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 -- # 2 ROUTE 66

My second soda was so out-of-this-world in color that I had to try it next.  It is an amazing non-natural color that it reminded me of Slimer from Ghostbusters.

This is Route 66 Lime Soda.

Again, the picture does not do this soda justice. For me, this soda almost glowed from the awesomeness of the color.

I must admit I did have a bit of danish before drinking this so my taste buds were a bit off.

Anyway, the soda was more tart and less sweet (maybe because of the danish) than Shirley Temple.  I liked it, but was disappointed that I didn't get a burst of lime flavor.  The smell was outrageous with lime, but the flavor was lacking. Minus a point for that.

Even my mother agreed that it did not have as much flavor. (Yep, she's trying them too. She's the 'taster' in the family.)

There was no artificial sweeteners in this one. Yay!

So flavor aside, a more tart soda that makes Mountain Dew look almost normal.  

MY TOTALLY BIASED REVIEW OF (FUNKY FOR MY HOMETOWN) SODAS -- #1 SHIRLEY TEMPLE

Okay, this should tell you how utterly boring my life happens to be.  When sodas are interesting enough to blog about, you know its bad.

And now the back story first.  I had to go to the local hardware store to get a surge protector.  I've only been in this store maybe three times since it moved into the building when it's predecessor folded.

On that day, since it was already in the mid 80 degree range at 9:30 in the morning, I noticed the store had a drink fridge.  So call me oblivious the other times I was there.

The fridge had all these cool-looking bottles. I wandered over and took a gander.  My little junk food loving heart skipped a beat as I saw soda flavors and names I have never heard of before.  So, later, I ended up buying them.

Now, onto the review of the first soda, pop, fizzy drink, or whatever you want to call it.

The first one I opened was called Shirley Temple.  

Love the color of the soda.  The picture cannot do it justice.  

Anyway, so I took my first drink.  The only flavor I can name that this soda tastes like is grenadine.  Of course, that depends on the brand of grenadine you get.  I'm not a drinker so I've only tasted pure grenadine once, but it is a distinctive flavor. 

I even asked my mom to taste the soda and she agreed with me.  

It wasn't bad, I must say, but it did leave an aftertaste because of the aspartame.  Minus one for that.  It was a sweet soda too. Maybe a bit too sweet. 

All in all, I did enjoy the soda.