Filbert's Strawberry
/As many of you know I’m not the biggest fan of strawberry soda. Far too often it’s just a conglomeration of sugar, chemicals, and bubbles. So when I pulled Filbert’s Strawberry soda out of my fridge I probably voiced an audible sigh. While the rich red coloring and the barrel full of soda on the label are nice, I’m just not in the mood for another sugar filled strawberry soda. I was hoping that the inclusion of pure sugar in the ingredients would make me a little happier about reviewing this, but Filbert’s is made with “sugar and/or corn sweetner”. That’s “sweetner” without the “e”. Other such ingredients in this self-proclaimed “Old Time Quality” soda are as follows: Carbonated water, citric acid, artificial flavor & color, and of course sodium benzoate. No matter how good this soda is, they’ve already hit one of my nerves. Don’t say your beverage has an “Old Time Quality” when your ingredient list is that sad. At least the bottle cap is nice.
A strawberry scent so sweet it could be cotton candy oozes carefully out of the mouth of the bottle. I am happy that the scent wasn’t so powerful I could smell it from a distance. Hopefully this means it’s not quite as sugary as I perceived it to be.
Twist's middle name is Filbert. No relation.
That is a rather odd strawberry soda. Let me start off by saying that this isn’t a sugary mess. Yes it’s sweet, but thankfully someone showed some restraint and pulled back what could have been Candyland. Each sip doesn’t start off tasting like strawberry; in fact the first half of my sip doesn’t taste like much at all. As soon as I agitate the liquid, either by swishing or swallowing, I’m welcomed with a smattering of strawberry that seems to identify a little bit with a strawberry-cream. Even though there is a touch of cream flavoring in each gulp the end of my sips trail off into a chemical heap. This artificial ending begins to even taste a little like a diet strawberry soda before turning into an unfortunate memory.
The fruit flavor of Filbert’s Strawberry is unmistakably recognized, but it’s not nearly as powerful as I thought it would be. If they were to boost the flavor just a bit I think they could improve their product. As it stands now, Filbert’s Strawberry is pleasantly different, but nothing I’d force people to drink.
~A
