Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Soda taste test

When we were in Ohio, we went to Jungle Jim's grocery store. Quite a trip. It's not so much a grocery store as it is an amusement park where you buy food. There's lots of weird stuff going on in there. Anyways, while we were there, I bought a bunch of bottles of weird sodas I had never tried, and we (Beth, myself, Julie, Lynn, Sally, Alex, and my dad) did a taste test of them all:



Yes, I do realize that one of the sodas has an inappropriate name. I thought it was "Funkola Cola". Whatever, just deal with it.

First up was "Thum's Up". Apparently this is from India. The checkout guy was incredulous that I actually wanted to buy this. I wish I would have taken his advice. I thought it tasted like Coke, but with about 1/2 the normal amount of sugar. Sally thought it tasted like laundry detergent and Julie though it tasted like cleaning chemicals. Not exactly what you want in a soda.



Next on the docket was "Almdudler 50 Jahre" - the national soft drink of Austria (my dad's comment was "Isn't the national soft drink of Austria just beer?"). This one tasted kind of citrusy, with a hint of pineapple, but mostly it just tasted like bad ginger ale.



Next up was Cheerwine. I first had this in South Carolina last year. Definitely the best of the bunch. It's basically a black cherry soda. Very good.



Fukola Cola, the one with the inappropriate name and slogan, was normal-ish cola, but Beth and I both experience unpleasant bubbles-up-the-nose. Meh.

Inca Kola was up next. I had heard about this from Peru trips, but had never actually had it. It smells like a banana popsicle, and tastes like the bubble-gum flavored flouride at the dentist. Not the greatest thing in the world, but not the worst either.




Faygo rootbeer was just normal rootbeer, nothing great or bad about it.

Frostie Vanilla Root Beer was probably my second favorite, behind Cheerwine. It basically tastes like a rootbeer float after the ice cream has had a chance to dissolve. A couple of people mention cotton candy, but I think they are confused :) Definitely the second creepiest mascot of the bunch.



Manhattan Special Sasparilla was up next. This tasted pretty much like Rootbeer flavored Kool-Aid, which apparently they don't make anymore.

Kickapoo Joy Juice had the best name and creepiest logo of all the sodas. It also has a weird tagline: "Original dogpatch recipe". It wasn't bad, it just kind of tasted like flat Mountain Dew. I am slightly concerned that I somehow was duped into drinking dog pee though.



All in all, a successful taste test. Luckily no one had any bad reactions, so the authorities didn't have to be called:

2 comments:

Travis said...

So one of my current neighbors is a Polish woman named Ola. Needless to say I will definitely not be bringing any of the inappropriate soda home to share with said neighbor.

Zachary and Jennifer said...

"Original dogpatch recipe"... I would be questioning that one too.