The Twelve Days of POPmas Day 3: Australian Style Hot Ginger Ale

Just got home after a long day, so this will probably be a short one. And a bit of a cheat, but more on that later. It's Australian Style Hot Ginger Ale.

Christmas in Australia! On Diggery Doo. On Wallaby. On Paul Hogan and Gibson. That's the extent of my Australian references. I also refuse to look up the spelling of diggery doo because I bleed American blood dammit! As expected, Christmas traditions are pretty similar in Australia and American except for one major difference - it's summertime! Instead of traditional holiday ham and snowmen, Australians celebrate with BBQs and water balloon fights. Santa wears sandals, and there's apparently a ton of random bush fires because Christmas typically falls on the hottest day of the year down under. This buzzfeed article shows some great comparisons between American and Australian Christmas. Right here

Alright so, not much in the way of funny, but like I said...long day! Let's try some Australian Style Hot Ginger Ale. So why is this one a cheat? Because technically it was made in America by the good folks at Rocket Fizz. But this one has been in my shelf for almost a year, and I have no other creative way of fitting this one in, so what the hell? First of all, what is Australian Style Hot Ginger Ale? The short answer is, no one knows. From what I can gather from the minimal, lazy research, it's a recreation of Australian's popular Bundaberg Ginger Beer. However, there's nothing that I can find about "hot" ginger ale/beer being an Australian drink. I think Rocket Fizz has some stock footage of a kangaroo lying around and decided to pull a fast one on us yanks. Either way, I AM a fan of spicy Ginger Ale. Goose Island makes one that is really, really good and I highly recommend seeking it out. Anywhoo, let's see what we got here...it smells a little like ginger ale, and a little like death. This one is definitely not in date, but there's no backing out now. It's got strong carbonation, decent ginger flavor, and it is indeed hot, after awhile. There's an after burn that comes on about fifteen seconds after swallowing. It's got some real heat! But it also tastes a bit old. This might be better if it were fresh, but we'll never know because I'll likely never buy it again. AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!  1.5 out of 5 Rudolph noses. So tired...I'm not even going to proofread this one. Publish. Post. Sleep.

MAYrathon Day 18: Picture Show Red Hot Soda

This one is going to be quite short. I got two sodas from Boots Beverages, and I think I'll have a lot more to say when I get to the second one. The only reason I am trying the Red Hot Soda today is because I had that other hot cinnamon soda yesterday and I want to compare the two. Plus I'm ridiculously tired right now so any attempts at being funny, witty, creative or handsome will result in me drooling on the keyboard or making poop jokes. So let's call this one a quickie. 

Cracking this one open; it has a faint atomic fireball scent like the last one, but not as strong. It's a little heavy on the cinnamon more than anything. Taste? While the Liquid Fire one lived up to its name of a truly hot and spicy soda, this one more tries to capture the essence of a red hot candy without really going for heat. It's very sweet but not at all hot in any way. I would compare it to the Ranch Dressing Soda I had a long time ago. It certainly had a ranchiness to it, but it was a sweet and sugary soda through and through. Not terrible though; it's obviously easier to drink because it's not burning my insides. Alright. That's it for today. I promise to tell funnier fart jokes tomorrow. 

MAYrathon Day 17: So Duh! Liquid Fire

Today I'm looking at So Duh! Liquid Fire soda. Here's what the bottle has to say: "Duh means many things to many people; an airport code in Ohio, a punk rock band, To us, So Duh! means - 'Isn't it painfully obvious this is a delicious cinnamon soda made in small batches with quality ingredients and pure can sugar?' So if anyone asks, 'is that soda good?' We hope you'll say DUH!" 

I gotta give it to them - they are confident in their product and aspirations to bring back a 90s catchphrase. I guess Gag Me With A Spoon Root Beer didn't test well. This soda (sorry, So DUH!), comes to use from the Hermitage Brewing Company in San Jose, California. I did some research and they are apparently a legitimate beer brewery that has a pretty loyal following even though I've never heard of them here in the Midwest. What I couldn't find was any mention on their website of the So Duh! brand soda or any other sodas in general. They seem to be strictly a beer brewery.  So how did this get made and why? I have no idea; the only thing I DO know is that it's been sweating red stuff since I took it out of the fridge which probably means its been opened and I'm going to die.

Oh well. Let's taste it anyway. Upon opening the bottle, it appears to be very lightly carbonated and it smells exactly, I mean EXACTLY like one of those Atomic Fireball candies. You remember those individually wrapped cinnamon hot candies? I honestly don't even know if they make those anymore. Let's taste it...I mean, it's essentially the soda version of those Atomic Fireballs. And it's not messing around either. It started with a sweet and spicy cinnamon flavor but them goes straight to the nose like a plate of wasabi. It's really spicy. This would go great in a mixed drink but a bit difficult to just drink on its own. Very creative though and I applaud them for delivering what they said they would. Believe it or not, this is only one of two hot cinnamon sodas I have in the fridge. Let's see how the other one measures up tomorrow if I'm not in the morgue from cane sugar poisoning. DUUUUHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!