Excel Lucky Cherry Cola

I cracked into this at work this afternoon:

 

Brand: Lucky Cherry Cola.

Origin: Breese, IL.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: There was "tree fruit & spice" in the ingredients list, which I was curious about! (Along with "essential oils.") The flavor was pretty unique, but I didn't LOVE it. The cola flavor was a little weak, and the cherry flavor was a little "simple" (as in not too complex). This was fine for sipping, but I'll rank it a little lower than average:

Score: 4.5 out of 10.

Zevia Cherry Cola

I grabbed this while out earlier today:

Enjoying it in my car.

Brand: Zevia Cherry Cola.

Origin: Los Angeles, CA.

Purchase Place: Kowalski's Market, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Stevia Leaf Extract.

Review: Over 7 years ago, I tried "Black Cherry Zevia" and just thought it was OK. (It was weird to me that it was clear.) Well, this was a cherry COLA (not just a SODA) which meant I expected it to be darker, but it was clear as well. This started strong, but it seemed to get worse the more I sipped on it. The cherry flavor wasn't nearly as refined as I expected it to be - it was a bit of an over-the-top child-like cherry. Overall, it wasn't bad, but had that sharpness from Zevia that I sometimes don't care for. I drank it all, but didn't care for it much by the end as it felt sharper and sharper. I'll rank this a bit lower than average.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Excel Lucky Cherry Cola

I opened my first soda from last week's trip to Blue Sun Soda: 

Brand: Excel Lucky Cherry Cola.

Origin: Breese, IL.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This smelled good from the start - quite sweet. It definitely leans towards "cherry SODA" and not so much "cherry COLA" as there's not a super strong cola element to this. And that's not a bad thing, because it's still quite tasty. It's a pretty solid cherry flavor. Nothing super unique, but a drinkable and tasty soda.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Kiss Cherry Kola

It was over 3 years ago that I first tried Kiss Army Root Beer, and it was surprisingly OK. So I was kind of looking forward to this:

Brand: Kiss Cherry Kola.  

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: Like their root beer, this was a solid beverage. It had a pretty deep cola flavor. But the "cherry" part of the flavor was hardly there! If you had told me it was just "cola," I would have thought "oh, it's a slightly 'fruity' cola like some of the unique ones that I've had." But I don't think I ever would have thought it was a CHERRY cola. 

 

And here's the conundrum for rating this: as a CHERRY cola, it's a bit of a letdown. But as a plain cola, it's pretty good! So I'm going by overall taste, not what I EXPECT it to taste like.

Side note: this is the first soda that I recall seeing anything like this on the label: "Flash Pasteurized for Stability and Safety." Huh.

Score: 7 out of 10.

 

Pennsylvania Dutch Cherry Cola Candy Cane

I was shopping at "Fresh Thyme Farmer's Market" on University Ave in Minneapolis a few weeks back, and I happened to glance across the flavored candy canes. And I spotted this:

A jar of Pennsylvania Dutch Cherry Cola Candy Canes.

Just the good stuff: sugar, more sugar, fake flavor, and color.

Brand: Pennsylvania Dutch Cherry Cola Candy Cane.

Origin: Hicksville, NY.

Purchase Place: Fresh Thyme, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar and Corn Syrup.

Review: I was first (pleasantly) surprised to find that there was no strong peppermint taste. Even though it's NOT a traditional candy cane, I was afraid it'd have a hint of peppermint thrown it. But it didn't.

At first, all I tasted was "cherry." There was no other flavor than cherry. "Where's the COLA?" I wondered. Then I realized I was just sucking on a red part - notice in the picture above that the cane is swirled red and brown. I focused my licks on a brown part, and sure enough, that was more "cola" flavored. So that was kinda fun to discover.

Both the cherry and the cola weren't very strong, but they were OK. I'm not really a fan of hard candies, so take that into consideration. This was fine, but there's ZERO chance it could beat an ACTUAL cherry cola. So I'll rank this just below average.

Score: 4 out of 10.
 

Sipping Spider Venom Cherry Cola

Last Friday, I stopped by Frattallone's Ace Hardware on Grand Ave in St. Paul (the "west" one by Macalaster College), and I took a quick look over their soda section:

I grabbed something near the top left of that image, and I opened it earlier today:

Brand: Sipping Spider Venom Cherry Cola.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was good. It had a real deep cherry flavor - very strong and sweet. It was almost a "black cherry" flavor. It has "extract of dark sweet cherry" on the ingredients list, and I don't know if it's that ingredient that makes this so tasty. It was strong flavored classic cherry cola with a bit more "pop." I really enjoyed it!

Score: 9 out of 10.

Dead World Goon Bitters Cherry Cola

I cracked into this just now, but unfortunately I think it's been my least favorite "Dead World" soda:

Brand: Dead World Goon Bitters Cherry Cola.

Origin: Detroit, Michigan.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: For being "novelty" sodas, I've quite liked most Dead World favors. But this one was a bit of a let down. The cola flavor was just OK, and there wasn't much of a cherry flavor at all. And it was oddly harsh. It wasn't great.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Review of 4 Hard Sodas: Not Your Mom's, Henry's, Strongbow, and Coney Island

Here's my second an final "mini review" of some hard sodas / flavored beers that I picked up at Total Wine:

All the bottles from a few months ago, but this review is just for 4 of the 9.

Here's my review of the final 4 (in the order that I drank them):

Not Your Mom's Apple Pie: This was a beer flavored with vanilla and apple juice, which sounded good to me. It's rare that my wife and I have the same reaction to a drink, but this one was the exception. My wife's quote after taking a sip: "Mmmmm, oh that's goooo... wait, OH NO!" Yep, I had the same thought. It's a very sweet apple pie flavor initially, but then there's a HARD hit of over-the-top cinnamon. I see what they're going for (it's like a super rich pie crust flavor), but it's quite literally 10x what it needs to be. It was nearly undrinkable.  Score: 2.5 out of 10.

Henry's Hard Cherry Cola: I liked this. It was just a little malty and not too "beer-y." And it had just a good cherry cola flavor. This went down easy. Score: 7 out of 10.

Strongbow "Cherry Blossom" Hard Cider: I'll be honest - I don't remember drinking this one. It must have been OK, but not great. Or horrible. Oops. Sorry. Score: 5 out of 10.

Coney Island Hard Root Beer: Possibly my favorite hard root beer! It had a strong vanilla flavor, and not a huge bite of booze. Still, I couldn't help but thinking if did NOT have alcohol in it, it would have been a great root beer. Score: 8 out of 10.


So I need to try more Coney Island hard sodas, because (as seen in the link below) I've liked them quite a bit - they hold 2 out of my top 3 scores for these 9 beverages.

If you missed it, here's the review of the first 5 of these hard sodas/ciders.

Whistler Cherry Vanilla Cola

I opened this earlier today and thought it could be weird:

Brand: Whistler Cherry Vanilla Cola.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: I thought this sounded weird. So I was ready for weird. But it was actually pretty good. It's a very smooth cola with a nice vanilla undertone. The cherry is a BIT fake-tasting, but it's not bad. In the end, this went down pretty easy.

Score: 6 out of 10.