Private Selection - Hopped Grapefruit Cream Soda

Well it’s been a couple of weeks, but I’ve got another bottle of Private Selection soda in front of me today.  Last time we tried their Bourbon Barrel Cola, but today it’s all about the Hopped Grapefruit Cream Soda.

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Ignoring the word “Hopped” for a moment, Grapefruit and Cream Soda are two terms that you don’t normally see next to one another.  The tart, bitter taste of grapefruit just doesn’t seem like it would pair with the Lando Calrissianesque cream soda.  I guess Kroger had something in mind when they thought of this pairing, so let’s see it through.

That’s an odd aroma.  Did you ever stick cloves into an apple around Christmas?  You would just get these little pointy cloves and stick them into an apple until it was completely covered.  Perhaps that was just a task to keep me busy, but this smells just like that… if the apple was an orange.  What a terribly specific and unrelatable comparison I’m making.  This smells of citrus and a hint of vanilla. There, happy?

That’s nonsensically odd.  The grapefruit is there in spades, sitting on both first and third base of the consumption experience.  On second base is cream.  The fans are wondering how cream got on second in the first place.  He’s certainly not your strongest hitter, perhaps he was walloped by an errant pitch and just sort of ended up in the mix.  Either way, it’s an odd thing to taste.

For those of you who don’t understand terrible sports analogies, the grapefruit is the first and last thing you taste.  Somewhere in the middle the bitter, tangy grapefruit smoothes out for just a second.  Like the calm eye of a storm.  After the eyes passes over the grapefruits unmistakable flavor comes back.

Private Collection - Hopped Grapefruit Cream Soda has a satisfyingly clean finish.  Your mouth may have just been the location of pure chaos, but your tastebuds are ultimately unscathed.  While I’m very impressed with the adventurous sense of this flavor combination I do wish the cream was a little more prevalent.  This is a grapefruit lovers soda first and foremost.  The cream soda is muted enough that I wouldn’t recommend it on that aspect alone.  All in all though, it’s worth picking up a single.

~A

This was purchased from Kroger