Sierra Mist Cranberry

I do not like Sierra Mist. Like I mentioned in my post about Pomegranate 7UP Antioxidant, Sprite is my favorite mass produced lemon-lime drink. But while I was at my dad’s house for Christmas we ran out of cola and the only soda we had left was Sierra Mist Cranberry. Normally, I probably would have passed it up. Given that now I'm constantly on the look out for new things to try and the tasty success of my adventures in 7UP land I decided to give this soda a go. To my surprise and delight, it was really good! Pomegranate 7UP tasted more like a pomegranate soda instead of a pomegranate flavored lemon-lime drink. Sierra Mist Cranberry, however, was crisp and refreshing – like a cranberry flavored lemon-lime drink should be. I actually welcomed the chance to drink this again while I was at Brian’s mom’s house, so I give this 5/5 stars. Great success.

Royal Crown Bottling Co.

The other day I noticed the above Royal Crown Bottling Co. in Columbia. I don't know how I've missed it for so many years. Since I've started this blog I felt that it was only appropriate to go take a picture of it and post it. Most of you probably know Royal Crown for its RC Cola. I couldn't find a lot of history about this particular defunct bottling plant (see the for sale sign in the window), but according to this site I found it looks like this might have originally been a bottling plant for Chero-Cola. Perhaps it was build to only bottle RC Cola, I don't know. If any Columbians want to see it, it's on Assembly Street. If you're going towards the highway, away from the stadium, it's on the left side of the street shortly after passing Gervais St. Happy hunting!

DiPrato's Pimento Cheese Spread

I love pimento cheese. I hate mayonnaise and “sandwich spread.” This hate makes it hard to love pimento cheese because the main ingredient is usually mayonnaise or sandwich spread. I’ve tried many different pimento cheeses, looking for the one that strikes my palate perfectly. My favorite is from a restaurant in Columbia called DiPrato’s. Their pimento cheese spread is served with garlic pita chips and is the best appetizer ever. They also put it on a lot of sandwiches, giving you more than one way to enjoy it. I think that their pimento cheese does have mayonnaise in it, but if so it’s not a ton. It’s just enough to keep everything together. You can see the real, grated cheese in the picture to the right that I’ve posted. No weird, icky cheese paste here! Their pimento cheese spread isn’t the only good thing on the menu, though. I’ve been there for brunch and lunch and have yet to have something I didn’t like. Today I got the rosemary ham sandwich with pesto mayonnaise and Brian got the chicken saltimbocca – both delish, and pictured below (mine on the left, Brian's on the right). The prices are sometimes a little on the high side but the portions are generous. Brian and I both took ½ of our sandwiches home. If you’re in Columbia I HIGHLY recommend it.

BevNerd

Video podcasts and free episodes of TV shows have become my new favorite past time. One of my favorite podcasts is BevNerd. The host, Jason, is from Alabama and reviews a beverage + a snack each video. He sometimes does more than one beverage or snack, and usually tells you about a promotion as well. I think he restocks vending machines (he sort of makes an allusion to that in an early episode) which is part of the reason why he has access to so many snacks and beverages. If you enjoy this blog (or don't and want to see someone do a better job) check out his website/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/iTunes podcasts. Do you all think I should make videos? I've considered carrying around my camera so that I can film myself at restaurants. Perhaps I'll give it a try. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Pomegranate 7UP Antioxidant

Generally, I prefer Sprite over 7Up. But when I saw Pomegranate 7UP antioxidant at Bi-Lo I decided that I had to give it a try. I found some pics online of pomegranate 7UP cans but they only had it in 2L form at Bi-Lo so I grabbed a bottle. It has antioxidants, which is pretty cool. Again with the healthy soda, I suppose. I’ve had pomegranate before, but didn’t know what to expect from this. I guess I thought it would sort of taste like cherry soda. Really, I expected it to taste like pomegranate soda, but heck if I knew what that would taste like. Let’s be honest, most of the time when you have something that’s flavored like fruit it doesn’t actually taste like that fruit. I love grapes but hate anything grape flavored. It’s just not the same. This soda didn’t disappoint. When you first drink it, it doesn’t really taste like pomegranate. It just tastes like a fruity 7UP. But the first little aftertaste hint that you get tastes EXACTLY like pomegranates! It's not really "crisp and clean" like you'd expect from Sprite or 7UP. It does taste more like a fruit soda. Still, it's really great. I like this soda a lot. Brian and his roommate tried it and they both liked it as well. I don’t know if I’ll buy it again, but I’m certainly going to enjoy finishing the rest of the bottle. I give this 4.5/5 stars.

Tommy's Naked Soda

I went to the Gourmet Shop a few weeks back to visit a friend who had just started working there. While I was perusing their wares I found some New England ‘naked’ sodas; Tommy’s Naked Soda to be exact. These sodas don’t have any caffeine, unnatural flavors or colors, and are clear. I’m sort of curious how they get sodas such as blueberry, raspberry, and orange to be clear, but whatever. I think that in general I have decided that I am not a fan of ‘healthy’ sodas. If I want healthy, I’ll drink vitamin water. If I’m drinking soda I don’t want healthy. I ended up purchasing the lemon & lime, raspberry & lime, and orange. For more information on these drinks, visit tommysnakedsoda.com

1. Lemon & Lime
When I think about how a lemon/lime soda should taste I imagine a light, crisp, refreshing taste. This soda was lacking in the light and refreshing departments. The lemon & lime part was fine, but something about it seemed heavy. Perhaps it didn’t have enough carbonation in it? Brian thought it tasted alright but I thought something about it just tasted a bit off. It was okay, so I’ll give it 3.25/5 stars.

2. Raspberry & Lime
I was a little worried about how this would taste, since I tried the black cherry & lime Vitamin Water flavor and didn’t like it, but I decided to give it a go. I like this one more. You mostly taste the raspberry, with just a hint of lime at the end. This one was a bold mix of flavors and was pretty good, so it gets 3.8/5 stars from me.

3. Orange
I feel like I’ve had this before. I think it’s taking me back to the ‘natural’ orange soda I got from World Market. Good to know that they all taste the same. And how could they not? The ingredients are the same: carbonated water, cane sugar, natural orange and other natural flavors, citric acid, and ascorbic acid. This particular natural soda has 100% of the U.S.R.D.A. of Vitamin C, which is great for me because I currently have the winter sickness. I uploaded a picture of this soda's bottle (please excuse my free phone's lack of mega pixels.) In the effort of fairness I give this one the same rating I gave the last natural orange soda I tried: 3/5 stars.

Recreating Wild Wing's Poppy Seed Honey Mustard

Recently I have welcomed all mustards that are not "yellow mustard" into my life. My favorite non-yellow mustard is Wild Wing Cafe's honey mustard. What makes theirs unique? It has poppy seeds in it. I swear that I once saw a poppy seed honey mustard at Bi-Lo but have been unable to find it again. I have since found myself wondering if I could recreate the dressing by merely adding some poppy seed dressing to some honey mustard. Sounds simple, but this theory doesn't always work out. Example: adding curry to ketchup does not make curry ketchup. I finally caved and purchased some Publix poppy seed dressing (it was the first one I found that was a plain poppy seed dressing). Today I mixed the dressing with some French's honey mustard and to my delight it tasted EXACTLY like Wild Wing's! I didn't exactly measure it out, but if you're looking to recreate the taste yourself this is what I did:

-1 medium squirt of honey mustard
-3 splashes of poppy seed dressing

I like this dressing on just about everything. Grilled chicken, fried chicken tenders, wings, fries, and even chips (I'm currently dipping some Lay's classic chips into my dressing). I encourage you to give this a go if you're a honey mustard fan. If you do try this out, post your findings in a comment. I'd love to know how you think the mix of the two stacks up to the original.