On to the sodas....

Boylan's after the pretty dismal Birch Beer from these guys I wasn't expecting much. but boy was I wrong. The other's I had from these guys were outstanding:

Boylan's Cane Cola. This was one of the tastiest cola's I have ever tasted. More Coke then Pepsi and you could definitely taste the cane sugar.

9.5 Rudys


Boylan's Creme. A really good and full bodied cream soda.

9 Rudys







Boylan's Root Beer. This was a good root beer. A slight spiciness and a good after kick with a slight taste of birch. There are a lot of good root beers out there and hence i have decided that I need to do "The Great Root Beer Off". it will happen...

8 Rudys








Boylan's Orange. After the quite frankly abysmal Sunkist Orange Float and uninspiring Thomas Kemper Orange Cream I did not expect anything great from this. But I was mistaken - I was pleasantly suprised by this. The orange was still artificial tasting, but at least this tasted something like orange and had an underlying taste of cream soda

8 Rudys






Cricket Green Tea Cola. This was pretty intriguing. More green tea with a good Cola taste. A little bit of a bitter after taste.


7 Rudys







Cock N Bull Ginger Ale. A good ginger ale with a decent bite!


6 Rudys







Jones Berry Lemonade. I actually quite liked this one, it was like Lemonade with strawberry, cranberry hint.



7 Rudys






Jones Root Beer. This root beer was OK... a little lighter in taste than the better root beers.



6 Rudys






AW Root Beer Float. This was really bad... really bad. You know when you make a root beer and the all the ice cream melts and all the fizz has gone out of the root beer - this is what this is i.e. Shite.


1 Rudy


Stewart Orange Cream. This was another tasty orange soda - still of the artificial orange tilt. It was pretty refreshing too.


6 Rudys




Bundaberg Ginger Ale. This has to be the tastiest Ginger ale I have ever had. had a nice spiciness and bite and even small pieces of real ginger in there. Excellent. oh yeah and it's Australian. So, technically not a U.S.A... oh well.


9.5 Rudys



RW Knudsen Red Raspberry. This was refreshing and did taste like Raspberry - but it also tasted like apple, grape and lime since this is what they put in there to get the 'contains juice' value up to 100%.

6 Rudys



San Pellegrino Aranciata. This is an Italian Soda.. but you can get it at Safeway so we are good. This was the bets tasting orange soda I have had in the US. It really does have a genuine orange taste which is well balanced.

8 Rudys


NuGrape - The was an outstandingly delicious grape soda. Like a carbonated Welch's!


9 Rudys


That's all my soda's to date. I have a fridge full of interesting soda's coming up. Be sure to hear about them all soon!

Q. Laptop + Mountain Dew = ?

A. A new laptop. Here's how.

Maggie brought over her laptop to my house as she wanted to show me her favourite song (M.I.A -Paper Planes). She also kindly brought me over a bottle of mountain dew.



Whilst loading up her computer the mountain dew spilled on to the laptop... oh no!!








Maggie ran outside with the laptop to turn it over and prevent any damage to the flux capacitor, in her hast the laptop fell from her grasp on to the ground... BANG it was dead...






Fortunately, by some bizarre cosmological alignment, the warranty was expiring on the laptop the next day.. what are the chances??!!
Maggie, took the laptop back to Best Buy and explained her predicament to helpful Sales assistant. With a rye smile... the sales assistant filled in the paperwork and took away Maggie's old laptop.
One week later a new laptop arrived.

Best Buy warranty - 8 Rudys
Mountain Dew - 6 Rudys - not bad lemon and lime flavour a bit to syrupy!

Where have I been?

Not too far away actually... I just realised that I hadn't posted since the beginning of september... Well a few things have happened since then. I went to see the dentist twice... once to get some fillings done... whilst having this done it was determined that I need a root canal. I had the misfortune of actually witnessing this operation live when I did a work shadowing at a Dentists when I was younger... Needless to say, I soon realised that I wasn't dentist material when I almost passed out observing this. It is not a pretty operation... well at least it wasn't one back then. When I went for mine it actually wasn't that bad I have to say... just really long...2.5 hours of hell. It wasn't painful it was just hard to sit still with my jaw open for that long. The only really painful part was putting in the xray plates so I could have my teeth X-rayed... and after all that I didn't even get prescribed any decent pain killers... "If it is painful in the next few days... just take ibuprofen"... Thanks.

So, you may be thinking that the root canal will have deterred my adventure. In short, no. I have continued on quest and have tasted some interesting sodas.... they are coming up next.

Jarritos Jamaica

what does Jamaica taste like? Sadly this isn't a Caribbean flavour mon. Jamaica is spanish for hibiscus. This was a tasty soda, cranberry without the bitter dry after taste and then a hint of tea. Jarritos fail to disappoint yet again. Rating : 7 Rudys

Cola Champagne

This tastes exactly like iron brew, which is delicious! Hard to describe. But it tastes nothing like cola or champagne! Rating : 8 Rudys

The Sodas so far...

So, in the last couple of months I have been a busy Soda drinking adventurer. I'm going to list and rate the ones I have had so far:


RC Cola. I had been told that this was the best tasting cola by a number of people. I didn't rate it... There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Elvis people and Beatles people. Now Beatles people can like Elvis. And Elvis people can like the Beatles. But nobody likes them both equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice. It's the same with Pepsi and Coke... I'm a Beatles person and RC Cola was too much like Elvis.
Rating : 6 Rudys.


Old Brooklyn Birch Beer. This was definitely a unique soda experience. I have never tasted anything quite like this. Root beery with a strong oil of wintergreen taste and smell. It was different. I'm not sure how I feel about drinking oil of wintergreen... in mints it is fine...but drinking mints....hmmm.
Rating : 7 Rudys



Thomas Kemper Black Cherry. Again this was a soda I had never had before. The flavour was full bodied cherry flavour (definitely not fake cherry flavour) and you could taste that this had been sweetened using honey and not HFCS. Tasty... I want to try this again!

Rating : 8 Rudys


Thomas Kemper Orange Cream. This was tasty. Tasted like drinking Orange Tic Tacs - Not all that refreshing though.

Rating : 7 Rudys





Thomas Kemper Vanilla Cream. This was a taste familiar to me. I am a big fan of cream sodas. This one wasn't all that good I have to say. I tasted to much like Ice cream. The flavour didnt seem sharp enough.

Rating: 5 Rudys




Jones Soda Green Apple. I wanted to like this, to support local business at what have you, but I didnt like this very much. I felt like the proportions of everything were wrong. It tasted like an apple Jolly Rancher - a very sweet granny smith apple flavour almost. Maybe I have been spoiled by apple drinks since there are so many good apple juices and Ciders. Also, my frame of reference for a good apple soda is one they make back home called Tango.


Rating : 2 Rudys


Sunkist Float. On paper it sound great and delicious. In practice it tasted pretty bad. I should have known better, Sunkist on its own s not that great, now add a whole load of cream to that... It tasted like kids cough mixture. Calpol comes to mind - basically they add some sweetners to cough medicine so that kids will be more susceptible to taking their medicine. This is what this tastes like. plus 64g of sugar.. that is insane. most other sodas are around the 40-45g mark - although RC Cola was 72g too.
Rating : 1 Rudy (Rubbish)


Jones Soda Starwberry Lime. Jones Soda redeemed themselves. This was fruity, bubbly and refreshing. Maybe a little bit too sweet. I enjoyed this one the most out of the 3 Jones I have had so far.


Rating : 6 Rudys




Stewarts Key Lime. A little too sweet but refreshing and not too tart. Nothing too special or offensive.


Rating: 5 Rudys




Oogave Watermelon Soda. Another one that sounded like it could taste pretty good. It did actually taste ok, but it tasted nothing like Watermelon. It tasted almost pear like and it was pretty refreshing.


Rating: 6 Rudys



Boylan Creamy Red Birch Beer. This was my second Birch beer - I was hoping I'd have a better experience with this one than my last. This one had a stronger root beer type flavour but it still reeked of tasted of oil of wintergreen. I drank this one out of a Brandy glass... I think I'll try and drink more sodas like this as I think this adds further to smelling aspect of soda tasting - it definitely expands that dimension!

Rating: 6 Rudys




Sodas at the Taco Truck....
Whilst in Shleton WA a week ago, we went to get some tasty food at the Taco Truck. To quench our thirst we partook in some Mexican Sodas. alright alright.. this is supposed the unique sodas of america...well these sodas are readily available in America... Anyway...

Jarritos Guava - Deeelicious! Really fruity, really refreshing - perfect compliment to chicken Quesidilla! Rating 8.5 Rudys

Senorial Sangria (sin Alcohol!). This was tasty too. It tastes like Martini rosso and coke. Smells alcoholic slightly but it isnt. It is like sangria like with out the fresh cut up fruit. Best served ice Cold. Rating 8 Rudys

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I picked up more Sodas this week at the Ballard Market and also from the Mexican store in Greenwood... the adventure continues.... Jarritos Jamaica - What does Jamaica taste like? Find out next time

The tumultuous journey of the Faygo Rock and Rye

Part of this soda adventure has been to get friends to recommend and buy sodas from round the country for my delectation. A few weeks ago I had the double pleasure of enjoying my first Ezelle's Chicken and my first taste of Faygo. I was told that the Peach Faygo was delicious and indeed it was (8 Rudys) much better than the pretty average Orange Faygo I had. When purchasing our sodas we noticed a huge selection of Faygo's on offer - two that stuck in my mind were Red Pop and Rock and Rye. I looked these up online and found out that Faygo are based in Michigan and the company was founded by Russian immigrants Ben and Perry Feigenson. The original flavors they worked on were based on cake frosting recipes. It is pretty hard to get hold of Faygo in Seattle unless you go to that fried chicken place I mentioned (other fried chicken outlets are available!). As luck would have it I had two friends who were in Michigan. So I asked them both to get me a faygo each Red Pop and Rock N Rye.

Andrew kindly bought me back a bottle of Red Pop... it was delicious! To me it had all the hallmarks of a good soda: refreshing, tasted like nothing you had ever tasted before yet tasted somehow familiar, also there was a certain level of guilt in drinking it..."I know this is not good for me but it is delicious!". The taste was a blend of cherry, strawberry, raspberry all in the artificial sense mind you with a underlying cream soda taste - (9 Rudys).

My dear friend Nina was also heading to Michigan. After we picked her up from the airport on her return she proceeded to tell me of the adventure she had getting me the one can of Rock and Rye Faygo. No one tells a story like Nina, so I couldn't even attempt to relay the chain of events to you. So.... I got her to tell the story, and here it is (word for word):

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It was the night before I was to leave Michigan and it had totally slipped my mind that I needed to get you a rock and rye. No big deal I thought and I headed over to Meijers super store where suggary drinks and processed foods flowith over. I get to meijer and to my surpise there is only rock and rye diet on the shelf. "This will not do!", I mumble out loud only to attract the attention of some balding business man wanna be. You know that kind that carries a beeper on his belt and a clippboard at all times.

After hearing my grumbles in the isle, said man offers to assist me in digging through the new shippment of Faygo sodas that are waiting to be shelved. We dig through several boxes and eventually realize we were SOL. At this time I am ready to head to another grocery mart and just as I start to walk away the business wannabe stops me to discuss a business endeavor he is pursuing. He proceeds to tell me about this energy drink that will take away my depression, anxiety, and internal toxins......for 15 minutes. In a desperate attempt to get away I tell him I am going to go ask a sales person to check in the back. Well I should have know that my new friend had a friend who had a friend who could check in the back. Ummm this is Meijers not the White House.

Anywhoo, I go to the back to wait for the word on Faygo backstock and have my next encounter. She is what you might call a townie. You can probably draw a picture yourself. We are waiting by the back deli for aprox. 15 mintues for any word. During this 15 mintues we are able to have a highly intellectual conversation about animal cruelty and veganism. 2 things I learned from her: 1) Being a vegan is super hard because you can't eat eggs. You see.....those eggs could become chickens. That's right vegans can't eat eggs! 2) Everyone should be a vegan...unless of course the 10lb ham is on sale....at which point it's just too good a deal to pass up!

Needless to say, they found me some faygo....aprox 1 hour later.

For you Rudy.....anything:)

Now that I have your rock and rye in my posession...FINALLY my last job is to adequately secure it in my luggage so as not to cause a soda explosion.

I was so busy thinking about how to keep all the beer and cans from bursting that I neglected to think about the weight. At the time I arrived to the airport I rolled up with my wheely bag feeling all sly that I had managed to fit so much bubble wrap and liquids in my bag. I print my ticket, fill out my luggage tag, and put my bag on the scale to send it on its way.

"Mam.....you are aprox. 5 lbs over and that is going to be an extra $80."

"WHATTTTTTTT". Sir, I don't think so. Can I grab something out of that bag really quick?"

"Sure, but make it quick there is a line."

In a desperate attempt to appease the long line that has formed behind me and also save myself an $80 fee I frantically start unwrapping rock and rye and handing them out to strangers. They think I am weird and that....is normal. In conclusion, 1 lonely rock and rye makes it into your hands and I am convinced I have come out on top.

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Was it worth it? Of course it was. Again Faygo did not let me down, this was a good soda! It is hard to describe the flavour, they say it is Cream soda and Cola fusion... I'm not so sure. I could taste the cream soda part and the other part was kind of dr pepper/ cola/ root beery ... but good (9 Rudys). Cheers Nina :o)

I have a backlog of sodas to rate... working on it. Teeth are holding up, well I'm brushing at least 2 times a day and using mouth rinse!