Cheerwine

Up until about 2 seconds ago I thought this was cherrywine.

They didn't check my ID when I bought this so they are either bad cashiers or there is no fermentation in this sparkling drink.

It definitely has that cherry smell. It reminds me of the cake I had at my sister's wedding this weekend!!

It has a great cherry flavor. I tend to not like cherry that much but this drink does it nicely. It's not too strong. I get some undertones of coke, another reason I think cherry is a big flavor in coca cola. (Is this common knowledge and I'm just dumb?)There isn't much else in this drink. It's just straight up cherry.

The aftertaste of cherries is one of the things that makes me not enjoy them to their full extent. This drink has that aftertaste. However, it is not a deal breaker. It is still a quality beverage.

The carbonation is pretty much perfect. It lives up to the "Unique Sparkling Soft Drink" touted on the neck of the bottle.

Speaking of, let's talk about the labeling...There hardly is any. There is the little circular print I just mentioned and there is a smallish oval label in the center. It's red believe it or not. Written in white it says, "Drink Cheerwine Bottling Company Since 1917". Simple, but effective.

Hey look! The bottle design is something different that I can write about! It's tall and skinny, Boylan-esque but not as tall. The cool thing is the vertical wave like grooves that run around the bottle. It gives you something to grip. There is a flat band at the location of the label.

Overall,I would call this a pretty high quality soda. The flavoring tastes great even if cherry isn't my absolute favorite flavor in the world. The bottle is unique and the carbonation is spot on. Welcome to the top of the ranks Cheerwine. The only question is, is it high enough to be in the top 5 for the Glass Bottle Tournament? We shall see.

Boylan Diet Creme

Another diet soda. I think my randomizer is trying to tell me something..

It has a pretty sweet taste, and by sweet I mean in the slang sense. This cream soda doesn't have that powerful first taste I have gotten from other cream soda's. And the aftertaste is less pronounce than the others. It is a good aftertaste, but when is it not?

There does seem to be a little something lacking though, that I assume is from the diet part. The best I can say is that is just not a full flavor. It's like a nearly great soccer team. They get in the box all the time, but they just can't seem to finish. It's so nearly close to being a perfectly fine soda, but I just needs one little push of oomph! My guess, is that oomph is called sugar.

Now I am nitpicking here. It is a good soda. But it makes me all the more eager for the regular Boylan Creme soda.

I'm just going to skip the carbonation section.

The bottle! Or the label to be more specific. This one has a really awesome gold color. Like, amber waves of grain color. The bottle cap is the best. It's got the amber gold in metallic paint. Also, since this is the diet creme soda, the bottle has diet decal on the neck. The word diet is flanked on top and bottom by a nice fancy border that appears to include a wagon wheel, a double sided arrow and some a floral something or other.

I would call this soda a relaxed cream soda. It is a quiet fine soda but not a stand out cream soda.

Pop Goes The Bubble

Somebody pop the bubbly!

This may be the soda I have been most excited for. Ever since I first looked over the sodas in that corner fridge, I have been wanting to try this one. It's not that I think it's going to be fantastic, it's just..it's bubble gum soda!! I mean come on!

The only soda that might make me more excited is a cotton candy soda. I love the cotton candy flavor.

It has a bit of a medicine like smell. That is medicine that is flavored to bubble gum. Hopefully that won't deter me.

Oh man this is interesting. It is just like eating a Dubble Bubble piece of gum. My initial reaction to this drink was, "Don't swallow this it is gum!" It even leaves a sugary feeling in my mouth. It closely resembles how your mouth salivates when chewing gum. Except you don't have to salivate, the moisture just comes from the drink itself. It's a pretty surreal experience.

My tongue keeps pressing to the top of my mouth like I am about to attempt to make a bubble...I say attempt because I suck at blowing bubbles. I blame it on my short tongue.

Anyway, the carbonation is just fine. Not fizzy but has that sparkly feeling.

The bottle is short and stout, even more so than the Pop Shoppe (eh). The glass is clear so as to show off the brilliant translucent pink hue. The label is..unique. "Pop Goes the Bubble, old fashioned bubble gum soda" adorns the label. The title of this soda is outlined in a faint bubble gum bubble. To the bottom left, is..something. The closest comparison I can make to it is possibly a Styrofoam cup with one of those hot drink lids. What I presume to be coming out of this cup is a lot of bubbles. Also, a snowflake is shooting out of it.

Like I said, unique. Fitting though for the flavor of the soda. Have you ever seen bubble gum soda before?..And on a side note, have you ever seen cotton candy soda before? If so please let me know where.

This soda does a very good job at getting the bubble gum flavor. It evens leaves me with the mouth feel of chewed bubble gum. I would recommend this soda to other people, just so they can experience how good of a job they do at mimicking Dubble Bubble.

There will be a special early edition of the Glass Bottle Connoisseur tomorrow! I expect to be extremely busy again on Friday so I am going for the preemptive strike. So if you actually read these posts every MWF, expect to see one tomorrow instead of Friday!

Stewart's Diet Root Beer

The first of the diets.

Now I haven't had Stewart's regular root beer so I won't be able to make the best comparison, but I should be able to do with what root beer's I have tasted.

Smells like root beer.

It tastes like root beer also. Perhaps it has a little bit less intense of a flavor than others I have tasted. I do believe I taste a difference though. This root beer is a tad bitter. Most likely coming from the fact that it has 0 sugar in it. And 0 carbs and 0 protein and 0 fat and 0 calories! It does have sodium though..

So that essentially makes this soda a carbonated brine with root beer flavor added. To put it in the worst possible terms ever.

It really isn't bad though. Perhaps it tastes ever so slightly bitter to me because I'm looking for a difference from non diet root beer.

It has a somewhat creamy taste, which goes well with the root beer flavor. I really get the root beer flavor at the back of my mouth.

I'm a little disappointed in Stewart's when it comes to the fizz factor. Consuming this beverage I get a little bit of Fizz Upon Drinking, forever to be known now as FUD. FUD is one of my least favorite experiences when it comes to drinking carbonated water syrup, something I have expressed multiple times throughout this journey.

However, it is not a lot of FUD, but still a noticeable amount.

The label is graced with a mug the shape of a barrel. With a foamy root beer beverage slightly overfilling it. I wonder if root beers were originally made in barrels. This, dumdums and probably many other root beer flavored products are advertised with the barrel. Maybe they are playing on the beer part of root beer. I know those are fermented.

At any rate, this diet root beer is a decent drink. From what I can tell, it is not too different from standard root beer beverages. In my opinion though, if you are going to go diet, just drink water.

The Pop Shoppe Root Beer

Root Beer from the reliable Pop Shoppe, nothing wrong aboot it.

The Pop Shoppe is consistently average, or in nicer terms, reliable.

I expect nothing less from this root beer, eh.

Apparently walking from the Yumm Shop to my dorm bubbled up my soda. And it has stayed that way. I guess this soda has a pretty high surface tension, these bubbles aren't going anywhere.

This drink has a nice deep root beer flavor. There's no mistaking it. Of course root beer is a very distinct flavor so even a little bit is unmistakable. C'est delicieux.

Of course, as Pop Shoppe always is, it is spot on with the flavor. Perhaps this time it is even more pronounce than what I'm used to, but that is a good thing. I don't often drink soda (aside from this journey), but when I do I drink dos equis root beer. I like the root beer flavor and in my opinion the more the better.

The bottle and labeling is aboot the same as it always is. Accept this time, oh I'm sorry... except this time it has "ROOT BEER" under the Pop Shoppe logo eh.

Root Beer is a nice rural flavor. It makes me think of farms, like Ontario Farms. Just going to work on my tractor, getting all hot and sweaty. Then I come back and drink a nice cold bottle of Root Beer. Sit down in my couch and watch me some hockey.

The Pop Shoppe lives up to its reputation of reliability. Maybe this time it even goes past that with a nice strong flavor. When ever Pop Shoppe pops up on my list, I know I'm in for a good soda. Not an awesome soda, but a good soda, and I know it will be a good day, eh.

Oh by the way, did I mention the Pop Shoppe is a Canadian Brewery?

Stewart's Orange'n Cream Soda

The ORGINATOR

The one that started it all!

It better be good because in my effort to go to commons and purchase this drink, I was turned zombie..

But I know it is good =]

It smells of an orange and marshmallow snow ball. The scent brings you back to the hot days of summer. Except the summer heat is spliced by the cool orange and cream.

The taste. Oh the taste is perfect. The orange flavor replaces the usually strong punch of the initial cream soda. Who doesn't love orange soda? I know Kel doesn't, mmhmmmmm..

Then orange flavor is in harmony with the luscious cream. Then the cream takes over and has an undertone of orange. A perfect melody.

No component is too strong in this soda. Neither the orange nor the cream is overpowering. There is one thing that hits me in the face from this drink.

Its pure awesome delicousness.

This Stewart's soda is not visibly fizzy. No bubbles appeared when I opened the bottle, nor did they appear when I shook the bottle. Yet somehow there is still a sparkle of carbonation in my mouth.

The labeling is a green diamond with the Stewart's name on it. Underneath is an orange Popsicle with a creamy center ever so slightly dripping out. As I drink, the orange Popsicle loses its color.

I have convinced a few others to try this soda and one of them proclaimed that it tasted just like orange soda. To me it is a little hard to tell the difference. However, the orange sodas I have always came off a little strong. The orange flavor was good, but there was a lot of it. I believe what makes this drink a winner is that the cream is enough to mellow out that orange.

Yes it tastes a lot like orange soda, but that creamyness makes this soda exponentially better.

If I had to improve upon this drink I would only say give me the aftertaste I got from Stewart's Cream Soda. The aftertaste here does not linger for too long. If I could get the orange cream with a wonderful long lasting creamy aftertaste this soda would be...well I can't even think of words.

This has reminded me of why I started this journey. If this soda is so good, then there has to be other great soft drinks out there. Maybe, just maybe, some better than this one...maybe.

By the way, this may be the first soda I actually finished before I finished typing. And I finished it a long time ago.

Frostop Vanilla Caramel Creme Soda

Yet another Cream Soda!

This one touts "Great Creme Brulee Taste". You can't boast that and not live up to it or I will make a sad face.

Well it has a custard like smell. Also a fresh baked cake smell. I keep taking wiffs of it that smell is so good.

On to tasting. The Caramel is very prominent. In hindsight that scent was caramel, boy that's embarrassing. I was into baking for a long time and I can't distinguish smells like that -_-. This cream soda isn't too strong on the aftertaste. My last two cream sodas shined in the aftertaste section, but this hardly has one.

This soda is really just caramel in a bottle. You get a nutty caramel taste in the back of your mouth, just as if you had just eaten a chunk of caramel.

I'm a little hesitant to say that I would like more vanilla. Vanilla is a base tone type of flavor, and too much can lead to bad flavors. Think of vanilla extract. When baking you almost always put a teaspoon or two in. That is because it is powerful juju.

I also get a butter feel.

Carbonation is A-OK.

The labeling of this bottle is an interesting topic. First off, it is brown and tan. Surprising isn't it!? Let's address the claim of "Great Creme Brulee Taste". I am making a sad face. Creme Brulee = Custard. I believe the taste they are claiming to have is the crunchy part of the creme brulee. That crunchy part comes from sprinkling sugar over the custard and then taking a blow torch (AWESOME) and toasting that sugar. Caramel is made by heating sugar. So yes, it does taste like the crunchy part of the creme brulee. The rest of the creme brulee is an awesome vanilla custard. Next I shall address the neck label. It has a cow on it. When I was jotting down all the sodas to be put into a randomizer, I couldn't find the name of this soda so I just called it "Cow Head Brand". Now this cow is holding a flaming blow torch. Again, awesome. The back has a nice little note on it. "After creating Frostop root beer way back in 1926, we have continually sought to bring you the most delicious soda possible. Frostop Vanilla Caramel Creme Soda, with just a hint of caramel is decadently creamy. In the great Frostop tradition, nothing tops it...but the foam!"

A hint of caramel? I beg to differ. And I'm not seeing foam...

But what would make a good foam is...a float using this soda. Oh yes oh yes oh yes. Vanilla ice cream, if French style is essentially frozen vanilla custard. And then the caramel soda that this is would be an amazing base for the ice cream float. Oh man, this soda just jumped a few spots up on my list because of that epiphany.

So this soda is not a creme brulee in a bottle. But it is caramel in a bottle. And a nicely done caramel drink. Perfectly sweetened. If you see this in your market, buy yourself some ice cream too. It has to make an awesome float.