Archive for July 2, 2011

I’ve never been a huge fan of soda or soft drinks.

Growing up, we never had soda in the house simply because no one liked it. No one would drink it even if we had it. My mom never liked the carbonation, and the dislike must be genetic because I didn’t really care for it either. I remember one time I had soda (at school or a birthday party) and it hurt my tongue! The combination of never having soda in the house and the inevitable tongue pain steered me away from soda for a good portion of my life.

Enter college.

I discovered beer and somewhat acquired a taste for carbonation. I would occasionally drink cherry coke and orange soda. I remember drinking a whole pack of orange soda the night before an exam, trying to stay awake to cram. Not one of my finer moments.

Fast forward to today. I’m still not keen on bubbles, but I don’t mind a sip every now and again. I enjoy a good beer and can appreciate a good specialty soda. When I saw zero calorie cream soda in World Market, I was intrigued.

Virgil’s is the mack daddy of cream soda and boy was this version good! All natural ingredients, zero calories, and all the taste of cream soda. Yum! The best part: there was no artificial sugary sweet aftertaste! Even with the cane-sugar sweetened soda of Whole Foods, I still feel a sweet aftertaste. This drink was made with stevia, and there was no such lingering taste. I might could drink this every day if I let myself. Thank goodness they only come in singles and they’re kind of expensive.

The second drink I saw at WM that caught my eye was a dandelion and burdock soda. I was definitely curious because I had no idea what burdock was, and I definitely haven’t ever ingested dandelion before.

It tasted sort of like bubble gum, actually. It was okay. The taste reminded me of the children’s fluoride treatment at the dentist. I didn’t drink a lot of it, just because I really have to be in love with a bubbly drink to down the whole thing.

World Market has a huuuuge selection of sodas, all interesting flavors, and I’m thinking about trying some more of them out. You all know how I can’t stay away from WM.

Seen any strange/interesting/out-of-the-ordinary soda flavors lately? The most interesting I’ve seen had to be Bibo’s Candy Pine Nut. If you’re ever in Atlanta (as I was two years ago!), go to the Coke Factory. You get to try all different sodas from around the world, including BCPN. It’s so good, I swear, there’s crack in there.