Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
For many of us, the soda landscape is limited to two-liter bottles and whatever happens to be on the gun at your local restaurant. But if you’re willing to dig a little deeper — and spend a little more — you can find some great drinks.
My go-to is and will likely forever be Sprecher’s lineup of fire-brewed soft drinks. But if you’re unfortunate enough to live outside Wisconsin (during the summer months, at least), there’s still a wide array of booze-free beverages that offer rich, deep flavors in unexpected combinations.
New York-based United Sodas of America is one place to find them. The brand has earned rave reviews from the most Gen Z of celebrities; Biebers and Kardashians alike. It’s also backdrop to a spectrum of flavors, a 12-color rainbow of standard sodas and experimental flavors. While they look appealing — pretty cans! Bright hues! — the only judgment that matters is how they taste.
Let’s dig in.
Blackberry Jam: A-
It pours bubbly with a pleasant purple hue. It smells very much like the real thing; a little juicy tartness at the end that reminds you blackberries are best enjoyed with a minor dusting of sugar.
It tastes true to form. It’s effervescent and crushable but the flavor underneath is full-blooded. It’s not overpoweringly sweet and the sugar within balances well against the natural sourness of the berry at the core. The sweetness agents inside are a mix between real cane sugar, stevia and erythritol, blending together for a drink that doesn’t match the richness of pure sugar drinks but doesn’t hit the hollow notes of sugar substitutes either. At 30 calories, it’s a reasonable trade off.
I’m a fan. But I need backup, so like with Parlor’s root beers I enlisted the help of my six-year-old daughter. Let’s go to her review.
Quinn’s Review (QR): Tastes like Sour Patch Kids kinda. I don’t think I really like it. It’s a maybe for me. Oh! There’s my alligator!
Gingery Ale: B
Oh yeah, this smells exactly as potent as I want my ginger ale to be. Vernor’s is my jam, so if you can give me a fizzy, spicy soda that borders on ginger beer, well, hell yeah.
That ginger strength doesn’t quite match up to the smell, but it’s stronger than the typical ginger ale. There’s a little bit of citrus in there as well, which adds a extra depth. In this case the erythritol is slightly more apparent. More cane sugar would have been nice, but I appreciate the 30 calorie count.
QR: Ugh! Too strong! Actually, let me try again. Yes, too strong.
Strawberry Basil: A-
It pours a sparkly pink. While it looks like strawberry Fanta it tastes like the grown up, does-its-taxes version of it. There’s moderate strawberry flavor, but any sweetness is tapered off by the basil. It doesn’t overwhelm, but it adds a herbal, slightly bitter finish.
The result is a cocktail that would probably work pretty well with some gin. It’s low key but easy to sip. Where other strawberry sodas wear thin quickly, this strawberry herb mashup has more replay value.
It’s not a combination I would have come up with on my own, but it’s solid. There’s something weirdly relaxing about it. I blame the basil.
QR: Mmmm, it smells good! (takes big sip, makes disgusted face) … no way.
Lemon Verbena: B
I’m not looking forward to this one. Lemon sodas in general don’t do it for me and I cannot, for the life of me, remember what verbena is. A quick search suggests it’s a flower and I am realizing, in fact, I never knew what it was.
It smells like fresh citrus and looks like, uh, well it’s probably better to leave this one in the can. But that citrus tartness fades away as a sweeter, nearly ginger-y flavor washes over the tail end of the sip. That sugar substitute-adjacent finish rounds off what could have been a nice dry beverage.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it turns out to be the opposite of the basil’s influence on the strawberry.
QR: Ugh, argh, do not like it. Too sour, I think.
Pear Elderflower: A
Wow, this smells great. Pear needs to be in more things, even if the only time it’s ever been done well is in Jelly Belly jelly beans.
The pear is the first thing you notice, but the elderflower keeps the process from getting overly sweet. It’s a well balanced combination that keeps it from being Fanta-sugary. There’s a faint bite from the pear that works in lockstep with the carbonation to make this an appealing sip you keep coming back to.
USA picked a unique combination, per usual, and crushed it with this one. It’s light, refreshing, and loaded with flavor.
QR: Mmm, blech. (dips tongue in). Uhhh ugh. Egh. Uh uh.
Sour Blueberry: B
First thing first: this pours blue. A light blue, but blue nonetheless. This is important to me, though I cannot articulate why.
It smells like sour candy, giving off familiar tings of citric acid. The first sip backs that up; this is a blue Sour Patch kid in liquid, low calorie form.
It’s not overly sweet or tart. As such, your enjoyment will hinge on how you feel about those gummies. I like them, but I also don’t know if I want that 12 ounces at a time. I mean, I probably don’t, but as a one-off this works.
QR: (Sticks out tongue, eyes bug) I don’t like it. It’s too strong.
Toasted Coconut: B
This smells incredible; a mix between pie, Jelly Bellies and sunscreen. But while it may smell like a Mounds bar, the first sip is a little drier than you’d expect. You do get some of those toasty elements promised on the can, but that dried, flaky coconut is the main event.
That slight amount of coffee roasted-ness gives way to a sweet aftertaste that lingers long after it’s cleared your tongue. But once the initial rush of bubbles wears off, the coconut loses its crispness and gets to be a little… sloppy. It tastes a little more like if La Croix were capable of making a seltzer that actually tasted like something.
It’s a unique flavor I haven’t seen anywhere else as an actual soda. And it works.
QR: (dips tongue in drink, doesn’t take actual sip) Eeech. Strong.
White grape: A
As someone raised on trash grape sodas — the ones that would foam up dark blue before settling into their artificially tinged purple base — this is a departure for me. I’m used to a soda that tastes more like a color than an actual grape itself. But USA’s white grape is subtle and soft, weaving itself into a braid of carbonation to create a repeatedly drinkable soda.
The grape juice kicks in more toward the end, leaving you with some Welch’s-esque burps. It’s not as syrupy sweet as other sodas in its field. It’s casting off big “grown up pop” vibes.
QR: Ugh. Oooh ooh ooooh-wa. Dad, what’s your favorite color? Green, blue or pink?
They’re always too strong for me. Like, too strong and bubbly. And I just don’t like the flavor, how it’s made with flavor.
Cherry Pop: C
It’s tough to make any straight-up cherry beverage without invoking a childhood of terrible cherry-flavored cough syrups. And the pour itself sets up the idea we’re not getting a super authentic cherry taste; the bright red color (and can) suggests there’s gonna be some maraschino in the mix.
That’s not a problem — maraschinos are incredible. The pop itself walks a weird line between tart and sweet before finishing off with an artificial cherry syrup aftertaste. Where the rest of USA’s offerings have been authentic to the flavor on the can, this leans in a little too closely to grocery store knock-off sodas. It’s the first miss in the bunch, even if that means it’s merely average.
QR: Mmmmh. Pretty good. Mmmh. Maybe, just maybe, too strong. But I just like the flavor.
I don’t want too much, it’ll make me too crazy. Kids don’t need a lot of sugar and I don’t wanna have too much (Note: it’s only six grams, per USA’s nutritional facts).
Extra Peach: A-
Credit to USA; they managed to make a soda that perfectly matches the too-much-peach hue of the can itself. The peach smell wafts off the top of this pour, strong and slightly tart.
The soda itself drinks like a slightly healthier peach gummy ring, the bubbles of the carbonation filling in for the sugar crystals on the outside of each piece. It’s well balanced between sweet and sour, resulting in a dry finish that makes it easy to come back to.
QR: No! I don’t even like peaches! I’ve never even tried peaches, I’m joking. (looks at glass) Oh, that’s like, so pink.
I just had a sweet. I had two sweets. Mmmm (gestures thumb up and down, settling for sideways), that’s a middle. Middle drink.
Young Mango: C
Here’s where we hit my blind spot. Mango doesn’t quite do it for me, in part because I have a wicked urushiol allergy and touching the skin means I’m itchy for the next month. “Young Mango” is a weird name, too. It feels like a Chris Kattan pitch the CW quickly turned down. And if you’re old enough to understand that reference, you’re probably due for a prostate check next time you’re at the doctor.
Oh right, the soda. It looks like Mountain Dew and smells creamy and sweet like mango, which is generally a cheat code for low-calorie sodas and seltzers. The flavor and the carbonation are a bit intense up front before fizzling away to a potent, pleasant aftertaste. There’s a little bit of stale fruit flavor toward the end that may not feel that way to someone who likes mango more than I.
That’s always gonna be the problem with me and mango. Consider me an unreliable narrator here.
QR: Mmmm. I did like the mango but I didn’t like the strong. I think it’s maybe the bubbles? But I like the flavor.
Orange Nectarine: B-
It looks a bit like the peach once poured. The smell off the top is a bit hollow compared to the full flavor of the other USA varieties.
The taste itself is sweet and understated, particularly compared to a Sunkist. You can practically feel the fuzz of the nectarine on each sip, helping set this apart from regular orange soda. The orange is mostly a conduit for that flavor, using an old soda standby to try something new.
The result leaves you between a seltzer and soda, with the flavor profile maybe getting you 75 percent to full strength. I’d like it if it were a little stronger, but it’s still a nice enough drink.
QR: (currently immersed in her feelings after not being invited to a play date)
Phew, OK. Orange can? Ooooh.
I do like the flavor, but just too fizzy. (resumes yelling at no one in particular)
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's
This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink United Sodas of America over a cold can of Hamm’s?
Yeah, these would be great non-alcoholic options on a hot day (or a cold one), a craft soda that brings plenty of flavor and a low calorie count. With a wide range of flavors, there’s bound to be something in here you’ll like.
