Well, friends, my brain is about to fall out. I have spent all afternoon smashing my head against my exam list, and then all evening doing the reading for seminar this week, and I have some reading on British cultural history to do before bedtime, but I think it’s time for a soda pop break!
So, as you are no doubt aware, the fab VV and I hit up Galco’s Soda Pop Stop earlier this week. And, because, really, any instance of food and/or beverage consumption is really just an invitation to write a blog post, I am totally going to review some exotic soda pops! We bought nine different pops each, and I’ve been really good and have only been drinking one a day. So far, I’ve had the following:
Ok, well, VV and I tried these together and split them. She got the Cel Ray (celery soda!), I got the Mr. Q. Cumber (um, cucumber soda! Obviously). Dear skeptics: shut up right now because these vegetable flavoured sodas were amazing. Both were not too sweet and not too vegetable-ish but really nice and refreshing. The Cel Ray had a sort of V8-ish kind of aftertaste, and the Q. Cumber was really clean and light. And yes, of course, we did mix them together in the interests of Soda Pop Science, and I’d actually say that the Cel Ray Q. Cumber Cocktail was probably the best of the three. ALSO, IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH: People in the know have informed me that you can get Cel Ray at Canter’s. Why didn’t anybody tell me you could get Cel Ray at Canter’s? I am so totally having celery soda with my next matzo ball.
The A.J. Stephens Raspberry Lime Rickey was potentially one of the most delicious things I have ever consumed. I can’t even tell you. It was just so good. It was good because the raspberry flavor wasn’t that horrible fake-tasting raspberry, you know? And also the color is clearly amazing.
Of course I drink my Manhattan Special out of a martini glass. Was there ever any question, really? Anyhow, this was wonderful. As a pretentious coffee snob I feel qualified to make that assessment. I would seriously consider replacing my usual afternoon coffee with this, if it wasn’t full of sugar.
Fentiman’s Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger! I have no idea what a jigger is. Shockingly, wikipedia is being completely unhelpful in this regard and has provided a useless list of definitions of “jigger” that includes nothing that resembles soda pop, and one or two things that are kind of offensive. But whatever. This was good shit. It was slightly medicinal tasting at first, but that kind of went away. I really liked the bubbles in this, weirdly enough – they were really tiny and soft. And apparently Fentiman’s is not soda pop – apparently it is a Botanically Brewed Beverage, which makes it fancier. I also got a Curiosity Cola, which I think I’m going to try tomorrow.
Oh, yum. Yum yum yum yum. The Nesbitt’s Peach tasted like fake peach, like a peach Jolly Rancher, but not bad fake peach, you know? Like really, really good fake peach. And also, it is hot pink. No complaints here.
Stay tuned for reviews of: Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola! Vignette Pinot Noir Soda! Manhattan Special Vanilla Cream! Cheerwine! I will try to post them daily instead of in a big batch, but, you know, best laid plans and stuff.
I’m going to make a predictions here: I have a feeling that anything named “cheerwine” will pale in comparison to anything named “boxwine”.
Yeah, you know me pretty well, don’t you?