Category Archives: Fruit

Fentimans Victorian Lemonade Review

Posted on October 4, 2011 by

Brand: Fentimans
Flavor: Lemonade
Sweetener: Sugar
Size: 9.3 ounce bottle
Purchased At: Liberty Heights Fresh
Similar To: Jelly Belly Lemon Drop

The thing that I’ve loved about other flavors of Fentimans that I’ve tried is that they always have a strong, bold flavor. The Victorian Lemonade variety is no different. The soda is flavored with real lemon juice and it helps make this one of the most authentically flavored lemon sodas I’ve ever had. The soda is sour and sweet and very lightly carbonated. It finishes off slightly bitter, similar to other flavors of Fentimans. After trying a lot of sodas that have wild flavors printed on the bottle and then being slightly disappointed at how bland they actually taste, Fentimans Victorian Lemonade is both refreshing and delicious. Like all other Fentimans flavors, this one comes in a 9.3-ounce distinctly shaped glass bottle. The yellow and blue color scheme looks nice and the soda’s creamy yellow color is exactly what you would expect from a lemonade. I wish the carbonation packed a little bit more of a punch here, but I think the light carbonation is deliberately done in order to help the natural flavors stand out more. This is definitely one I want to try again.

VintageSodas.com rating:


Posted in 4 stars, Fentimans, Fruit, Lemonade, Review | Leave a comment

Zuberfizz Key Lime Cream Soda Review

Posted on June 1, 2011 by

Brand: Zuberfizz
Flavor: Key lime cream
Sweetener: Pure cane sugar
Size: 12 ounce bottle
Purchased At: Old 52
Similar To: Stewart’s Key Lime Soda

Bottled in Durango, Colorado, Zuberfizz Key Lime Cream Soda is a “classic draft soda” that I couldn’t help but want to try. For starters, key lime and cream are two of my favorite flavors in soda and I had yet to try a combination of the two. The soda’s bottle is also quite charming and has a nice old-fashioned design and appealing color scheme. I opened this bottle and was at first surprised by the soda’s color. The bottle is a dark brown so I assumed the soda would be a light brownish color like a traditional cream soda. I was wrong, however, as this soda is colored bright green due to the key lime flavor. After my first taste, I could definitely distinguish both the cream and lime flavors. Both are present but are quite subdued and subtle. I wish they had been stronger and packed more of a punch. Also, the lime flavor here is just that: lime. It is not really key lime despite the bottle’s claims to the contrary. I have still only tasted one soda that had true key lime flavor and that was Stewart’s Key Lime (which is really delicious, by the way). Zuberfizz’s Key Lime Soda was also a little lacking in the fizz department, which was disappointing considering the “Feel the fizz!” wording on the label. For the most part, this flavor of Zuberfizz is tasty but fails to make a lasting impression.

VintageSodas.com rating:


Posted in 3 stars, Cream Soda, Fruit, Review, Zuberfizz | Leave a comment

Hot Lips Apple Soda Review

Posted on May 25, 2011 by

Brand: Hot Lips
Flavor: Apple
Sweetener: Cane sugar
Size: 12 ounce bottle
Purchased At: Liberty Heights Fresh
Similar To: Apple Beer

Originally founded as a pizza company in 1984, Hot Lips has also been making sodas since 2005. Their apple soda is the first one I’ve tried and I came away pretty satisfied. For starters, the soda is made with real apples from the Northwestern United States. When you tip the bottle over, you can see chunks of apple pulp drift slowly downward. I was surprised and impressed by how much apple pulp there was and by how large the apple chunks were–there is definitely real fruit in this soda. According to the Hot Lips website, their apple soda has the taste of fresh pressed cider. I found this to be quite accurate. The soda is very flavorful and goes down quite smoothly thanks to the light carbonation. For comparison’s sake, Apple Beer is a little more sour and tangy than this and much more heavily carbonated. The only downside to the Hot Lips Apple soda is that a 12-ounce bottle is fairly expensive–I think I paid around between $2.50 and $3 for a single bottle. I’ll have to hunt around and see if I can find it cheaper, since this soda is definitely worth returning to. I can’t wait to try the other Hot Lips varieties. They’re all made with real fruit from the Northwest!

VintageSodas.com rating:


Posted in 4 stars, Fruit, Hot Lips, Review | Leave a comment

Filbert’s Peach Soda Review

Posted on May 21, 2011 by

Brand: Filbert’s
Flavor: Peach
Sweetener: Sugar
Size: 12 ounce bottle
Purchased At: Old 52
Similar To: Nesbitt’s Peach Soda

My first impression of Filbert’s Peach soda was not very good. The label on the bottle was crooked and the design on the label looked like it was made in Microsoft Paint by an 8th grader. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed by the presentation. I was willing to give the Filbert’s Peach the benefit of the doubt, though, because I knew that the Filbert’s brand has been around for a long time (since 1926) and is considered by some to be one of the quintessential vintage soda brands. I figured that any brand that has been around for that long must taste at least pretty good, despite the poorly designed logo and label. After my first sip of the soda, I had to double check the label to make sure this wasn’t actually Filbert’s Orange since the taste reminded me of a melted orange popsicle. No, it actually was Filbert’s Peach that I was drinking. Where then was the peach flavor? After a couple more sips, I was finally able to detect a faint hint of peach flavor. It was pretty artificial tasting and was mostly overpowered by the sugary orange taste. After finishing the bottle, I concluded that the reason that Filbert’s has making soda since 1926 probably has nothing to do with this oddly flavored peach soda. I’m looking forward to trying other flavors of Filbert’s since they’re bound to be better than this.

VintageSodas.com rating:


Posted in 2 stars, Filbert's, Fruit | Leave a comment

Fentimans Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger Review

Posted on May 19, 2011 by

Brand: Fentimans
Flavor: Mandarin and Seville Orange
Sweetener: Sugar
Size: 9.3 ounce bottle
Purchased At: Old 52
Similar To: None

Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger (quite a mouthful) is another one of of Fentimans’ botanically brewed sodas. The soda is a bright orange-yellow color and a quick look at the ingredients reveals why–it is made with real mandarin juice concentrate as well as seville orange extracts. Unlike most sodas, you actually need to shake this one a little bit before drinking because the natural fruit bits tend to settle on the bottom of the bottle. My first taste of the jigger (I’m not sure why it’s called jigger since a jigger is a unit of measurement) revealed that the taste stays very true to the look: this is essentially an orange juice soda. Like Fentimans Curiosity Cola, this drink contains ginger and other herbal extracts. Unlike the cola, however, those ingredients are barely noticeable here. What is noticeable, though, are the satisfying mandarin and orange flavors. The carbonation is pretty mellow but still adds a nice zing to the soda which finishes with a very slight bitterness that one would expect when eating a real orange. Fentimans has done it again and created a very distinctive soda that is different but still manages to taste good.

VintageSodas.com rating:


Posted in 4 stars, Fentimans, Fruit | 3 Comments

Jones Strawberry Lime Soda Review

Posted on May 12, 2011 by

Brand: Jones
Flavor: Strawberry Lime
Sweetener: Inverted cane sugar
Size: 12 ounce bottle
Purchased At: Smith’s
Similar To: None

Fruit soda is always pretty hit-or-miss for me. On one hand, you can get a delicious fruit soda that’s flavored with real fruit and that tastes very refreshing. On the other hand, you can get a fruit soda that tastes so artificial that you wonder if someone slipped a weird concoction of chemicals into the soda bottle when you weren’t looking. Thankfully, Jones sodas have always had pretty authentic flavors and the Jones Strawberry Lime is no different. Strawberry and lime may not seem like a very complementary pairing for a soda, but they definitely work well together here. The strawberry provides a sweet, tart flavor and the lime finishes the soda up nicely, but could be stronger and tangier. It’s difficult to describe the flavor, since I can think of no other sodas that are similar to Jones Strawberry Lime. So if you haven’t tried it yet, you’re missing out on a unique and very tasty soda. Lucky for you, Jones is widely available in most areas so you shouldn’t have too much trouble hunting down a bottle or two.

VintageSodas.com rating:


Posted in 4 stars, Fruit, Jones, Review | Leave a comment

Leninade Review

Posted on May 10, 2011 by

Brand: Leninade
Flavor: Lemonade
Sweetener: Cane sugar
Size: 12 ounce bottle
Purchased At: Old 52
Similar To: Jelly Belly Lemon Drop Soda

Seeing the bottle one time was enough to convince me that I had to try Leninade soda. I mean, the bottle is packed with enough Soviet-related maxims to make any communist proud. Phrases like “A party in every bottle” and “Surprisingly satisfying simple Soviet style soda” meant that this was a drink that I needed to try as soon as possible. The day has finally come and I have at last found out what Leninade is all about. Based on the wordplay in the soda’s name, I was guessing this was supposed to be a lemonade-flavored soda. The red coloring made me think it would possibly be some sort of berry lemonade. One bottle later and I can proclaim that Leninade is actually lightly carbonated water with a lemon wedge squeezed into it. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but in spite of the soda’s self proclamations of “a taste worth standing in line for”, Leninade is ultimately too bland to be a really great soda. I really wanted to like it, too, but the flavor was just too weak. A lemonade soda should be much more tart and tangy than this. I think the creativity of the packaging alone keeps this soda from being below average, but I feel like there was a missed opportunity here to make something really special.

VintageSodas.com rating:


Posted in 3 stars, Fruit, Review | Leave a comment

Briar’s Lemon Cream Soda Review

Posted on May 10, 2011 by

Briars Lemon Cream

Brand: Briar’s
Flavor: Lemon Cream
Sweetener: Could not determine
Size: 12 oz Bottle
Cost: $1.99
Purchased At: Rocket Fizz
Flavor Notes: Smooth lemon flavor, slight creaminess, ever-so-slightly bitter finish

When my gaze came across this Briar’s Lemon Cream Soda there wasn’t as much as a second thought as to whether or not I was going to buy this soda, how could I not? I love any soda with “cream” attached to the title or the flavor. When I think of the other “cream” soda flavors that we usually see I think of vanilla cream, orange cream, red cream and even blue cream. I had never been seen or heard of a lemon cream soda – this was one I had to try. First off, Briar’s Lemon Cream is a good soda. The color is a cloudy yellow, exactly what you’d expect from a lemon cream soda. The bottle is a 12 oz. long neck and the there is a nice Briar’s Lemon Cream logo but that’s it. There is no nutritional information, no information on Briar’s, no ingredients even. I found this strange and set off for the interwebs to track down ingredients. No luck though — what’s strange is that the Briar’s Soda website doesn’t acknowledge the existence of their lemon cream soda. Ingredient list aside, this soda has a smooth, creamy lemon flavor which allows just a little of the sour through. Just as it should, the creaminess subdues most of the punch and pucker that a lemon soda can pack and allows the flavor of lemon to break through with just a hint of the sour. However, while upon first taste you can really taste the creamy element of this drink, the lemon flavor peaks through and finally the soda finishes with just of bitterness towards the end. It’s as if the creaminess was fighting the naturally overpowering lemon flavor and does so valiantly right up until you swallow and then the lemon gets one little kick. The result isn’t bad. If you like lemon sodas then I would definitely recommend trying a Briar’s Lemon Cream. This soda is definitely unique and plenty good enough to enjoy while drinking it. I hesitate to give this soda a 4-start rating because I’m not convinced this is a flavor I would buy time and time again, but it is definitely unique and enjoyable enough to earn a solid 3-star rating.

VintageSodas.com Rating:


Posted in 3 stars, Briar's, Fruit | Leave a comment