MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 10 OLDE BROOKLYN RED HOOK RASPBERRY

My next soda looked hot pink in the light. It was a pretty color really. The soda is called Olde Brooklyn Red Hook Raspberry.

I popped the top and sniffed.  Surprisingly, it didn't have a strong smell. Only a hint of raspberry tickled my nose.

The taste was also mellow.  It was mostly cane sugar sweet with the raspberry flavoring hitting my taste buds in the aftertaste.  Long lasting and not too strong, it was sort of pleasant to have it linger.

I've noticed a difference in taste between high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar.  How do I describe it?  I want to say its the difference between cheap maple syrup and molasses.  High fructose has a thinner sweet quality than cane.  Cane, for me, feels like it coats my mouth more.
Anyway, the raspberry taste was subtle, and the soda wasn't too sweet either.  I did like this one quite a bit.

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 9 CHEERWINE

So this one was one of the funkiest so far.  It was dark like a cola.  That is until I held it up to the light. Then it turned a beautiful blood-red burgundy.

From the bottle, I could tell it was wild cherry flavor.

The smell hinted of the cherry flavor.

The taste was not there.  I didn't get a cherry flavor at all.  I was expecting something like that of a Cherry Coke, where the taste is in-your-face.  There wasn't much flavor at all.  It was more tart/acidy than anything else.

Who knows.  Maybe my tastes buds were off that day. My disappointment knows no bounds on this one.

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 8 VANILLA ROOT BEER

Frostie Vanilla Root Beer was the second choice my sister made when she was here for 4th of July weekend.  The first being Coco Fizz.(What can I say? She's a chocoholic.)

So this one smelled like root beer with a hint of vanilla.  It was very promising.

I poured all three of us some.  My mom thought it was too sweet.  My sister approved.  I thought it tasted as if it was a root beer float.

The vanilla flavor was big enough to make it seem as if there was a scoop of vanilla ice cream hanging out in the bottle.

My only complaint about this soda was that the root beer part lacked bite. I prefer my root beer to stab my tongue with its flavor.  This particular root beer was a palid version. The flavor was there, but not like it is with Barq's.

My mom thought it was okay but not great.  My sister liked it a lot.  I thought that it was pretty much a winner.

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 7 COCO FIZZ

So now we are about half way or more through the sodas.

How can you go wrong with chocolate soda.  Hmm, chocolate soda.  Yep.

Upon opening the bottle, the scent of Toosie Roll is pungent. I didn't even have to put the bottle to my nose to smell it.

Pouring it, it is brown as you would expect. If I rememeber correctly, it was about the color of a Toosie Roll as well.  Maybe even a bit lighter.

My sister and mom both hated it. They made the lemon juice squishy, gag-a-maggot, yucky-poo face.

To me, it literally tasted like I was drinking a Toosie Roll in soda form.  It was a bit too much for me, but it definitely was better than Big Red.

I say it was on a low like scale.  I don't mind it, but I would not go out of my way to buy it again.

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 6 CARAMEL CREME

Okay, this one is going to be fun.  The this one is called Caramel Creme.

Oh My Goodness! The smell was just like if you opened up a jar of caramel topping for ice cream. It was that strong. 

It literally made my jaw ache when I smelled it. It was almost nauseatingly sweet.

The taste wasn't bad.  I don't like creamsicles to begin with but this one wasn't too bad.  It had that creamsicle aftertaste. It was pretty sweet in flavor as well. 

This isn't one I would do again.

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 5 AJ STEPHANS BIRCH BEER

A J Stephans Birch Beer is the next soda on my list.  It came with a simple brown bottle with a label as unassuming as it can be.

I opened the bottle and the smell was okay.  It was sort of like root beer.

Much to my suprise the soda itself was transparent like 7UP or Sprite, but it did have a tinge of brown to it that i would call it a very pale tan.

As for the taste, the only way I can describe it is that it tastes like root beer without the root.  I have no idea if that makes sense.  I guess it has the basic flavor of root beer, but it doesn't have the bite that root beer has.

My mother's eloquent comment was that it tasted like furniture polish.

It was an okay soda. It came up to the mid I liked it scale.  Not the greatest but definitely not the worst tasting thing out there.

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 4 BIG RED

Number four is Big Red.  I had no idea what to expect because there is no flavor labeling unlike Route 66.

I assumed it was a cherry, strawberry, or some other fruit flavor.  I was right.

This soda was cherry flavored.  Only this cherry flavor reminded me of the flavor you get from cherrry flavored cough syrup.  Well, minus the medicine taste you get with it.  Or it's kind of like the syrup for snow cones because it had that same bitter aftertaste that snow cone syrup leaves.

My mother could not even finish the sip she had of this soda, which was about three tablespoons at most.

I was dissappointed and not impressed with this soda.  Definitely not a winner in my book.

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- # 3 FITZ'S HIP HOP POP

So my third soda looked like it had come from the 50s with it's decoration in my opinion.

The color is unassuming with its normal cola brown.

I totally thought this was going to be a regular cola soda.  Nope, they fooled me.

This one tasted like a cherry cola.  Surprise!

Its cherry flavor is not overwhelming.  Nor does it have as strong an acidic burn as some other colas.  It had great flavor without being too much of anything.

My mom nearly gagged a maggot because she hates this type of soda. Give her a regular cola.

The ingredient label reads like any other cola label.  No nasty artificial sweeteners, but it does have caffiene, caramel and other colorings, and other nonmentioned flavorings.

I definitely enjoyed this one.  Cherry colas are one of my favorites.