I like fruit. Not just fruit, but all sorts of fruit and fruit imitations. I like natural and artificial fruit flavors. The taste of a ripe, fresh nectarine is transcendent joy; artificial grape and cherry flavors in Popsicles are great fun.
This one claims to be "All Natural Cran-Cherry Soda with Ginseng." I'm game.
Where and when: purchased 3/28/09 at BevMo, Oceanside, CA
Color: pinkish-orange, slightly opaque. Small bits of sediment. The sediment chunks look denser than pulp.
Scent: Almost no scent. When smelled very carefully, a slight scent of cherry can be detected.
Taste: Oddly bland. There is a taste of cherry and cranberry (without much of the bitterness). There is an unpleasant initial taste, accompanied by a faint smell of metal. It’s not salty, but has a touch more sour, unpleasantly reminiscent of the heavy-saliva taste present in the Jarritos Tamarindo. It’s not that strong, though.
The cherry tastes very much like the bits of black cherry you get in Cherries Jubilee ice cream from Baskin-Robbins. The aftertaste is mostly cherry, and fairly pleasant—the metallic initial taste has faded. It is quite persistent. There’s very little cranberry. There is a persistent heavy, slightly greasy feeling accompanying the aftertaste, and I’m liking that less and less as it refuses to leave.
It’s worth noting that the tastes are relatively faint in this soda—it’s not very sweet, and the fruit tastes are not prominent. It’s not at all syrupy. While I think that a lot of sodas are too sweet and syrupy, this may be too much the other way. The Dry Soda line is also light, but much crisper. This has a not-so-pleasant mix of heaviness and blandness, like cherry Jello made at half strength and half sugared, but with added cornstarch. Yech.
Quaff rating: 2. It’s not that it’s hard to drink, but I just don’t see the point. I could get bored drinking this.
Cough rating: 2. The initial odd taste is not nice, and it leaves a vaguely greasy feel and taste for a while afterwards.
Note: 15 minutes later, the aftertaste is no longer cherryish, just slightly sour, but still heavy and unpleasant.
And the flavor, never flitting, still is sitting, STILL is sitting
On my bumpl’d tongue which lies betwixt my teeth and palate sore
And it feels as if it’s teeming with some squidgy slimy feeling
Which I can’t remove by screaming out for H2SO4
And the aftertaste which on my tongue lies as a rug on floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!
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