I tried the White Rock Organics Passion Orange today at lunch and was really very pleasantly surprised. It’s not as sweet as the very good Red Peach, which in turn is not as sweet as the horrible Raspberry Creme. I do have to admit that the initial flavor was sort of odd, but the finish and subsequent sips showed it to be a very well put together flavor. Some nicely sour passion fruit notes with the barest orange/citrus is an unexpectedly combination and the lack of over-the-top sugar makes for a really excellent soda.
Category Archives: Food - Page 3
Passion Orange: Suprisingly good
Posted by Cavorter
on April 27, 2006
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Tags: lunch, Soda
7UP changing forumla’s again
Posted by Cavorter
on April 26, 2006
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I’m actually really pretty excited that 7UP is changing their formula again. I thought the change in the mid-90′s to make it taste more like Sprite was a bad idea. Hopefully this will be a better change rather than a worse one.
Now if only they would switch back to sugar…
From the maker’s of Sioux City sodas: White Rock Organics
Posted by Cavorter
on April 26, 2006
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While doing some quick soda shopping before a couple of friends stopped by to play some boardgames, I ran into some new bottles at the local Kowalski’s that looked interesting. White Rock Organics soda comes in 3 flavors: Red Peach, Raspberry Creme, and Passion Orange. I got a 4 pack of all 3 flavors and have so far tasted very mixed results.
The Red Peach is actually incredibly good. It is more sweet and intensely flavored than I would normally like, but the carbonation is light enough and the cane sugar they are using is fairly decent quality so the flavor is at least very good. It also really tastes like very good fresh peaches.
The Raspberry Creme, on the other hand, tastes like cough syrup. And, as one of my friends last night pointed out, not even like good cough syrup. The flavor is fruity enough but the intense sweetness and the overwhelming sticky taste of bad vanilla-esque flavor is just horrible. None of us wanted to finish the bottle. I’m trying to figure out how to get rid of the other 3 bottles without offending someone I like, or just pouring them out. I’ll probably give a second bottle a taste to see if it was just a bad bottle, but it tasted exactly like any other really badly fruit flavored soda I’ve ever had. Heck, it’s easily in the same league as Shasta Strawberry, if you can believe that.
I still have yet to try the Passion Orange, though I’ll probably get to that tonight. At this point I’m wondering if I should be looking forward to it with dread or excitement.
Dr Pepper Berries & Cream
Posted by Cavorter
on April 12, 2006
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BevNET has their review of Dr Pepper Berries & Cream up. I’m looking for a bottle to try.
Snow still lying around at Byerly’s
Posted by Cavorter
on April 3, 2006
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For those who are local, that might be a bit of surprise given the total melt that has been going on for the last week, but in this case I’m referring to one of my favorite new sodas. It’s been around at Kowalski’s (though hard to find the couple of times that I tried) for a couple of months, but look around the drinks cooler in the deli section of your local Byerly’s (confirmed at the Roseville store, as the open bottle in front of me can attest) or possibly Lund’s and you’ll sure to hit pure clean Snow. Great stuff.
I actually first got to try a bottle when I went skiing at Welch Village with a friend in January. They happened to have it in the cafeteria, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Yes, it’s peppermint flavored, but for those who grew up on flavored “sodas” that are sometimes better used as paint thinner, you will likely be very pleasantly surprised.
If only it didn’t cost $1.99 a bottle.
Programmable Soda Bottles – Gizmodo
Posted by Cavorter
on March 27, 2006
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Gizmodo has an interesting little tidbit about Programmable Soda Bottles. Really neat idea, but I bet the flavors are going to be horrible.
Honey as a topical antibacterial agent for treatment of infected wounds
Posted by Cavorter
on December 28, 2005
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On the drive in to work this morning I had been musing a bit about the relative success of the carbonation of the batch of African Skies versus the batch of root beer, and it occured to me that I had once heard that honey had some antiseptic properties. So I finally got a few minutes free at work and started to do some net research, and there it was: Honey as a topical antibacterial agent for treatment of infected wounds, among other references.
Of course the African Skies carbonated less/more slowly than the root beer once the temperature was in the right range! The honey was killing off some of the yeast. The question then becomes, do I increase the yeast or decrease the concentration of honey in a batch of soda that uses honey as a sweetener? Are there yeasts that are going to be better or worse for carbonating in solution with honey? Hopefully more answers will be relatively easy to get through research and experimentation. For example, I would imagine that the yeasts used to produce mead, (if, in fact, yeast is used, which I’m not sure about) would be much more resistant to the antiseptic effects of honey, but then there is the question about whether they would produce the correct carbonation or not.
Batch Update: African Skies
Posted by Cavorter
on December 28, 2005
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I’ve had the chance to taste 2 of the chilled African Skies bottles, and it is good. The yeast is still a bit forward, but giving it a day or two to settle out should make a big difference. It still isn’t quite as carbonated as I would like, but it is definitely good enough, and the significant reduction in sweetness shows just how much. It is however still pretty sweet, but not too much, and the honey flavors are nicely subtle. Good stuff, I’m looking forward for the settling to see how it comes out.
Lessons Learned: Pictures
Posted by Cavorter
on December 27, 2005
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It’s a good thing I bought that digital camera the other week, so now there’s even photographic evidence of the mess this morning.
Lessons learned!
Posted by Cavorter
on December 27, 2005
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Before I got into the shower this morning I figured that I would dispose of the 2 batches of soda that were still remaining in the cases that had failed to carbonate. I checked them 3 times last week, most recently on Friday morning, and they had been the same carbonation level the whole time.
Until today.
The African Skies is just about perfect. Possibly still a touch undercarbonated, but the flavor is about right, and what remains of the yeast flavor should dull quickly after a day or two in the fridge.
The root beer on the other hand… Well, I’ll be posting pictures later today, but suffice it to say that I just spent the last 40 minutes carefully opening bottles from behind a makeshift blast shield and then cleaning up the entire kitchen. The first bottle I opened left significant spatter behind the refridgerator.
How did it all go from flat to gusher in 4 days? Well, I think it might have been the weather. Starting on Thursday night things started to warm up significantly here in the Twin Cities. Every day since then it’s been in the mid to high 30′s and I think that made _all_ the difference in the ambient temp in the house.
Obviously I need to rethink my placement for carbonation in cold weather, but I suppose that’s the good news. And besides, I still have most of the batch of African Skies to drink now!