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Category: Ye Olde Soda
Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 5Fizziness Factor: 5Bottle/Can Design: 4Availability: 2
According to my extensive research (as always, conducted by reading the bottle) Dr. Brown has been making a celery soda since 1869. I imagine that those were simpler times: carbonated tonics were the lastest health fad, 7UP still contained lithium, and Coca Cola, for some mysterious reason, awakened the tired blood like nobody's business! In this context, a celery soda must have made perfect sense. Or, more accurately, a soda that combines celery seed, which is mildly peppery and reminds me of cumin, with a clean sweetness that makes the soda taste like it might actually be good for you. And Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray is certainly unparalelled in my experience at inspiring good, old-fashioned, health-enhancing belches. This is a soda that everyone should try once if you can find it. Apparently it's most common around New York and at Jewish specialty stores. And while you drink, check out this page of fascinating celery trivia, which includes the fact that sound effects artists crunch celery stalks to simulate the breaking of bones. (Total Score 16/20)
Suggested Food Pairings: Steamed broccoli, brown rice, and a square ol' timey fudge; a corned beef sandwich on rye
Category: Ginger Ale/Ye Olde Soda
Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 5Fizziness Factor: 5Bottle/Can Design: 2Availability: 1
Tasting Notes: Barritts is a mysterious little ginger beer. First of all, there's the missing apostrophe in the name. Then there's the circa-1990 website. And the fact that it's aged in stone crocks. What I do know is that Barritts tastes like, as the bottle copy says, "the beverage Bermudians have savored for 130 years." It's got a nice ginger kick that's balanced by the pineappley sweetness. The overall taste made my mouth water—it would go well with a big, spicy dinner. I could tell you more about the ingredients of Barritts, but here again, things get murky. The ingredient list is in such a small, tight font that it makes my eyes water to look at it for longer than a few seconds. So don't try to read Barritts or correct its grammar. Just go to your local BevMo or track it down online and drink it. (Total Score 13/20)
Suggested Food Pairings: Jambalaya, spicy Chinese broccoli
Category: Ye Olde Soda
Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 5Fizziness Factor: 3Bottle/Can Design: 4Availability: 2
Tasting Notes: For a soda that contains 0% juice, Frostie does an amazing job of mimicking the unique taste of Concord grapes. For those of you who didn't grow up with a tiny German grandmother who grew these hardy fellers in her backyard, feeding some to the children but using most of them to make her own wine, Concords are the dark purple grapes that you squeeze out of their skin before you eat them. Frostie captures Concords' earthy sweetness AND the tinge of tartness that puts the pucker in Smuckers. Even the ridiculously purple color is right—so what if they used Red 40 and Blue 1 to create it? What any of this has to do with a cheerful elf who appears to have impaled a strawberry on his moustache is unclear, but I like the retro look of the Frostie bottle anyway. And I savor the fact that the first batch of Frostie was made in an abandoned jailhouse. (Total Score 14/20)
Suggested Food Pairings: Peanut butter sandwich, sauerbraten
Category: Ye Olde Soda
Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 4Fizziness Factor: 5Bottle/Can Design: 4Availability: 2
Tasting Notes: Based in Cape Porpoise, Maine, the A.J. Stephans Co. uses "Pure Carbonated New England Water" to make a line of what it calls "tonics," thereby suggesting that yesterday's pop vs. soda vs. Coke debate should have at least one more entrant. This is pretty much all I can tell you about ol' A.J., since the company appears so devoted to its old-timey image that it has no website. As for Wild Strawberry, it's quite tasty. In my experience, strawberry soda can fall into two traps: flatness and sweetness. A.J. Stephans deftly avoids the first—the French might call it a fizzy fraise—but gets a few toes caught in the second. I would've preferred a little less cane sugar and a little more bite in the finish. Still, drinking this cheerfully red tonic with its simple, text-based label made me think of a sun-dappled autumn afternoon spent strolling though a country store that sells maple candy, apple cider, and bricks of cedar to keep the moths away. (Total Score 15/20)
Suggested Food Pairings: Salt and pepper potato chips, shepherd's pie
Category: Ye Olde Soda
