Health-Ade SunSip Cream Soda

We were at Whole Foods this weekend, and I spotted a line of soda that had some sun sounding flavors. I grabbed this Cream Soda to drink in my office:

 

Brand: SunSip Cream Soda.

Origin: Terrance, CA.

Purchase Place: Whole Foods, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Agave Inulin, Monk Fruit Juice Extract, and Cane Sugar.

Review: So this is a "prebiotics" soda. I knew that going in. I tend to shy away from these as I don't like the "bite" of kombucha, and many lean in that direction. But we saw so many flavors of this brand that LOOKED good when we were at Whole Foods, so I wanted to give it a try. It only has 4 grams of sugar and 30 calories, as it has 2 other sweeteners before sugar. Would it be drinkable?...

... Barely.

The second ingredient is "apple juice," and that's NOT a flavor that you commonly expect to go with the smoothness of a cream soda. And guess what? It doesn't really work. It had a pungent KICK when I took my first sip. I got a little better as kept drinking, but it was still very SHARP for a cream soda (which is something I expect to be SMOOTH). The cream soda flavor was decent, but it was just really odd paired with the apple juice.

Bottom line: I didn't care for it. If you like cream soda AND kombucha, you could like this! It's not nearly as sharp as a normal kombucha, but it LEANS that way. Just not for me - too odd of a flavor combo. Apple juice and cream soda are not flavors that ever needed to be mixed. I need to stay away from these kinds of "sodas."

Score: 2.5 out of 10.

I Saw This... Now You Have To As Well...

Direct link: youtube.com/shorts/B2EhoUEf0RU

And also this:


Direct link: youtube.com/shorts/QdnGQDqU2LE

I think the first one is worse, but it's also gross that I'm thinking about which one is "better..."

Old Keg Root Beer

It's been awhile (about SIX WEEKS) since my last review! I need to start hitting the soda a bit harder... so I started with this before class yesterday:

 
Brand: Old Keg Root Beer

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

Purchase Place: Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and Honey.

Review: This was SUPER creamy from the first sip. It was an INCREDIBLY smooth root beer with a fair amount of vanilla flavor with just a nice little hint of anise. 

After I had enjoyed it quite a while, I took a closer look at the ingredients list (because this was turning into a top-10 root beer for me and I wanted to see why!), and I found "honey" on the list as well. Honey can make or break a soda (I love honey by itself), and I tend to find it's flavor not that complimentary to a root beer. But this was so nicely subtle that it worked really well with the smoothness and creaminess of this root beer. This was REALLY GOOD! And it's not just because I haven't had a root beer in a while! A very quality soda! It's my first soda rated a "10" in the last 10 years!

Score: 10 out of 10.