Found Elderflower

I found this soda at target. It's super hard to find their website through google. But look at the flavors they have on their website! It looks so good! They have juices, and apple cinnamon soda, which I've never seen before. I'm excited, and I have some high expectations

Appearance

This is a handsome bottle. It's perfectly clear and pure. The label is a little hard to read, especially in the super fine print, but it's very graphics design-y and modern. I like it quite a lot.

  Appearance Score

9/10 This is a nice looking bottle

Taste 

It smells a little like the kiddy champagne you have as a kid at thanksgiving. Which bring backs a lot of memories and is pretty nice. The taste is a little... to grating for my taste. The flavor is way bigger and bolder than I though it would be. It's very tart. It's a little nice, but a little like licking a warhead. There's a strong physical reaction to drinking it. The back of the tongue constricts and writhes. It's not bad, I guess as sodas go, but I was expecting a much softer, more delicate taste. The contrast between expected taste and actual is a little off putting.The carbonation is a little harsh and there is a bit of a sticky aftertaste but not too bad.

Taste Score

7/10 A bit harsh, but ok

Joia Sparkling Grapefruit Chamomile and Cardamom

The world is changing, folks. There are interesting forces at work, and those forces are demanding excellent soda. And what a wonderful world there is! I've been noticing tons of new soda microbreweries popping up out of the wood work. Sodas that emphasize natural fruits and no artificial sweeteners. And I am so excited about this!
Today, a bought a soda from Target of all places called Joia. Its a Boundary Waters Brands soda. They come in really cool flavors like Pineapple, Coconut,and Nutmeg, and Ginger, Apricot and Allspice. How interesting is that? I hope to try them all.
Today, I'm trying the Grapefruit, Chamomile and Cardamom soda

Appearance

The bottle is lovely. Perfectly clear with a beautiful soda color fully on display. The label is on clear backing and easy to read against the soda. Its very well designed, and I like it quite a bit

Appearance Score

8/10. Lower score than it could be because this style label is very popular

Taste

This is a delicious soda. The grapefruit is spot on and completely honest. It tastes just like the grapefruit juice at the bottom of your fruit salad bowl. It's sweet and kinda bitter, and fades out to an extremely pleasant and dull after taste. The grapefruit is the main player, but it's matured by the chamomile and cardamom. It's delicious and amazing and I can't wait to try all of the rest.

Taste Score

9/10. I couldn't envision a better grapefruit soda.

Averys Kitty Piddle

Another Rocket Fizz Soda. Avery's soda is playing up the novelty factor with line of Gross Sodas. Described as "SODAsgusting" (harahar). They have other flavors like dog drool, and toxic slime and bug barf. While I find that the novelty sodas don't taste as good as they're more serious counterparts, I'll give this one a shot.

Appearance

I like this label. It's very cute. The clear bottle also displays the beautiful color of the soda.

Appearance Score

7/10

Taste

Sigh. I haven't had a soda I've been crazy about in so long. The orange/pineapple combination seemed so promising. It tastes like a typical orange soda at first. But then the soda has a strong aspartame-y flavor. Its sweet but it coats your tongue. Its aftertaste is not unpleasant. Its like fresca, but not as good as fresca, and that's saying something

Taste Score

4/10 'Cause I really don't like fresca

Dragon Tail Ice Mint Blizzard Energy Drink

This was another one of the Rocket Fizz sodas I tried.  The company that makes them is called Dragon Tail Energy .  I picked it up for the label and the powerful, kick-butt name.

Appearance

Look at this label. Gaze into its depths. Notice its sheen, it's scales. Appreciate the power animal contained within. This is such a cool design. I'm also giving it another point just for the soda's name alone. Ice Mint Blizzard... with Lemon.

Appearance Score

8/10. So cool.

Taste

Hahaha! I laugh at my own assumptions! Aw man what a let down. The soda looks so. cool. And the name makes it sound delicious! It's not though. Pretty disappointingly so. Let me walk you through this. The first sip? Great. It's this neat citrus, berry, energy drink flavor. Kinda red bull-ish. Has a little bite, which is fine.  And you sip it and you're loving it. And then the mint hits. But it's not a good mint. It doesn't flow well with that initial flavor. It's very cold and tastes like crest toothpaste. So you take another sip to wash out the mint after taste but that front of the sip is now tainted by the mint. And it's not pleasant. It tastes like electrified berry toothpaste or after dinner mints. I shudder at the thought a bit

Taste Score

3/10 It might rock someones boat, But it's certainly not mine

Rocket Fizz and the Multitude of Root Beers

So this summer, I've been living in St. Louis, MO. It's a really cool city. The city is a little hive of culture and neat spots to explore. In St. Louis, there is a street called the Delmar Loop. And in the Delmar Loop is a soda store called Rocket Fizz. The store is a chain that produces its own line of soda. It is also, frankly, amazi-balls. They have hundreds of sodas, the vast majority I've never tried before. They also have a wide range of candies and novelties. You know, like rubber chickens, or underpants for your hands, that kind of thing. It's also one of the few places in the state that I've found that sells Irn Bru. Which made me scream a little with excitement when I saw it.

The main display wall of soda

At Rocket Fizz, they have Taste Test Tuesdays where you give them $5 and they give you a little shot of 10 different sodas. Which is just perfect for me! I don't want to drink an entire bottle of a soda I'm not crazy about. And I want to be able to discover new sodas with minimal effort. So yay! This week, their taste test line up was all root beers. Which is not as perfect for me. I mean, I like a root beer now and again. but I'm not crazy about them.

And it turned out, all 10 root beers were pretty comparable. So, this week is gonna work a little differently than normal. Instead of doing 10 different reviews for each of the sodas, I'm gonna give a general overview and point out the notable things among the list.

The sodas that were tried were as follows:

Red Arrow Root Beer

With its strong, simple label

Gene Autry Root Beer

Who is apparently the "Singing Cowboy"?

 Snake River Sarsaparilla

I don't think I like Sarsaparilla. At least not this one.

 Hippo Size Jumbo Root Beer

The Label promised a Big taste. It... certainly had that.

 Anchor Ginger Root Beer

Not gonna lie. Love this label

 The... Judge Wapner Root Beer?

The Taste Test Lady told me Judge Wapner is an old TV judge

 Death Valley Sarsaparilla

I'm also fond of this label

 Dad's Root Beer

One of the more well known brands

 Johnnie Ryan Birch Beer

First of the Birch Beers

 Reading Draft White Birch

The second of the two Birch Beers

All of these sodas tasted fairly equivalent. There was nothing that was undrinkable, but also nothing that knocked my socks off. And this may be because it was a lot of root beer all at once and the tastes blended together from one sip to the next. I was planning on doing the taste test with a traditional amount of rigor, with a cracker and water between each one. But I decide against it, because then I'm the pretentious jerk holding up the line with all my "rigor" .

But, overall. I really liked the label designs for Dad's Root Beer, Anchor Root Beer, Hippo Size Root Beer, Johnnie Ryan Birch Beer,  and the Red Arrow Root Beer. They all get ratings in the 7-9 /10 range.
I didn't particularly care for the label design for the Snake River Sarsaparilla, the Judge Wapner Root Beer, or the Gene Autry Root Beer. They all get generally low ratings in the 2-3/10 range. Do you see that pattern? Personal bias against sodas with people on them, I guess.

All the sodas generally tasted similar. Things that stood out:
-The Anchor Root Beer could have had a way stronger ginger bite and I would have loved it
-The Gene Autry Root Beer left was weird sticky, penny-ish taste on the back sides of my tongue.
-The Death Valley Sarsaparilla was not overly sweet like these kind of sodas usually are, but it was very rooty and medicinal tasting. I didn't like it, but it might be right up another person's alley.
-The other people tasting with me didn't like the Dad's Root Beer's after taste, but I felt that the Dad's would be the best in a root beer float
-The Hippo Size was had most intense and robust flavor of all the other sodas. It was very sweet. It also had a very prominent taste of old wintergreen gum. But it was the favorite of some of the other tasters.
- The White Birch Beer had an amazing color! It had a lovely champagne ascetic.

Isn't that gorgeous!

So. Final verdict. Nothing really amazing. Virgil's is still one of my favorite root beers. But it was really cool to try so many different types. And the store had so many other root beers and birch beers that weren't included. There's a lot more to explore.

Fever Tree Ginger Ale

Appearance

The first thing that stuck out to me was how pretty the bottle was. Its a classy, classy design. The color pallet is subtle and elegant. I love it.

Appearance Score

9/10 It's so pretty

Taste

The soda has a really good ginger bite to it. It tastes rather fresh. It's carbonation is amazingly light and dancing. And it's sweetness is light on the tongue and fades away. It's gorgeously crafted. It feels very deliberately designed.

Taste Score

8/10 A really good example of ginger ale.

Goya Guarana Soda

Appearance

The Goya brand is very common in my region, and all of the labels look very similar thematically. So it's kind of weird to see a label that is normally on cans of beans, on a soda. Overall, I'm not really impressed with it

Appearance Score

4/10 pretty meh about it

Taste

The taste of this one is really interesting and hard to describe. It's like citrus and strawberries. It tastes a little artificial tasting, but overall, not bad. The carbonation is little harsh and the after sweetness is too thick.

Taste Score

 4/10. I've decided I don't like it.

Cock and Bull Ginger Beer

Appearance

The label is strong and impact and really well designed. It grabs your eye. It demands your attention. It is vaguely aggressive.

Appearance Score

8/10. It properly impressed me

Taste

I had a bit of an issue with this one. It's certainly tastes like fresh ginger, which I approve of. But it tastes like ginger in a way that is reminiscent of just licking the root, dirt and bark and all. It also immediately gave me really aggressive heartburn. Which was concerning. But I am prone to heartburn, so that's probably just me. If you like strong ginger beers you might like it.

Taste Score

4/10 Not designed for me. 

Bavaria Malt Beverage

Appearance

This looks like a beer, exactly what you would expect from a non-alcoholic beer. It has that classic dark bottle and a beerish, non rectangular label. It is very straight forward and what it says on the tin.

Appearance Score

5/10 No actual opinions

Taste

Ew, gross. It tastes like beer. It has a strong unpleasant bite at the end. But I don't personally like beer, even remotely, so I cannot accurately judge with any kind of actual authority or conviction. If you're a beer drinker, try it for yourself and see. If you're not a beer drinker, this isn't the soda for you.

Taste Score

~/10 Unjudgable by me. 

Spring Grove Soda Pop: Lemon Sour

Appearance

I love this label. It's monochromatic and strong. It's not a minimalist design, but the soda's color shines through really well. The clear background labels make me love it every time. It's my weakness!

Appearance Score

8/10

Taste

This soda tastes amazing. It's a great sour lemon, like fresh lemon juice and strong homemade lemonade. It's spectacularly sour and has a great sweetness. It also doesn't stick around too long and is generally refreshing.

Taste Score

 8/10. Delicious. I would drink all that I can!

MacFuddy The Distinctively Strong Pepper Elixir

Appearance

I was tickled by the label. It's modeled off of 19 century apothecary snake oil labels. It's very aware of itself. The label is full of flavor text and nice decorations. The label claims "infused with luck: 12oz for 24 hours of favorable outcomes" and "cures timidness and satisfies the daring". This is a really cute design.

Appearance Score

7/10

Taste

This is a more complex Dr. Pepper, basically. It's very creamy, with hints of chocolate and fruit and darkness and wood and anise. I didn't like it at first but the more I drank, the more I enjoyed it. It really grew on me and was relatively delicious. The chocolate notes were really interesting though. Overall, I would recommend it.

Taste Score

7/10

Flathead Lake Monster Granny Apple

Appearance

Flathead lake monster has strong vector designs and a really neat logo. I like the clear label.

Appearance Score

6/10. It's pleasant in general.

Taste

This tastes exactly like liquid apple candy. It's good candy apple soda. It's not too thick or too sticky sweet. But it still is a candy apple fake taste. It also has a good tartness on the very back of the tounge. Overall, pretty good. I think it's pretty tasty.

Taste Score

6/10  If you like apple flavored candy, this is the soda for you.

Flathead Lake Gourmet Soda: Huckleberry

Appearance

The bottle ok. The logo is cute and I like the clear bottles, but I like the granny apple bottle better. I think it benefits from the clear background. Overall, the strong vector drawing are very eye catching

Appearance Score

6/10. Average

Taste

I just don't like huckleberry. I'm sure that it's delicious for those who like huckleberry, but it just tastes nasty to me. It tastes like fake grapes and sticky fake flavoring and gross. Not a fan

Taste Score

3/10 Won't drink it again or seek it out

Wonderfarm Bird's Nest White Fungus Drink

I saw this in the soda/juice section of an Asian grocery store and I new I had to try it. I don't think it's a soda, but look at it. How could I not try a drink with the name "Wonderfarm Bird's Nest White Fungus Drink"

And for the record the ingredients list says it contains "water" "rock sugar" "white fungus" and yes "bird nest". Not sure what kind of bird nests. But if nothing else, this should be interesting, and will mean I'm also eating bird poop, probably?

Appearance

I really like the can design! The color choices are cute, and the frame around the name is neat, and the little detailing around the border. It's a really classic design.

Appearance Score

7/10, the little birds are cute too

Taste

It smells a little bit like milkis, the yogurt soda. It has a mild sweet smell to it. The first sip was really good. Great, in fact! It was sweet, and mild and nice. The second sip was not nearly as nice. The taste changed dramaticly and I got a chunk of something. I have no idea what. It tastes like sweet coconut water left out in the sun for a week. It's pretty sweet, but in a gross old way. It tastes a little rotten. It's interesting, but I'm not a big fan.
 I poured it out into the sink, and I wish I had taken a picture. The chunks were huge! And they looked like flaked off pig skin! Or sunburn peelings. I'm glad it was in an opaque can, otherwise I probably wouldn't have drank it.

Taste Score

3/10. Pretty gross

Lester Fixin's Buffalo Wing Soda

Ho boy. Buffalo Wing Soda. This is my first foray into a savory soda. I'm a little apprehensive. But who knows, it could be really special. So I'll try it. How bad could it be? Spoilers: really bad

Appearance

Slogan reads. "Y'all get yer fixins"

You know what this reminds me of? The label reminds me of when restaurants put really poor quality photos of the food next to it's name and prices in the menu. Sometimes it makes the food look appealing, but most of the time it's rather unappetizing. But, at least you know whats inside the container, right?

Appearance Score

3/10, not doing it for me.

Taste

Hooo boy. I cracked it open. It smells sweet. I'm not sure how sweet will work with savory soda. It smells faintly of A1 steak sauce. A little onion-y and... raisins? Am I smelling raisins? What's up with that? And the taste! Oh god, the taste. It's really sweet. And it tastes like onions. There's a little spicy bite in the back of the throat, which is interesting but not in a good way. And there is this prevailing overpowering taste of stale bazooka bubble gum. This  is not a good soda. This is a bad soda. Sure it's novel. And it's cute, what their trying to do. But it's really bad. Like Offensively bad. I have never disliked a soda this much.

Taste Score

1/10. It get's 1 point for trying something new.

Combine the pumpkin pie soda with the wings soda to create sadness!

Lester's Fixins Pumpkin Pie Soda

I was out about the town with some friends of mine, and one friend purchased a couple of these Lester's Fixins sodas. It's obviously a novelty brand, and they had sodas like "peanut butter and jelly" and "sweet corn". So, if nothing else, this will be interesting.

Appearance

If you look closely, you'll notice this was taken in a chipotle. Great lighting.

This is the appearance of a soda that your sweet old grandpa would make in his basement. It's a plain glass bottle that you can buy in bulk. It's a hastily slapped on labeled with a big picture of what it's supposed to be. Honest. Simple. A little poor quality. A little word art-y. Pretty pixely. But it comes with a little picture of the titular Lester, so that's cute?

Appearance Score

3/10, nothing special.

Taste

The soda is so orange it looks like orange soda. I'm trying this at room temperature, so this might not be the best representation of itself this soda has to offer, so I'll give it that lee way. The soda smells a little spicy, which is interesting. It has a spicy taste too, a little like cloves, but not quite. It is faaar too sweet. And it's not pumpkin-y at all. It tastes a lot like bubble gum and is most definitely not a good representation of pumpkin pie. Or a good representation of a decent soda.

Taste Score

3/10, I would not voluntarily drink it

Fentamins Curiosity Cola

I'm slowly working my way to completion of all the Fentamins sodas. Today I'm trying the Curiosity Cola. I am not a big fan of cola. It tastes like medicine to me and I rarely, if ever, drink it voluntarily. What I'm saying is, in the coke vs. pepsi debate, I am firmly on the side of neither. But it's Fentamins, so it has to be good, right?

Appearance

 

I feel like me scoring the appearance of Fentamins sodas is completely redundant at this point. They're all in the same bottle! So, as usual, the bottle is gorgeous and classic and blah blah blah.

Appearance Score

9/10, no one is surprised.

Taste

This is a tough one. It smells like a more mature version of Coca Cola. It tastes like an authentic cola. Like if cola went back to it's "hand crafted" roots and was made with simple and high quality ingredients. This is what it would taste like. I promise I'm not a fentamins shill. It's refreshing. It's sweet, but well balanced. But I'm just not a fan of cola. So I didn't love it. But if you like cola, this is an excellent example.

Taste Score

5/10?