Soda

Medium sweet. I am conflicted. Unlike the Sour Blueberry this one is much closer to the flavor of the natural fruit. At the same time it's also kind of a generic "berry" flavor. It would be nice if I had another can of the blueberry so I could do a blind tasting because I'm really not sure I could tell the …

Medium sweet. Picture in your mind the classic grape soda: Nehi, Buddy's, Boots, Fanta, whatever. Now, imagine there is a dial on the bottle (because of course it's in a glass bottle) that is currently set to 11 out of 10. Turn that dial down to a 4 or 5 and you get this. The classic grape flavor is still there but it …

Medium sweet. Perhaps slightly tart, but hardly sour. Plenty of fruit, and I suppose it is vaguely blueberry like. Certainly blue and berry anyway. This is not to say it's bad. It's just... fine? Short finish. Ok. Purchased from United Sodas of America

Slightly sweet. The flavor is deceptive in that it is mostly in the nose, so in the mouth while it smells like it should be really full, rich, and creamy coconut, in the mouth it feels thin and lacking. Really long, slightly sour finish. Pass. Purchased from United Sodas of America

Quite sweet. Definitely ginger, but a fairly light natural flavor without any fire. Slightly peppery. Maybe a little bit too similar to Canada Dry? Ok. Purchased from United Sodas of America

Medium sweet. Well defined pear and perfumy floral quickly trade places smoothly through the middle. Pear starts but the elderflower is strong near the finish before both evaporate surprisingly quickly when the liquid is gone, leaving a subtly pear-skin flavored extended finish. Recommended. Purchased from United Sodas …

Medium sweet. A pretty good example of the difference between true citrus and aloysia citrodora. Where a typical lemonade or lemon-lime soda would be more clearly single noted and acidic, this has some subtle herbal depth that rounds out the flavor profile of an otherwise understated soda. Lovely finish. Recommended …

Quite sweet. Identifiably mango but sharper than I usually expect, which is where I suspect the "young" in the name comes from. The start is somewhat tart before mellowing out in the middle and fading till a somewhat creamy medium length finish. Ok. Purchased from United Sodas of America

Medium sweet. I really don't mean this to be too negative, and I will grant that it has been probably a couple of decades since I've had what I'm about to compare this to, but in a lot of ways this is pretty much carbonated Tang. I always enjoyed Tang so that isn't a bad thing in my book but it is difficult to not make …

Medium sweet. A surprisingly dry take on a fruit flavor like peach. The initial sweetness evaporates quickly leaving the floral fruit behind for a really long finish. Strongly reminiscent of a really good bellini I had many years ago. Recommended. Purchased from United Sodas of America

Medium sweet. Fruit and basil start has a little bit of white pepper. The fruit is pretty close to natural, though more like the huge and slightly bland strawberries from the grocery store than the intensely flavored wild varieties. In a lot of ways that's kind of how the soda is flavored: laid back and not intense. …

Very sweet. Candy start obscures any actual flavor until maple finally shows up in the middle and hangs in just through the beginning of the finish. Butter does appear but is generally elusive. Mostly this just tastes like medium grade sugar. Ok. Purchased from Blue Sun Soda Shop (Spring Lake Park)

Medium sweet. Superficially I can see why they call this cranberry but I find it lacking in the character of the real fruit, though no more than the usual way so many artificial and "natural" fruit flavors only vaguely resemble the real thing. That said, it is a nice cranberry-adjacent berry flavor and even …

Quite sweet. Sharp natural ginger start joins with an interestingly tart fruit flavor that isn't quite like anything I've tried before. Something like a less-sweet tamarind? Hints of bitterness around the edges add to the herbal depth of an already complicated brew. Fruit diminishes quickly in the moderately long …

Very sweet. While present, the usual wintergreen and other flavors from the root beer are quite muted and hard to discern over the fairly strong vanilla flavors along with a little bit of burnt sugar and caramel. More caramel into the medium length finish. Fairly nice as a vanilla cream soda. Dissappointing as a root …

Very sweet. Kind of an interesting blend between a lemon-lime and strawberry soda. Neither side really takes precedence but neither do they quite blend fully either. Would probably be better with 1/2 the sugar. Oddly long citrus-like finish. Ok. Purchased from Blue Sun Soda Shop (Spring Lake Park)

Very sweet. I really did not know what to expect from this one. The likely outcome of course was that it was going to be terrible in some very creative way, but to my somewhat incredible surprise this is actually kind of good. Picture in your mind the flavor of a rich Maytag or Stilton and strip away the creamy parts …

Very sweet. Starts with sharp lemon and pretty quickly gains nice raspberry. The sweetener blend appears fairly quickly afterward, seeping in slowly at first and eventually resolving to an ever present candy presence in the mouth. The main flavors fade fairly quickly in the finish, but the sweetener blend lingers. The …

Very sweet. Mostly a fairly classic vanilla cream soda but with a tiny bit of caramel for a slight burnt sugar flavor along with faint hints of coconut. Ok. Purchased from Blue Sun Soda Shop (Spring Lake Park)

Very sweet. I'm generally a big fan of sangria in it's many forms. It varies so much depending on so many factors it can be hard to pin down what specifically makes a good sangria, but to me it has to start with good wine and good fruit. So far it's been rare to get a really good example in a soda, but it has happened. …

Very sweet. Even from the scent you can tell they went hard on the butter flavor and taking a sip brings that sharply into focus. The peach comes through under a blanket of the butter eventually, maybe not muffled, but certainly well wrapped. Probably one of the better implementations of artificial butter flavor in a …

Very sweet. Non-specific citrus with elements of lemon, lime, and a little grapefruit. Slightly buttery. Lingering finish is fine. Ok. Purchased from Noll Hardware

Medium sweet. I always have trouble with "watermelon" flavored sodas. They hardly ever taste anything like any actual watermelon I've ever had. This particular example is a bit more perfumey than most along with the more typical melon-like flavors that I associate with this category of flavor. All of it …

Very sweet. Candied slightly-generic berry flavor is pretty straight forward and unambiguious. Has just a touch of depth in the middle with a hint of black pepper. Narrowly avoids being syrupy but also steers well clear of any semblence of actual fruit. Surprisingly good and relatively short finish. Very close to being …

Quite sweet. The also-ran of The Great Cola Wars, I've always thought of RC as under rated in comparison to the big two. It has a lot of the flavor characteristics of Coke Classic with little hints of cinnamon and all spice, while also maintaining the sharper cola flavor of Pepsi, all while coming across as less sweet …

Very sweet. I can see what they were going for, I just don't think they got there. Near the finish you catch a solid glimpse of the classic orange soda base but everything prior to that is kind of a muddled mess. There are flashes of peach and flashes of orange but mostly it comes across as fruit-like sweetness rather …

Medium sweet. The familiar cola flavor is there, but more muted than expected. The sweetener blend never quite melds with the cola flavors, instead competing. Long, slightly rancid, and quite unfortunate finish. Pass. Purchased from King's County Market - Andover

Very sweet. Labelled as a passionfruit, orange, and guava flavored soda I can see what they were going for and in the usual way they are not subtle about their flavors. I won't swear by this since it has been at least a couple of decades since I've tasted it, but from what I remember this is at least strongly …

Slightly sweet. Could be carbonated orange juice and, other than some notes from the sweetener blend and the lack of pulp, it could be at least slightly difficult to tell the difference blind. Sort of an amazing achievement. I'm not sure if that is better commentary about modern juice flavor packs or the engineering …

Medium sweet. Strong, fresh raspberry start with just enough tartness. Similar to the Strawbery Lemon flavor, I suspect the pleasant pucker is coming from the vinegar instead of the fruit but here it is much more successful and extremely well integrated. Floral notes arrive eventually if you look for them and, …