Hot Lips Apple Soda

Way back when I reviewed Hot Lips Pear I said that I thought they should do an apple instead.  Well, here it is, and it's as delicious as I expected.  

The best part about Hot Lips products are how simple they are.  Carbonated water, apple juice, sugar and lemon juice.  That's all it takes to make something delicious.  

The flavor can be summed up as "carbonated apple juice," but of course the added sugar and lemon give it it's soda-like zing.  

This is a simple product so I guess that's why it's such a simple review.  I wish more folks did this.  Simple can be better.

Verdict:  Buy stock in the company!

-Mike

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Hot Lips)

A “Twist’s Choice” Recipient

Sprecher Fire-Brewed Cherry Co

There are two situations where I have to struggle to censor myself from shouting out (or typing out I suppose) expletives when writing a review.  One is when a drink is insanely awful, the other when it's insanely great.  Thankfully this is in the latter category.

Sprecher Cherry Cola, or rather "Fire-Brewed" (it's in tiny print) Cherry Cola is amazing.  Obtaining this was a tiny adventure in itself.  First of all I got the tip about it from DW who found it in the grocery store I go to just about every other day.  How could I have missed this?  It's Sprecher, who has a great root beer, making a cherry cola?  I had to have seen it!  Well, it wasn't with the regular sodas.  With the scoop, I went straight to the store next time I had a chance and checked it out.  None to be found.

My next attempt started poorly.  I was in the regular soda aisle and still couldn't find it when I noticed a lost-looking employee with one in his hands.  He couldn't find where it went and I couldn't find one to buy.  I told him "that's exactly what I'm looking for!"  I think he was more excited that he didn't have to keep looking for it than I was to have found it.  Eventually I will have to look for it again because I don't see how I won't be able to pick up one of these on a regular basis.  Here's a preview of what you're about to read:  this is one of the greatest sodas I've had.

This is absolutely delicious.  As soon as I took a sniff I was sold.  It wasn't just the scent of cherries, it was cherry cola.  It smelled boldly of cherry cola.

It's smooth, sweet, rich, creamy.  This is absolutely the best cherry cola I have ever tasted.  But... there has to be a negative, doesn't there?  Yep.  It's got HFCS in it.  It's so good though, I honestly do not care.  I know, shame on me.

Let's look at the positives.  First it's made with Wisconsin Door County cherry juice and Wisconsin raw honey.  Good so far.  It also mentions "the finest cola extract and a handful of selected spices cooked to perfection in our gas-fired brew kettles."  That makes up for it's one downfall for me.

This is so good I'm sitting here sniffing the empty bottle while I'm typing this out.  Crazy?  You try it.

I don't know what's harder to believe, that after over 100 reviews, this is our first cherry cola or that a soda with HFCS is going into my top 5?

-Mike

Reed's Spiced Apple Brew

Let's go straight to the ending, Tarantino style:  the aftertaste of this is apple pie.

Think about that.  Now let's go back to the beginning.

A couple weeks ago we had a pretty disappointing apple soda.  In fact all around apple sodas are hit or miss.  We thought that Jones' had a pretty decent apple soda, one of the better "higher tier" apple sodas, if not the best.  Aside from that we're both fans of Manzanita Sol, which is "lower tier" I guess you'd say.  

I had been hoping for a Virgil's Apple, or Apple Cider, and while that is still a pipe (or bottle) dream, we do have a product here from Reed's, who makes Virgil's products, called Spiced Apple Brew.

First of all the label has a little story of the days before soft-drinks when non-alcoholic beverages were made at home.  It then goes on to suggest that they brew and age their beverages at the same level of quality, with the same level of quality ingredients.  I completely believe it because this is delicious.

When you taste this, without knowing anything in it, your immediate reaction would be "spiced apple pie."  It's liquid apple pie.  You taste the apple, you taste the cinnamon, and it has a ginger spice to it.  Also part of the ingredients is lemon, and when you know it's there you can get a hint of it but that's all, nothing too distracting.  

Everything we've reviewed up until now has been "fun."  Even some of the best drinks we've reviewed have been "fun," while still being high quality.  Virgil's Bavarian Nutmeg Root Beer was a finely crafted beverage for a soda, but it's still a root beer.  It still has that familiarity that goes with a pizza or a cookout.  Spiced Apple Brew takes it to a new level.  This is a drink you really appreciate.  There was obviously a lot of work put into this and you can taste it.  One of the folks at Reed's compared it to a fine wine where you savor it and appreciate all the flavors, and that's a perfect way of putting it.  Again, not to say that some of the other beverages we rated highly didn't have a lot of work put into it them, because we know there was, and they were delicious.  This is just taking it in a direction no one has yet, and it really legitimizes the soda industry as something serious.

Did I mention its aftertaste is apple pie?

-Mike E.

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Reed's)

Jones' Strawberry Lime

Wait a second, Strawberry Lime?  Don't you mean cherry?  No I don't!  Blame the crazy cats over at Jones' soda.  One word for them:  RENEGADES.

This is amazing, one of the best fruit flavored sodas I've had in a long time.  In fact, this beats my previous favorite, Stewart's Key Lime.  Not only does this have the taste advantage, it has the cane sugar instead of HFCS advantage.  It's so good I want to use inappropriate language to describe it, but I'll keep this a family site.

Unlike other strawberry sodas, this one is not heavy or sticky feeling at all, it is very light and refreshing.  I attritube this to, again, the cane sugar and also the lime.  The lime just gives it that extra crispness that offsets the powerful flavor of strawberry.

I'm not a beach guy, but if I was, I would be taking a ton of these in a giant ice chest.  Who thought strawberry would go better with lime than cherry?  Amazing.

-Mike

Stewart's Key Lime

I'm finally getting around to reviewing this one. It's so damn good that every time I end up buying some I down it so quickly that I don't have time to review it. As I've said before I like to review whilst I'm drinking. None of this "after the fact" nonsense flies around here.

This one is a little more "mainstream" then what we usually get. By that I mean when it comes to bottled sodas (as opposed to cans or plastic bottles) this is probably the number one mainstream brand. Also the ingredients are chemicals.

But it's so delicious. The smell is a very potent lime, with almost a little cream in it. Appropriate because it's called key lime. Also an appropriate smell because that's how it tastes. It's nothing like a limeade in there's no real citrus bitterness to it, which I don't mind but it's a nice variant on something more common. So essentially a creamy, not sour but still strong lime flavoured beverage. Delicious.

-Mike

Virgil's Real Cola

I don't think either of us would deny the fact that we have a strong like (maybe love) for Virgil's products. They obviously have the belief that there should be soda beverages made to a higher quality, in the same way that there is cheap wine and fine wine. Virgil's is the "fine wine" of sodas, which is why any time I find out about a new product from them I get excited. I always wondered what a cola would taste like from them, and now I know: it's the greatest soda I've ever had.

Now at one point this might have seemed ridiculous. I was torn between different flavours. There's the sweet fruitiness of Stewart's Key Lime, which I should note is so good I haven't even reviewed it yet, I always down it too quickly when I get a bottle, or, another Virgil's product, their Root Beer. But I've always been a big fan of colas, and this one tops them all.

The smell of it after it's opened tells you that you're in for something awesome. It's very sweet and potent with a vanilla and spice scent. The Cola, like their Root Beer, is very smooth, not too carbonated, just enough to give a tingle. You really can taste everything in it; the vanilla, the clove spices, the cinnamon. It even contains orange and lime, and there is a delicate hint of it in the background.

It's fantastic. The message on the back of the bottle ends with this line: "We decided to make a cola that would rival the super premium quality of our root beer." Mission accomplished.

So as much as I rave about this you'll see the score below and wonder why it's not higher. It's not perfect by any means, nothing has been so far and I don't believe anything will be, but of course in the mission to seek the greatest sodas ever you hope to find it. Also the price of drinks has always been a factor in our reviews, and at two dollars a bottle, while that's a fair price for a premium product, that is something that has to be considered. Normally I don't preach about scores versus review text but I think in this case it had to be said.

-Mike

Cricket Green Tea Cola

This had to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing packages I've seen, which is honestly part of the reason I picked it up. That and I actually wanted to enjoy the beverage of choice this week so I played it safe with cola.

My theory was correct as I found another winner. The box exclaimed "Cane Sugar. Kola Nut. Green Tea." How could this not be good? In fact, it also stated "Expect this to be good." Sold.

This cola, in comparison to the ginseng cola I reviewed not too long ago, is more of a Coca-Cola rather than an RC, which is okay, although between those two I'd prefer RC. It's hard to explain but there's almost a lemon-tea flavor going on in the background. I guess that should be easy to notice considering lemon cola exists, but honestly I think it's just the crispness of the cane sugar along with the subtle green tea in the background. Green tea is the third ingredient, even above that "less than .5%" of kola nut, so this is more of a green tea soda than a cola, so you will taste it. Being a green tea fan, that's a very good thing.

Whatever it's boiled down to, it's delicious. Easily as good as ginseng cola, but quite different.

-Mike