United Sodas of America Retrospective
I had been looking forward to reviewing these for quite awhile. I don’t quite remember how I had run across the brand but by the time I got around to really checking them out their variety pack never seemed to be available. After checking back occasionally for about a year they were finally restocked in mid-February. It was time!
I do really appreciate their commitment to their incredibly minimalist branding. The individual cans are iconic enough to come across as both high end and ironically generic. Carrying that branding through to the shipping box is a wonderful touch and it is worth pointing out that the contents matched the box graphics perfectly. Clearly they’ve got a heck of a design team working on this and it shows through, especially in the color choices for each flavor. One small issue though is trying to read the ingredients on any of the light colored cans (especially Toasted Coconut) was an exercise in futility. White on nearly-white, bright yellow, or bright lime is NOT enough contrast for legibility.
Overall each flavor was pretty distinct and the sweetener blend was well done. It doesn’t taste like 100% pure cane sugar, but it doesn’t want to. It is what it is and it is generally quite good. Similarly all of the flavors are more subtle than classic mass market soda brands. The flavors are very present but not overpowering. For those of you who really enjoy flavored sparkling water this definitely something to look for.
With twelve different flavors there are always going to be some that are more successful than others and that was certainly true here. In particular the Pear Elderflower is extremely well executed, and the Lemon Verbena was also very special. Unfortunately I was not able to try the Cherry Pop but a member of the household did say that they liked it quite a bit. The stand outs are absolutely worth looking for if you’re interested in trying a line that speaks eloquently rather than loudly.