 being a nun and 10 being that ex-girlfriend you were too good for, I’d give this about a 6 which means nothing to you.  Even though it’s not shocking my ‘buds, Dublin Tart n Sweet Lemonade is still sour enough to resonate in my mouth after each sip.  Oddly, this is what I would imagine the lemonade at a lemonade stand tasting like.  Now sadly I’ve never tasted any lemonade stand lemonade, but now I can play the home version and it’s almost as good.  I’m pretty sure the kids running the lemonade stand wouldn’t use Ester Gum or Sodium Benzoate though.  Ignorant Children. 

The sweetness factor is noticed and appreciated as it doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to the tart mouth-feel.  If you’ve ever had lemonade that was too sugary you know that it doesn’t take much for that experience to start going downhill in a hurry.  Dublin Tart n Sweet has a fantastic bland of its titular adjectives.  Thankfully it’s not a very syrupy drink.  I find that it sits a few pounds heavier than light upon my tongue as I finish each gulp.  As far as lemonades go it’s about one step better than your standard fare.  Overall a pretty good showing.

Now for the sentence that renders the last four paragraphs pointless.  Dublin Tart n Sweet Lemonade tastes like you made it at home with its tart lemon flavor and a sweetness that can only be described as simple.

~A

With Twist in the picture it's Tart n Sweet n Sweet... D'awwww

MTN Dew Game Fuel 2012 Citrus Cherry

I received an unexpected package the other day, but like anyone who loves presents I threw all caution into the wind and opened it expecting only awesomeness.  Perhaps it was something I forgot about ordering on Amazon.  Perhaps it was a surprise gift from my wife.  Perhaps it was Halo 4 Mtn Dew Game Fuel Citrus Cherry.  Ok, so I didn’t actually think it was the last one until I opened the box and saw that it was.  This particular version of Mtn Dew Game Fuel should be hitting store shelves today, so keep an eye out for it if your interest is peaked after reading this review. 

I’ve never actually had any version of Game Fuel before.  Heck, back when I was a kid my version of “game fuel” was a can of Surge and some powdered donuts.  I’m not really sure why I thought those two things went together, but in my mind it was like peanut butter and jelly.  Thankfully Mtn Dew has created an official “Game Fuel” whose flavor seems to be, and I quote, “Dew with a Blast of Citrus Cherry Flavor with other natural flavors”.  They probably didn’t want to include the “with other natural flavors” line as it seems to take away from the intense nature of Dew, but it’s there so what can you do?  Answer, drink it.  Onward!

Once the plastic cap was twisted and the first burst of carbonation escaped a whiff of cherry dew ran screaming into my nostrils.  Now the scent I get when I actually try and smell the soda itself is a bit more subdued.  Sorry this is Mtn Dew we’re talking about here… nothing is subdued.  Let’s try that sentence again from the top.  Now the scent I get when I actually try and smell the soda itself is a bit more SUBDEWD TO THE MAXX!  Better.  Hopefully the flavor will be equally strong and radical as the initial burst I experienced.  Yes, radical.

While not a full on “punch to the throat” the taste is slightly stronger than the scent my nose pulled from the mouth of the bottle.  I’ve got to be honest with you though.  My initial impression of Mtn Dew Game Fuel is that it reminds me of a neutered Mtn Dew Code Red (The best Mtn Dew flavor in my opinion).  It’s like I’m visiting Code Red in prison.  I can only interact with him on the phone through the glass window between us.  Our hands touch the equivalent sides of the window as we stare longingly at each other, but unable to truly reach one another only to be left in sadness.

Don’t misunderstand, it only “reminds” me of Code Red in a few aspects.  The most obvious being the red color and cherry-esque flavor.  Where Game Fuel Citrus Cherry goes wrong is that the initial flavor isn’t the main performer on the stage.  Yes you’re greeted with a somewhat tropical cherry taste that I would rate as pleasant and nothing more, but the cough syrup after taste is the last thing you see before the curtain comes down.  So now I’m sitting here trying to think of good things to say about the first three seconds of each sip while the last three seconds of cough syrup flavor are still staining my taste buds.  I’m sorry to say, but I just can’t do it.  If you enjoy ingesting large amount of caffeine with no care for taste then this is a great soda for you to pick up.  If you don’t mind a soda with three fourths the amount of caffeine and a great taste to boot, the you should probably just pick up some Code Red.

Now for the sentence that renders the last five paragraphs pointless.  Mtn Dew Game Fuel Citrus Cherry is an appealing beverage while you’re looking it at it, but delivers only minimal cherry flavor with maximum medicinal taste.

~A

This beverage supplied to us by Mountain Dew.

Twist's version of game fuel is a handful of flies and a glass of tonic water.

Sodafruit- Boysenberry Soda

With my “sick mouth” fully gone now that I’ve been to the dentist I believe it’s time to start up the reviews again.  My smell-o-meter is functioning at a near peak level of 70% (peak for me is probably around 80%) and I’ve got one last bottle of Sodafruit to hopefully enjoy.  Today’s version of Sodafruit is Boysenberry Soda.  I chose to review this last because the last 30 years of my life have left me with little information on the taste of boysenberries.  The closest I’ve had to actual boysenberryies are dewberries, black berries, and raspberries.  Since a boysenberry is the child of a few of those I listed I feel that I can still give an accurate taste assessment, but you won’t be seeing the sentence “this tastes exactly like boysenberry” at any other point in the article.  Before I begin I’d like to list the ingredients of Sodafruit Boysenberry Soda because they are worth mentioning:  Carbonated water, cane sugar, boysenberries, lemon juice, citric acid, preservative (202).  Now that you know we’re dealing with some top notch ingredients (sans mystery preservative) I’ll continue.  Onward!

Before I opened the bottle I upended it and saw a large amount of seed/pulp floating around.  This may be a rather intense texture situation or I won’t notice the pulp at all, either way I’m excited.  The soda has a robust blackberry cobbler smell to it that’s very rich on even a scent level.  While I know this usually equals greatness I’m a little concerned about how rich Sodafruit Boysenberry is going to be.

The first thing I notice is that its mouth feel is a bit thicker than your regular soda.  Not V8 thick by any means, but its viscosity is a bit higher than Soda-X.  Sodafruit Boysenberry is also a bit harsher on the throat than Apple Crumble and Strawberry were and I think that’s to be expected due to the tart nature of the fruit used for flavoring.  The taste is rich, much like biting into a juicy dew/blackberry as the sweetness overcomes how sharp the soda’s flavor is about halfway through each gulp.  Much like when I reviewed the strawberry soda, the pulp I was worried about becoming a distraction has done nothing but blend into the background only to be seldom noticed. 

While delicious on many levels some might find this a bit too rich for their liking.  Each drink coats your mouth in boysenberry goodness, but it can feel a bit heavy at times.  If I could change something about it I’d maybe make it a bit lighter with a touch more fizz.  I know that adjusting the carbonation levels on a soda like this can be tricky, but I’m not dealing with science in my requests… I’m just waving a magic wand around without care.  Oh look at that, Stephen Moffat has gone back to writing individual episodes of Doctor Who instead of running the series and I’ve brought back Surge.  Now that I suddenly have the need to change a few things I’ll leave you with a sentence that you could have read instead of this review. 

Sodafruit Boysenberry Soda is full-bodied soda with a succulent taste that permeates every crevasse of your mouth and while it isn’t syrupy a nudge toward the lighter/fizzier side wouldn’t hurt.

~A

This soda supplied to us by Sodafruit

Twist spend 7 years on Knott's Berry Farm