In yet another inspired “drink and review soda from my youth” posts, I bring you Nehi Orange. The key to these eloquent and insightful ramblings is that I find the original incarnations of the beverage; glass bottles, cane sugar, you know, just like my Grandmother, “Mawmaw” gave me on the rare occasion that she wasn’t sending me out to mile the cows or pick vegetables or get a “hickory” to receive a (probably) well-earned beating for for some act of insubordination. Where I come from, Nehi, Sundrop and Cheerwine were like the holy trinity of non-cola soft drinks, so it was always a pleasure to get one of these sickeningly sweet treats. My favorites were always grape and orange, but when I saw a display with peach also, I picked up all three. Nehi over the years has made a lot of flavors, many out of production now, but some still available through specialty stores like Galco’s (www.sodapopstop.com) and Old 52 General Store(www.old52.com).
On to the drink itself: Like most of these beverages, I have an idealistic memory of them, and the reality is usually pretty far from what I remember. Nehi Orange is sadly no exception. I could only describe it as “thin” tasting, with not much real orange flavor compensated by a lot of sweetness. However, it wasn’t a tongue coater like a lot of fruit flavored sodas with High Fructose Corn Syrup. I think in this category, I much prefer the excellent Thomas Kemper Orange Cream soda (http://monthlyrootbeer.com/2010/09/12/thomas-kemper-orange-cream/). For me, this drink carries a lot of memories, but I think I’ll keep them intact the way they are…
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 5
So the first time I tried svagdricka a few years ago, I was expecting a root beer like flavor and was shockingly disappointed. It tasted like total crap to me. Now, I went in prepared for something tasting more like beer and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it! Svagdricka is basically a primitive beer that is still enjoyed in Sweden. This particular recipe is from 1884, so the stuff has been around a while… It’s made basically the same way as beer, but with corn malt, hops and brewer’s yeast. However, the fermentation process doesn’t produce much alcohol as there isn’t as much sugar in the malted corn, apparently. Sugar is then added after brewing to create a beer/soft drink hybrid with anywhere between .5% and 1.5% alcohol by volume. To me, the beer it tastes closest to is a bock. There is an undertone of horehound root in there, however, and it took me a while to try to figure out what that taste was. Anyway, if you’re in Sweden, ask a local to help you find some, you can get it in any grocery store. This particular recipe is from 1884, so the stuff has been around a while…
www.kopparbergs.se
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 7
This’ll be a pretty simple review. This tastes just like a very dry champagne with no alcohol in it. This is another Swedish specialty, and as I am currently in the frozen north for the holidays, you’ll be seeing several more Swedish specific beverages. There seems to be a good story behind this, but I’ll let you read it on Wikipedia.
Image by Jon Åslund via Flickr
www.pommac.se
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 6
Oh boy, Cheerwine! It occurred to me as I saw a bottle of “retro” Cheerwine in the grocery store (12 oz glass bottle, cane sugar) that most of you probably don’t know this soft drink. It’s a native of North Carolina and produced not far from where I live. The Carolina Beverage Company that produces it doesn’t seem to care much about spreading the good word too far outside the Carolinas, and that’s fine by us, it just means more at home.
This soft drink is a highly carbonated wild cherry flavored beverage that has a bracing taste and is a bit bitter. Many people say that it’s overly sweet, but I find that to be specific to the high fructose corn syrup variety. I will concede that it does taste a bit artificial. I can’t really compare Cheerwine to anything else, I’ve never tasted anything like it, yet it’s always been around me and never seemed odd. If you can get your hands on it, it makes a fantastic homemade ice cream! Last year, Cheerwine partnered up with Krispy Kreme to make Cheerwine filled Krispy Kreme doughnuts that almost sent us North Carolinians over the edge with salivation.
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 8.5
Hmmm, yes. Curious indeed. I’ve enjoyed other Fentiman’s beverages, particularly the Dandelion and Burdock. This cola is a throwback to what you sort of expect cola tasted like before the big cola companies like Coke and Pepsi dominated the flavor. It’s eccentric, it’s “botanically brewed”, it’s a bit flowery; sort of what you think hibiscus might taste like if you chewed it a little… There are definitely hints of ginger, and it isn’t too sweet. Trace amounts of alcohol exist from the natural brewing and fermentation process, sort of a nice by-product of actual yeast brewing in a soft drink if you ask me.
The drink comes in a nicely shaped and “antiquey” 9.3 oz bottle. In fact, now that I think about it, the whole thing screams: niche throwback product, but their sodas are just too good to be limited to that. Give Fentiman’s a try next time you’re at your specialty store, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
http://www.drinkfentimans.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 7
Well, I’m pleased to say that this root beer is much improved over its counterpart “Root Beer Encore“. Although, I’m not sure it warranted said encore. Basically, this is a “natural” soda, which means it doesn’t have much flavor, but probably won’t directly contribute to your early death. As far as natural root beers go, this was one of the better ones, but it’s a far cry from the pure deliciousness of those slightly less healthy root beers I prefer. It’s still a whole crapload better than that other natural root beer Zevia nonsense…
Anyway, the taste was a lot like soda water with a little bit of vanilla and root beer flavoring. not bad, but not great.
http://www.drinkbluesky.com/
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 4
I seem to be much more successful finding root beers at discount stores than anywhere else. Anyway, I found this one at Aldi. It’s a draft style root beer made with cane sugar. In keeping with a typical draft style, it’s not very carbonated, and it’s pretty smooth. Taste-wise, this was surprising. It was almost more like a cream soda than a root beer, and had no bite. It was very creamy, almost like there was some heavy cream in the soda along with a healthy dose of vanilla. Not bad, but missing most of the typical flavor notes of root beer.
This seems to be another of those root beers that are made by a brewery, but when I go the website on the bottle, there is no mention whatsoever of the root beer. Maybe they’ve stopped making it? Weird…
http://www.coldspringbrewery.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 5
Another discount store find…Old Brooklyn Williamsburg Root Beer seems to be another of those contract bottled hack jobs that probably originated from a recipe someone found somewhere many years ago and then contracted out to be executed and distributed. The 4 pack I got was clear glass bottles, usually a bad sign for root beer, and the labels were cheap plastic stickers. the root beer itself was highly carbonated, not very sweet, and had an almost overwhelming peppermint taste. This reminded me somewhat of the Napa Valley root beer I had a while back, but maybe that is the bottle/label combination. I was underwhelmed. My 10 year old daughter gave it a 7.
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 5
As
a refresher to the readers of this blog, I didn’t really like Thomas Kemper‘s root beer all that much, but everything else I’ve tried from this craft soda maker is a clear winner. Their Orange Cream soda was fantastic, and the Black Cherry follows suit. The first sip hit with a brisk, surprising sour and almost biting strong black cherry flavor. This impression was quickly offset a bit by the honey used to sweeten the soda. It’s a very true flavor to the fruit it’s named after, and almost makes me thing they squeezed a bunch of black cherries, added some hney and cane sugar and brewed it a bit. The rich and full flavor lasted throughout the soda without ever becoming too sweet or thick. This is natural soda at it’s best, and I’m looking forward to trying more of their flavors.
www.tksoda.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating:9
I picked this soda up at World Market. They occasionally have interesting sodas and other curiosities. I had seen this many times and decided to give it a try. Apparently, the Pig Iron is a barbecue joint in Seattle claiming to be very authentic to southern barbecue. Now, being from NC, and currently living very close to the epicenter of the world’s best barbecue (Lexington, NC), I’m a bit skeptical. But, one thing I can verify is that they make a damn fine cola.
Simply put, this tastes like Coke should taste. It tastes like I remember Coke tasting when I was a kid. It tastes not too differently from those magical Mexican Cokes you can find periodically here and there that are made with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. My only complaints were that it was slightly too sweet and thick in mouthfeel. Very enjoyable for a cola and I would definitely drink again.
http://www.pigironbbg.net
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 8
In yet another inspired “drink and review soda from my youth” posts, I bring you Nehi Orange. The key to these eloquent and insightful ramblings is that I find the original incarnations of the beverage; glass bottles, cane sugar, you know, just like my Grandmother, “Mawmaw” gave me on the rare occasion that she wasn’t sending me out to mile the cows or pick vegetables or get a “hickory” to receive a (probably) well-earned beating for for some act of insubordination. Where I come from, Nehi, Sundrop and Cheerwine were like the holy trinity of non-cola soft drinks, so it was always a pleasure to get one of these sickeningly sweet treats. My favorites were always grape and orange, but when I saw a display with peach also, I picked up all three. Nehi over the years has made a lot of flavors, many out of production now, but some still available through specialty stores like Galco’s (www.sodapopstop.com) and Old 52 General Store(www.old52.com).
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