Friday, March 30, 2012

Virgil's Cream Soda Is A Healthy (And Expensive) Soda Option!


The Good: Easily the very best tasting cream soda I can ever recall having, Not as unhealthy as most sodas.
The Bad: Expensive, No real nutritional benefits.
The Basics: Virgil’s Cream Soda is a very satisfying all natural soda that almost completely justifies its expense on the taste alone!


For those who might not follow my many reviews, I am on a health kick of late and my wife and I work to improve our health. I also do not drink alcohol, so that is why my review index of beverages has so many tea reviews. But I like more than tea and cocoa and (now, especially) health drinks. So when my wife and I did an Oscar celebration this year, I opted for a return to my old love, cream soda. Being on a health kick, I was happy when I discovered Virgil’s Cream Soda. Perhaps the best endorsement I can give is that since trying a bottle for the Oscars, my wife and I have picked up a four pack, both of the regular Cream Soda and the Black Cherry Cream Soda Virgil’s makes!

Virgil’s Cream Soda is an all-natural, no preservative soda that is micro brewed. I was psyched about it because it contained no sodium and that is not the case with virtually any major soft drink company’s product. At almost $2/bottle where I live, though, Virgil’s is a tough sell for a cheapskate like me.

Basics

Virgil’s Cream Soda is an all-natural soda and my wife and I found it locally in the organic section of the upper crust grocery store near where we live. East 12 oz. glass bottle houses the pale tan liquid. The bottles look good, though I noticed that a few of mine have lopsided labels, which only seems to confirm the fact that this beverage is not mass manufactured as some huge enterprise.

The 12 oz. bottle is a single serving of Virgil’s Cream Soda and it is very easy to drink it down in a single sitting.

Ease Of Preparation

Virgil’s Cream Soda is a liquid in a clear 12 oz. bottle. Preparation is as easy as opening the bottle by popping the bottle cap off and drinking the liquid inside. I recommend refrigerating the bottle first as its full flavor potential is reached by having it cool.

Taste

Virgil's Cream Soda smells very much like vanilla. It has a light, french vanilla scent and it is very inviting to anyone who loves cream soda.

As one who loves cream soda, the taste of Virgil's Cream Soda is surprisingly pleasant. I love cream soda, but every one I had before this was dry, slightly salty in the aftertaste and left me without a quenched thirst. While the carbonation in it cuts some of the sweetness of the cream soda, this does not taste either dry or even slightly salty. Instead, Virgil's Cream Soda is the most pure vanilla-flavored soda that I have ever had. This is like a liquid creamsicle . . . without even a hint of fruit flavor to it.

Nutrition

As a soda, one might expect this to have many unpronounceable ingredients. However, Virgil’s Cream Soda is made primarily of purified carbonated water, unbleached cane sugar, and carmelized unrefined cane sugar. There are no unpronounceable ingredients in this and Virgil’s seems committed to providing ingredients that address every possible ethical or dietary constraint!

Nutritionally, Virgil’s Cream Soda is not enough to live off of, but it is good. In addition to being gluten free, Virgil’s Cream Soda has a whopping 42 grams of sugar. With 160 calories per serving, it is astounding that there is not a single gram of sodium in this. Virgil’s Cream Soda has no fat, nor any other nutrients.

Storage/Clean-up

Virgil’s Cream Soda comes in a glass bottle and there is no clear expiration date on the bottle. There is what appears to be a batch code (if it’s not, then this soda would expire on the twelfth of December, 2020). We bought it fresh in a place with good foot traffic, so I know it was fresh.

This drink is a translucent tan color, but if it gets on very light fabrics it will certainly stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect even light clothes will be able to wash the soda right out. As well, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

Virgil’s Cream Soda is well worth hunting down, despite the expense. It is flavorful, not as bad for you as other sodas and it promotes good stewardship of the Earth and its corporations (with all those all-natural, carefully-created ingredients). For those who can pay a little bit more for health and ethics, Virgil’s Cream Soda is an investment that pays off in delicious taste!

For other prepared beverages, please check out my reviews of:
The Simpsons Duff Energy Drink
Bolthouse Farms 100% All Natural Carrot Juice
O.N.E. Active Cranberry Grapefruit Coconut Water

8.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for a complete listing of all the foods I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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