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.

First 5 Hard Ciders / Hard Sodas from Total Wine

Here's my first of 2 "mini reviews" of the hard ciders and hard sodas that I recently picked up at Total Wine:

All the bottles from last month, but this review is just for 5 of the 9.

Here's my review of my first 5 (in the order that I drank them):

Strongbow "Honey" Hard Apple Cider: This was very sweet and crisp. It was almost just apple cider with a bit of a boozy taste. I thought it was great, but my wife (who has a more refined wine drinkers palette) said it was too sweet. Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Coney Island Hard Lemon Lime Twist: This was stronger on the lemon, and weaker on the lime. So it was quite unique and didn't taste like 7-Up or Sprite. Also making it unique was the smooth finish - it sounds like it could be weird, but the vanilla aftertaste was quite nice. My wife really like this, and I thought it was pretty good. Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Henry's Grape Hard Soda: This was a bit like a grape beer. I don't care for beer, and this had just a little too much of a "hoppy" taste to it. The grape was nice though. If you like beer and grape soda, then try this. Being I'm not a huge beer fan, this was just OK. Score: 6 out of 10.

Not Your Father's Vanilla Cream Ale: There was a MAJOR vanilla smell when I cracked this open (it's made with Madagascar vanilla). The first sip was deliciously heavy on vanilla, but then the beer taste took over and totally ruined it. Again, like I said in the grape soda above, if you like vanilla and beer, then try this. But this was way too "beery" for me. Score: 4 out of 10.

Henry's Hard Sparkling Lemon Lime: This was stronger on the lime than the lemon (so reversed from Coney Island Hard Lemon Lime Twist above), but it was good. It wasn't as interesting as the Coney Island, but still decent. I'll rank this just a bit above average. Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Hard Sodas and Hard Ciders

We stopped at Total Wine in Roseville with my family this past week, and I was able to cruise the "by the bottle" aisle. I walked out with some hard sodas and hard ciders:

I'll have some mini-reviews of these in the upcoming few weeks. Stay tuned!

Henry's Hard Orange Soda

My wife recently bought this for me when she was getting some wine for herself at Total Wine (she's obviously the classy one in this relationship):

Under the bottle cap.

Brand: Henry's Hard Orange Soda.

Origin: Milwaukee, WI.

Purchase Place: Total Wine and Spirits, Roseville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I didn't know how an orange soda would mix with a beer flavor. I'm not a HUGE fan of beer. But this wasn't beer-flavored at all. I couldn't make out the alcohol flavor - it was almost like a "gentle" vodka flavor. It was good! The orange flavor was pretty normal/classic, and then it just had a slight alcoholic kick at the end of each sip. I may have to try the other Henry's Hard Soda flavors!

Score: 7.5 out of 10.