Black Cherry Soda (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

-Virgil’s Black Cherry Cream Soda
160 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with unbleached cane sugar.

The bottle said to serve child without ice, but for the purpose of this tasting and sake of fairness, I’ve tried it both with and without. And despite the advisory, I found it to taste the same both ways. The first thing I noticed was the carbonation. Bubbles were tiny and sharp as hell, but surprisingly few in number. It doesn’t seem to match the syrupy, densely flavored soda, flavor which seems unbalanced. It’s as if the flavors begin canceling each other out rather than blending, with hints of black cherry and cream that seem to get further and further away with each sip. It’s neither offensive nor particularly memorable. Their regular cream soda is light and refreshing, so it’s a bit surprising that this isn’t better.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

On to the actually Black Cherry sodas!

-Deadworld Premium Zombie Black Cherry Soda
180 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with sugar

While the label promises something fit for a Halloween party, what’s in the bottle is more suited for a child’s juice box. (It’s the same experience from the bottle and iced glass.) With a sweet taste that vaguely recalls a fruit punch juice drink and almost no carbonation, it’s pleasant enough to sip but is barely black cherry and barely a soda. I would have had more respect for it if it would have dared to do something as twisted as its artwork. Sometimes by trying not to offend anyone, you end up pleasing no one, and that’s what happened here. Leave this one to the label collectors. (It’ll rank higher than others in the final estimation because it is drinkable, but that doesn’t exactly count as a glowing recommendation either.)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

-Harmony Springs Black Cherry Soda
120 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with pure cane sugar

This one comes stubbornly close to perfection while staying frustratingly far from it. The carbonation is full and vibrant without being overwhelming. The mouthfeel is light and pleasant. It tastes the same from a bottle or over ice. And it actually lists “cherry juice concentrate” as one of the ingredients. And the label is pleasantly old timey. But at 120 calories, it seemed too good to be true, and alas it is. Most cherry sodas come in around 180 calories and in comparison, this one just tastes watered down. It really has great potential, and what flavor is there is sweet and recognizably black cherry, but it’s too faint. I’d gladly take on the extra calories for a more concentrated version of this flavor.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

-Fitz’s Black Cherry Soda
170 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with pure cane sugar

This is a solid black cherry soda. It has a rich but easy fizz that goes down just as smoothly from iced glass and bottle. The black cherry flavor is there, although sometimes it gets a little lost in the punch of sugary sweetness. There are no other odd flavor notes or textures to distract. Could be a little stronger on the cherry but it’s still very nice.

 

[Mysto]

-Fitz’s Black Cherry Soda
170 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with pure cane sugar

View attachment 65844

This is a solid black cherry soda. It has a rich but easy fizz that goes down just as smoothly from iced glass and bottle. The black cherry flavor is there, although sometimes it gets a little lost in the punch of sugary sweetness. There are no other odd flavor notes or textures to distract. Could be a little stronger on the cherry but it’s still very nice.

Josh -Ya ain't doing these right. It should be something like
…this texturally silken, supremely elegant effort transparently and kaleidoscopically combines moss, wet stone, gentian, buddleia, coriander, pepper, piquant yet rich nut oils and a saline clam broth savor that milks the salivary glands. But besides this impressive array of non-fruity components, white peach and cherry deliver abundant primary juiciness and animating tang, rendering the finish as invigorating and refreshing as it is vibrant, mouthwatering and dynamically complex….

Keep it up. I never thought I'd enjoy reading about somebody drinking cherry pop (soda). But I am.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Josh -Ya ain't doing these right. It should be something like
…this texturally silken, supremely elegant effort transparently and kaleidoscopically combines moss, wet stone, gentian, buddleia, coriander, pepper, piquant yet rich nut oils and a saline clam broth savor that milks the salivary glands.

Hey, I’m not writing about wine

Thanks so much for the kind words. I can’t believe I’m doing it either and yet here we are. I think I have like four or five left unless the supermarket surprises me with an extra option.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

-Blue Sky Organic Black Cherry Soda
150 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with organic invert cane sugar

This one might be controversial. I think it’s a good drink, but not a good black cherry soda. This highly carbonated soda is definitely better in a glass than out of the can; from the can, the sharp bubbles obscure everything, while an iced glass gives the bubbles room to breathe and space for the flavor to come out. And it’s the flavor that’s at issue. It doesn’t taste like a soda; it tastes like sparkling juice. And with no actual fruit juice amongst the ingredients, I’m left wondering what the point was of making a soda that tasted like juice; why not just get an Izze brand sparkling juice instead? While I suspect this quality will make it appealing to some, it doesn’t really register as soda to my taste buds. It is quite refreshing on its own terms, though.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

-Cool Mountain Black Cherry Soda
140 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with pure cane sugar

This is a weak soda that is helped marginally by being poured into an icy glass. Lightly fizzed with tight, sharp bubbles, the drink doesn’t have the heft that a soda should. While what little black cherry that does comes through is pleasant, it has the weaknesses of both the Harmony Springs (flavor too faint) and Blue Sky (tastes more of juice than soda). Inoffensive but unimpressive.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Spring Grove Black Cherry Soda Pop
170 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with pure cane sugar

This one is about the same from the bottle as from an iced glass. It has a sharper fizz than some of the weaker entries, which goes well with the extra hint of syrupy sweetness that’s more present here than in the lower calories choices. But while the sweetness and fizz are on target, the actual cherry flavor is more mild and distant. Witt each sip, the hope is that the flavor will grow stronger, but it remains cloyingly out of reach. And while that mild flavor has the vaguest hints of black cherry, it’s not very distinct from a regular cherry flavor like Foxon Park. It’s a decent but ultimately underwhelming attempt.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

-Boylan Black Cherry Soda
170 calories per 12 oz serving, sweetened with cane sugar

A wonderful soda that is subtly different but equally enjoyable from the glass or over ice. Sharply fizzy and somehow delicate simultaneously, the fizz gives way to a subtlety sweet black cherry taste that actually does taste of cherry, with that extra hit of sugar that distinguishes it from a sparking juice. It manages the tricky feat of maintaining a natural fruit flavor without betraying the characteristics of a good soda. It may strike some as being too refined and upscale, and it might be overwhelmed by the flavors of a strong meal, but on its own, it’s a perfectly balanced treat.

 

[Nelson Au]

Josh, I’ve been quietly enjoying your writing and descriptions of each soda. Great stuff!

I’m also curious where you got that glass. It’s similar to the glasses used on Mad Men but without the chromed top edge.

 

[Malcolm R]

That one actually looks like black cherry. The others all seem more pink/red.

 

[The Drifter]

Josh, the detailed reviews & pics. of these various Black Cherry sodas are much appreciated - Thank you. I am typically not a soda drinker these days (due to the sugar & carbonation), but these definitely sound exceptional. I do like "unique" sodas like this that are not generally found in stores, so may look into getting at least one of these.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m also curious where you got that glass

Good question but I have no answer - it came with my wife when we got married. She thinks it could have been IKEA or Crate & Barrel forever ago but could have been something else too.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I just have the Stewart’s Black Cherry to go and, if I can find it at a store easily, a Dr. Brown’s. Working on a ranked list too. I hope you guys will come back and share your thoughts if you ever get to try any of them. Taste is such a subjective thing and so hard to put into words that I’m so curious to find out if these end up tasting anything even remotely like what the posts made you think it would be like.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hi Josh, thanks anyway about your glass. I guess I can try an image search and see what I find.

 

[Mark Booth]

Diet Dr. Pepper was my go-to soda for a long time. For the last year or so, however, this is what I reach for in the fridge more often than not.

I've tried all of the flavors of Sparkling Ice beverages and the Black Raspberry is my favorite, by far. We buy 10-12 of them at a time when we hit the grocery store.

Mark

 

[BobO'Link]

I've tried most of the ICE flavors. The Ginger Lime is a favorite (me and all the grandkids) as is the Cranberry Frost (very difficult to find around here).

The Pomegranate Blueberry is also quite good:

And the Cherry Limeade:

As is the Black Cherry (I really like this one and it's a favorite of my oldest granddaughter):

IMHO the only downside to these is all of them have a bit of that artificial sweetener flavor/aftertaste going on. Some of the flavors hide it better than others.

And I like that Black Raspberry too. The only ones I won't buy it for myself are the Kiwi Strawberry, Coconut Pineapple, and Strawberry Watermelon.

You can usually get them from Amazon via "Subscribe and Save" for less than at the local store. Right now several are in the $8-$9 for 12 price range. WM charges $1/each and Big Lots is $.75 each (and you can't always find the flavor(s) you want).

 

[The Drifter]

Thanks for all the latest posts/pics. especially. The 0 sugar aspect of the Sparkling ICE sodas sound great. I've seen those in stores but never tried any, but may have to change that soon.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have mixed feelings on diet drinks in general (the various artificial sweeteners don’t taste right to me for one reason or another), but I appreciate their value because they also helped me transition from being a “multiple full sugar drinks a day” person to “artificially sweetened drinks and water” to finally “mostly water most of the time” which has probably been the best thing for me personally. It was really hard to break the habit of having everything sweet all the time and the diet stuff made it possible. And now I can have a regular or diet once in a while without falling back into the habit. It’s actually been a real splurge doing all of these sodas in a row.