Swamp Pop - 4 Reviews

Swamp Pop may be my current favorite soda company going these days. They take classic soda flavors and mix them up with a Louisiana twist. Oh you want a cola, how about we throw some figs into the mix? That cream soda you so desperately crave? Well you're not getting that until we add in some pralines. This is the flavor I have been saving for a rainy day, or a perfectly nice day when I'm sitting around a fire at night. With embers a blazing I cracked open the cap of the combination I feel I have been waiting for all my life; ginger ale and cucumber. People always laugh at me when I rant about my love of cucumber beverages. They are fools who don't understand that it is the most refreshing flavor of all times. It is both crisp and cool, which is just what you need on a hot balmy day.

This soda is named after the local “gentlemen pirate” Jean Lafitte, who basically ran the Gulf of Mexico during the 18th century. The man did it all; bootlegging, smuggling, spy work, and he even worked as a wartime defender under General Andrew Jackson. All of those activities have to take a lot out of a person so I can only imagine him kicking back after a long day of raiding ships and sipping on a bottle of this soda. I assure you that he would in fact be sipping and not chugging, as that is the sort of pop this is. You want to mull over the flavor in your mouth, letting it wash over your taste buds with each sip.

This is much sweeter than I anticipated, but it feels right in its level of sugar. The folks of the south like their sugar, as is evident with sweet tea, and that has been translated here. It's a ginger ale that you can taste the ginger in. It has the slightest of burns to it, but nothing that a small child couldn't handle. So as a base you have a nicely sweet, slightly hot ginger ale. What better way to improve that than by cooling it down with some cucumber? With that addition you have near perfection. It is also a flavor that instantly makes me think of Louisiana, heat, humidity and how to make it all bearable.

Even the dastardly scientists at Swamp Pop couldn't save this orange pop. It is, and will forever be, an untamable beast. The "junkyard dog" of flavors, orange pop will always be just orange pop. It's fine. They didn't do a bad job and it's cleaner and less syrupy than a lot of the other orange pops I've had but at the end of the day, if a hot dog isn't in my hand and sunglasses on my head, it's not time for orange pop. Sure, it's not limited to backyard hootenannys but regardless of the case, I'm left with a bottle or can of the same, half full container of the same-ish orange liquid. Sorry everyone and especially sorry to Swamp Pop who had until this point, earned near perfect marks. This is your "C" to keep you humble.

"If Benjamin were an ice cream flavor, he'd be pralines and..." well, you know the rest. Famous line. Famous actor. Famous movie. I would like to get the cast of Wayne's World to sit down with me in this cramped office and share in the splendor that is this praline cream soda. I was leery to drink this because I just had actual praline that isn't just a fixun in ice cream for the first time and it was a little too much. This tastes exactly like it, which actually is more impressive. It's too sweet for me to drink the whole thing but that doesn't lose it any points. It's wonderful. I feel like it's doing less damage to my teeth because I can gulp it down and not have to chew it like I would actual praline. The sweetness from the praline combined with the cream soda makes this a "must have" for cream soda fans. There are serious Southern roots inside of this bottle. They should be proud of this.

Swamp Pop. Party time. Excellent.

The first thing I need to say about this is that it simply is not enough. I'm not saying that it doesn't live up to my expectations, what I'm saying is that the single bottle I have is just not enough. I have reached a point in my life where about half of a bottle of pop is enough for me. I guess that's when you can tell that you've finally grown up. The thing is that while I drank this bottle I wanted to share it with everyone around me because I was astounded at exactly how good it was. I believe I could have drunk the entire 12oz alone and I still would have felt like it wasn't enough. This could be a dangerous product.

Noble Cane Cola tastes like an olde timey soda. It's the kind of thing that would be served in restaurants in the old west part of amusement parks if they were trying to be authentic. I am obviously not over a hundred years old, so I can't say for certain if it actually tastes the way cola did when it was first invented, but in my head it does. The flavor of this falls somewhere between a your “classic” cola taste and Moxie. There's something in it that gives it a unique taste that is on the verge of tasting medicinal without tasting like gross medicine. Does that make sense? It's also slightly fruity. Now you're completely confused. When I drink this I feel like I should talk slower and take more time to enjoy my day. It's one of, if not the single best cola I have ever tasted.

Now that I have you on the hook and you need a bottle all for yourself, let me let you in on a little secret. That special taste in here is actually due to the mixing in of Louisiana figs. I bet you didn't see that coming. I also bet that if you knew they were in here before someone spoke of the virtues of the cola, you probably would have said “Ick” and passed it right by. You would have been wrong to do that because there is magic in them there swamps, and it has been captured in this bottle of cola. Now I just need to travel to somewhere I can purchase this and pick myself up about a dozen cases, so I can become the glutton I always knew I could be.