Henry Weinhard's Black Cherry Cream

I celebrated a final "work week" before finals with a soda in class today:

Before any of my students showed up. Obviously.

Brand: Henry Weinhard's Black Cherry Cream.

Origin: Fort Worth, TX.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sucrose.

Review: This was QUITE creamy. I think I may have tasted the creaminess before actually tasting the black cherry. It was nearly too much. The black cherry part of it had a good deep flavor, but it was paired with this intense creaminess. I don't think it was bad, but it was just a bit more than I expected. I didn't "chug" this, but it was very "sip-able" throughout the morning in my classroom. Not bad. Different. CREAMY.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Point Premium Black Cherry Cream

My first Black Cherry Cream Soda was a bit of a let-down, so I was hoping this would be better:

Brand: Point Premium Black Cherry Cream

Origin: Stevens Point, WI.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was smooth, creamy, and all I hoped it would be. It went down EASY. It had a good black cherry flavor that was super creamy and sweet (hence "black cherry CREAM"). It also had a pretty strong "vanilla cream" aftertaste that was pleasant. This was good. Grab this on a hot summer day.

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Saranac Black Cherry Creme

Lent is over, so I hit my non-root beer stash from Ace the other day. I started with this:

Brand: Saranac Black Cherry Creme.

Origin: Utica, NY.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This tasted a little more artificial than I had hoped, and it was a bit sharper than I wanted. It's a "cream" soda, and I want that to be smooth. The black cherry flavor was pretty good, but it just wasn't all put together perfectly. I liked their Shirley Tempe soda better.

Score: 5 out of 10.