Yacht Club Strawberry Soda

I opened this earlier today: 

Brand: Yacht Club Strawberry Soda.

Origin: Centredale, RI.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: The best thing I can say about this is that it's got an "adult" flavor as it's not too sweet. However, it needs MORE sweetness. It's a really subtle sweetness and strawberry flavor. It needs more of a punch. Speaking of "punch," it tastes like a poorly-made bowl of punch put out a some mid-90s high school graduation. Not great.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

 

Yacht Club Hillary's Liberal Limeade

Here's the 2nd part of my "Donald vs Hillary" drink off:

(In case you missed it, here's part 1 from Tuesday. I tried both sodas at the same time to compare them head-to-head.)

Brand: Yacht Club Hillary's Liberal Limeade.

Origin: Centredale, RI.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: Donald's was a bit sharper, but Hillary's was sweeter. The limeade flavor had a refreshing kick.  It was pretty good, but I couldn't get over just HOW unnaturally neon it was. It tasted like a fun summer drink. My wife and 2 boys both thought Hillary was better (my oldest son noting that it was sweeter), but I HONESTLY was pretty split. Donald maybe have better "adult" flavor, and Hillary was a "sweeter" sipper. I'm not trying to ride the political fence here, but I'm giving them the exact same score.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Yacht Club Donald's Populist Punch

I've had these bottles for a while (not 4 years - I swear), and it was time to test them out.

Notice it says "Soda Pop Poll" at the bottom of the bottles. They sold 50,000 bottles to see if they could predict the election results, and (after the election results were in) they noted that "Donald's Populist Punch" sold just a bit more than "Hillary's Liberal Limeade" - 22,224 vs 21,360. I thought I'd try them side-by-side. So here's my first review, with the follow up review coming later this week.

Brand: Yacht Club Donald's Populist Punch.

Origin: Centredale, RI.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: The first sip was a bit sharp. It tasted like a cherry fruit punch. It wasn't bad, I just expected it to be a bit smoother for some reason. Quite drinkable, but nothing special, so I'll rank it just above average.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.
 

Yacht Club Black Cherry

I opened this tonight while I was gathering some files at work:

Brand: Yacht Club Black Cherry.

Origin: Centredale, Rhode Island.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This had a lot of KICK for a black cherry soda. It wasn't necessarily a fantastic flavor, but it was a lot of it - it COMMITTED to a flavor, which I can respect. A little odd chemically taste at the end, so it wasn't the best. Still, not horrible. I'll rate it just below average.

Score: 4.5 out of 10.

Yacht Club Black Cherry

I took this on a family vacation recently, and drank it while watching my boys play at the beach:

At the beach as my boys play in the lake.

Brand:  Yacht Club Black Cherry.

Origin: Centredale, Rhode Island.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This smelled good and had a good black cherry flavor. But then it went downhill - there was no cola flavor at all. The black cherry felt a bit heavy and syrupy (which I sometimes don't mind), and it got to be too much. There was a bit of a strange bite at the end of each sip. If it had more cola flavor mixed in, it would have been a lot better.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.
 

Yacht Club Grape Soda

I cracked into this recently:

Brand: Yacht Club Grape Soda.

Origin: SOMEPLACE, Rhode Island.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Initially, it had a bit more of a "bite" than I'd like a grape soda to have. I want a sugary, smooth, sweet grape soda, and this wasn't quite that. After a few sips, I started to like it more, but it was still far from one of my favorite grape sodas. I'll give this an average score (like I've given to many Yacht Club sodas - they haven't impressed me much).

Score: 5 out of 10.

Olde Rhode Island Molasses Root Beer

This root beer had the WORST label I'd ever seen.

It looks like it was designed by a 9-year-old who's using a computer for the 3rd time ever.

Seriously. Look at this label. And that's not discoloration
at the top and bottom - that's part of the design.

Brand: Olde Rhode Island Molasses Root Beer.

Origin: Bristol, RI.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: The taste lived up to the label: it wasn't great. There was a bite that was OK, but the aftertaste was just a little off. A bit "burnt" or chemically. I don't get any special "molasses" flavor from it, and molasses isn't an ingredient. I noticed it was bottle by Empire, and that makes sense: I've had 4 other Empire sodas, and they've averaged about 4.5, so just below average on my rating scale. This was just below average too.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Yacht Club Root Beer

I tried Yacht Club DIET root beer about 2 months ago, so now it was time to see if their regular root beer could out-score the average "5" that I gave to their diet.

Brand: Yacht Club Root Beer.

Origin: Centredale, RI.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: Ehh. It was OK. It had a bit of an anise flavor, and it wasn't very creamy at all. It was a little too "sharp" for my liking. The flavor was earthy, but not that great. Again, this will get an average 5. It was OK.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Yacht Club Sarsaparilla

I thought I'd celebrate the 4th of July with a cold soda:

Brand: Yacht Club Sarsaparilla.

Origin: Centredale, RI.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This had an odd sharpness that wasn't great. The flavor was a bit earthy and OK, but the sharpness just overpowered. Not very good.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Yacht Club Diet Root Beer

After my first triathlon of the year this past weekend, I enjoyed this diet root beer:

Brand: Yacht Club Diet Root Beer.

Origin: Centredale, RI.

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

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: Ehh. It was OK. It was a little weak and watery like most diet root beers are. Flavor was OK. It was fine, just nothing exciting or different. I'll give it an average 5 out of 10.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Empire Diet Root Beer

I cracked into this the other afternoon:

Brand: Empire Diet Root Beer.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

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

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: Empire seems to do everything right. Except root beer or diet root beer. I really didn't care for their root beer (it was one of the first sodas that I reviewed on this blog), and I really don't care for this either. I don't mind diet sodas, but this tasted horribly fake. There is a strong anise flavor (which I know many root beers have, and that's fine), and there's a "sharpness" to this with no smoothness or drinkability at all. No thanks.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Empire Bottling Works Banana

After having the best root beer of my life, I was leery of trying such a strange-sounding pee-colored soda.

This was my 3rd Empire soda, and they've just been getting better - their root beer was pretty bad, their orange was average, and this was pretty good.

Brand: Empire Banana.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, Burnsville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: The first sniff was strong of banana. And it tasted sweet and good. It was like drinking liquified banana Runt candies (remember those?). The flavor was sharp, but right on. It had a strong banana flavor with a slight pear aftertaste - which was just fine. For being slightly a "novelty" flavor, it was quite refreshing.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Empire Orange Soda

I had Empire Soda one other time, and it was pretty crappy. This one was a bit better...

Brand: Empire Orange.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a pretty "sharp" for orange soda - I tend to prefer my orange drink to be smoother. My wife interpreted the sharpness as a chemically flavor, and she didn't care for the soda at all. I thought the orange flavor was good, and overall, I'd say it was pretty average.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Tower Root Beer

Quick side note: why do many small-bottler soda companies have such horribly designed websites. Tower Root Beer fits that mold.

Brand: Tower Root Beer.

Origin: Bristol, RI. (It's bottled with Empire sodas.)

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: It has strong wintergreen flavor, and just a little more anise than I care for. It's maybe a little better than average, and all-around just a good "drinkable" root beer.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Empire Root Beer

Rhode Island makes shitty root beer.  Or so I found out on Wednesday night when I tried this:

Brand: Empire Root Beer.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: It wasn't smooth, but it didn't really have bite either.  It was like it was trying to be both, but it failed at both - it needed to pick a team and stick with it.  I didn't care for the taste.  It wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't purchase this again.

Score: 3 out of 10.