Hot Lips Black Raspberry Soda

   Today’s installment is for Hot Lips Black Raspberry Soda.  We’ve reviewed a couple of Hot Lips sodas before.  One was the delightful Pear Soda, and the other was the less delightful Strawberry.  I say less delightful because the lemon juice was overpowering in the flavor of the Strawberry soda. 

   Since I really enjoy the ingredient list on the side of Hot Lips brand soda I will list it here.

Carbonated Water, Black Raspberries grown in Willamette Valley, OR, Can Sugar, Organic Lemon Juice

   As I push my nose closer to the opening of the bottle I notice that the beverage has a light, but healthy raspberry smell.  I really enjoy raspberries, as previously stated, so I now look forward to what I’m about to experience.

   Upon initial taste I notice very little carbonation, and have to remind myself that the bottle lists this beverage as “lightly carbonated”.  There is a slight raspberry tartness to it, as well as a noticeable sweetness.  Thankfully the sweetness is not overpowering, allowing the natural flavor of the berry to be tasted.  Fortunately for this beverage, the lemon juice listed on the ingredients does not overpower, unlike its strawberry counterpart.  I just got a black raspberry seed lodged in my tooth.  Normally I wouldn’t like this sensation, but in this case you know the Hot Lips Company is serious when they write that their sodas are made of natural ingredients.  While I wouldn’t reach for this beverage to be refreshed, it does a fairly good job of quenching a thirst.  (Sound like Déjà vu?) I would have to suggest that it be enjoyed by itself, as I personally don’t think its natural flavor would play well with others.  Much like the strawberry, this beverage is for a select audience, but if I saw it listed at a restaurant I would order it off the menu just to impress those that I’m with.  For those who think soda is bad for you… pick up any Hot Lips soda to be proven wrong.

Verdict: Buy a Bottle!

Twist thinks he has "hot lips"... just play along

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Hot Lips)

Virgil's Orange Cream Soda

  TheSodaJerks love of Virgil's brand soda is well documented on this site.  Virgil's Real Cola is the highest rated soda on the site, and Virgil's Root Beer is what gave us the idea to start the site.  Anytime I go into a grocery store I look for a label with "god giving soda to kids" as my counterpart would say.  I'm sure that's not what the label is, but it's more fun to pretend. 

  I must apologize to Virgil's for taking so long on this review.  Back when Virgil's Orange Cream Soda was first released it was sadly not in our area, it still isn't from what I see.  Virgil's sent us a package of it for review, and we initially were going to give it the treatment of a king.  That is to say we were going to do a pod cast about it.  Well life happened, and schedules never matched up, and I moved...needless to say the pod cast never happened.  Now that I'm settled I felt it was time to review Virgil's Orange Cream Soda.  This review will be a bit different as I've tasted this before.  In fact I've had several of them, it was only through the strongest of will that I was able to keep 1 or 2 for review purposes.  I can say that throughout all the bottles my opinion stays the same.  So here I go, opening a bottle, enjoying the orange-cream aroma, and taking a sip.

   The initial taste is a nice orange flavor, as it should be.  The finish of this soda is a smooth cream, again as it shoud be.  The transition between the two flavors is a bit awkward though.  It's like your taste buds can't decide if they should stick with the citrus orange, or move on to the smooth cream.  When my fiancée tried it she said it tasted like it was missing one thing that kept it from being awesome.  I believe it's that transition of flavors that caused her to birth that remark.  My father, and stepmother gave it a two word review "ummmmmmh YUK".  The only reason I mention both of those is that I want this to be an awesome drink.  This should be rocking my world right now, and while it's above average, my world is not rocked.  I feel that I unfairly hold Virgil's to a higher standard than most sodas.  Their product always has great ingredients, with a good flavor all around, and ample carbonation.  Virgil's Orange Cream Soda is excellent, but you can taste that something is missing, and that's where I must detract.

Verdict: Buy a Pack!

Better resolution + Marilyn Monroe + Virgil's Orange CreamSoda = Happy Twist

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Reed's)

Hot Lips Strawberry Soda

   Hot Lips is a soda brand from the Pacific Northwest... it’s not available down here in Houston. In fact the ingredients listed on my Strawberry Soda are as follows:

Carbonated Water, Strawberries grown in the Pacific Northwest, cane sugar, and organic lemon juice.

   That’s an impressive list of ingredients in my book. There is no ‘natural strawberry flavor’ listed, they just list Strawberries grown in the Pacific Northwest. In fact the bottle says that this soda contains strawberry pulp, another plus. Wait a second; this drink has vitamins in it! 40% of the Vitamin C you need in a day! If there is one way to get your score higher with this Jerk it’s to have me drink my vitamins in a soda (as long as it tastes good of course.  I’m looking at you nasty tasting 7up Plus). The bottle art is simplistic, it reminds me of a children’s book about fruit. This is what a strawberry looks like kids, on a simple white background. Of course the Hot Lips logo is a lipstick kiss, but that’s pretty predictable in my opinion. We were able to procure this soda directly from the nice folks at Hot Lips... but don’t think that’s going to improve the score at all just because we were sent samples. Actually a lot of our sodas have been samples from companies, we just haven’t told you until now.

   Onto the tasting. Upon opening this you get a strong natural fruit sensation in the smell. Like one of those really awesome strawberry lemonades that has real strawberries in it... minus the lemonade smell of course. I’m now officially excited to try this, bottoms up. The first thing running through my head is that it doesn’t taste much like a soda. There is very little carbonation, but that could be due to the fact that the CO2 doesn’t stick very well to the ingredients listed above. I would also like a little more sweetness in this. It’s not tart like a strawberry, but it’s not all that sweet as well. It’s almost like I can taste too much of the organic lemon juice in it. This has a pretty good taste, but I just don’t feel like I’m drinking a soda. It feels more like strawberry juice, with a hint of lemon. My last run in with a drink like this was Fizzy Lizzy, but I’m happy to say that Hot Lips surpasses Ms. Lizzy in the flavor department. It’s a moderately refreshing drink, but nothing that I’d grab for on one of our 103 degree summer days. This is more of a solitary drink... something that you’d want to drink by itself so that you could enjoy the natural, but quiet, strawberry flavoring. All in all it’s a good soda, I’m sure there are non soda fans out there that would love this, but I just kinda like it.

Verdict: Buy a Bottle!

~A

Twist likes strawberries

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Hot Lips)

Romano's Sour Apple

   As you know my opinion on green apple flavored things isn’t a pleasant one. Fortunately Jones Soda Green Apple Soda helped me overcome that hatred, so I’ve decided to try other Green Apple flavored beverages. I hold in my hand a Romano’s Sour Apple beverage. I’m assuming (yes I know what assuming does) that Sour Apple, is just another way of saying Green Apple... since the green apple’s are the one’s that are sour. The color also tells me that this is a green apple based drink, so hopefully that phrase on assuming doesn’t come true.

   Here we go. First off I’d like to comment on how much I like the neon green color of this beverage. The smell coming out of this bottle is very much like Jolly Rancher Green Apple. I’m looking forward to this taste now, knowing that green apple flavor is abounds. Time to drink. WOW... this is some powerful stuff. Sadly, because of my previous assumption, ‘u’ and ‘me’ have both been made into asses. This is the sourest beverage I’ve ever had. It’s not “Warhead” sour, but it’s very sour when compared to other beverages. This is completely different then the Jones Soda, the amount of fizz is way higher in the Romano’s. Once it hits the back of my throat it burns... almost too much. I know in one of my recent reviews complained about not enough carbonation, and bite... but this one needs to tone it down a bit. Let me make sure you understand me. This beverage has a good taste, but the amount of sour, and fizz take away from it. As odd as it might sound though, I’m looking forward to more Romano’s beverages because of this experience. Now I know that Romano’s doesn’t mess around when it comes to flavoring, and mouth feel. So even though this might not get the best rating, know that I’m not normally a fan of green apple flavored things (as previously stated), and that I think those who truly like Sour Apple candy will love this beverage.

Verdict: Buy a Bottle!

~A

It was so different I forgot to snap a pic before I started drinking.

(Note:  This beverage was provided to us by Romano's)

Oogave Presents - Esteban's Cola

   I’m very excited to try this next soda, Esteban’s Cola by Oogave. Before I begin, here’s a little history on the naming of Esteban’s Cola straight from the maker himself.

“We did the sodas in our restaurant for about four months before someone came up and said "you need a name." Funny, it never occurred to us to name it. And we decided to name the rootbeer after me with a Spanish flare because of how difficult the rootbeer was to achieve. The citrus flavors.......pretty much made themselves, but when you get into savory flavors like rootbeer and cola, you are taking on a whole world of possibilities. Incidentally, the only reason the cola has my name is because "Cola" is so short a word it looked strange on the packaging.”

   There, don’t you feel smarter? By the way Oogave soda is also USDA Organic, and Kosher... I think that’s pretty much everything that we may have previously missed on the label. Bonus information, the caffeine used in Esteban’s Cola is from green tea leaves... ok less typing, more drinking.

   Here goes. First off it has a good cola smell. I know that probably sounds weird, but smell is a big part of your taste. Now I sound like a 2^nd grade Science teacher. The first thing I notice is how smooth this cola is. There’s not a lot of carbonation, so it’s not really fizzy. I can’t really compare it to another well known cola, which is good on their part. Since you’re forcing my hand to compare it to something I’ve had before, it would have to be Health Cola. Stop wincing at the name Health Cola btw, if you read that review you’ll know it scored well. While Health Cola was also low on the carbonation scale, it tasted a bit flat. This does not. Just because something doesn’t have carbonation doesn’t make it “taste flat”. This cola tastes very fresh actually, and every time I drink it I taste the slightest bit of cherry. Now there are no cherries to be seen in this beverage, I’m just saying what I’m taste.

   Not that you really wanted to know this, but Esteban’s Cola produces very clean burps. No “wow that root beer tasted better the first time” moments to be had. While I haven’t had all of the Oogave products yet, this is my favorite to date. If I had to improve it in some magical way, I would add a little more carbonation. I like my drinks a little fizzier... fizzyer....fizzier? Anywho, if you see Esteban’s Cola just buy it.

Verdict: Buy a Pallet!

~A

Doesn't Twist look dapper in his black hat off to the side?