This year I once again had the immense pleasure of attending the
Homer Soda Festival.
It's held at the beginning of June every year in Homer, Illinois. And
it. is. amazing. The festival has music and food trucks, but most
importantly they have
hundreds of different sodas. And if you have a VIP pass, you can sample any of them you like! There are so many varieties, so many new things to try!
So, a few notable things I tried:
There
was a brand called Yacht Club Soda that had an amazing spread of
different sodas. Some of their unique sodas include Grapefruit, Lemon,
Pineapple, Dry Ginger and Peach Seltzer. The Pineapple was actually
amazing, if you can find it I highly recommend it.
Boylan
sodas were, as usual, spectacular. Boylan Orange soda might be my
favorite orange soda around, if one is not counting Orangina.
Blenheim
is a ginger ale brand that is spectacular. I'm going to write a full
review of their Hot Ginger Ale, but until I do, seek it out. Its spicy,
and delicious and incredibly unique.
There was a very
interesting company called Hopwater which had a bunch of very bitter,
tonic type sodas in Lime, Ginger, and Grapefruit. It wasn't very good
for drinking on its own but it might make a good mixer.
Jones
sodas was there displaying a few new sodas and all they're classics.
They were sampling a melon soda which was amaaazing and so unique and
refreshing. They also had a birthday cake soda which was... real gross.
Very sticky sweet.
There is also brand called Kickapoo with makes a pretty good pina colada and fuzzy navel soda, if quite excessively sweet.
And the best sodas of the show! There a new local brand called
164 Brewery.
So far they only sell locally on tap, so no bottles yet. But it was
amazing! They had 3 sodas for tasting, Ominous, Pitcher in the Wheat,
and Tree Climber. Tree climber is an apple cider soda with flavors of
elderflower and ginger. Pitcher in the Wheat is a lemon wheat soda
sweetened with honey. And my personal favorite and my favorite soda of
the entire show is Ominous! Its a ginger beer soda, its got hibiscus and
citrus and a little spiciness. Its beautiful. All of them are
beautiful. I greatly look forward to when they start bottling so I can
do a full review.
Overall take away from the day. Festival is amazing, soda is amazing, life is beautiful.
