Hello,

A couple months back I posted a thread titled "Peach soda discussion". It fared rather well here with a lot of responses to which I say thank you! My two favorite flavors of soft drinks are two of the most rare, peach and cherry. I promised on more than one occasion a discussion about cherry sodas so here it is.

I will first say that I get really annoyed when I'm looking at sites that sale soda and I look under the cherry category to see the have cherry colas, cherry limes, black cherry and so on listed as cherry sodas. I even know of one site that lists Dr. Pepper as a cherry soda. Umm, ok, whatever.

I will also tell you that I do not personally consider Cheerwine a cherry soda despite being advertised as such. I like the drink don't get me wrong but it tastes nothing like a cherry drink to me.

There are a few exceptions I will make however. Even though these are not technically straight cherry sodas, to me cherry is the predominant taste in them.

1. Sunkist Cherry Limeade. -- a very pleasant tasting drink with a smooth cherry flavor.

2. Stewarts Cherries and Cream. -- another smooth tasting drink with lots of sweet cherry flavor and a very cool looking bottle.

3. Hansen's Cherry Vanilla. -- for a natural soda, this stuff is really tasty and has a strong maraschino cherry flavor to it.

Now on to the real cherry drinks.

In order of my favorites...

1. Jones Cherry Soda -- I remember the first time I tasted this drink, I could not believe it. I literally thought I had died and gone to heaven. When I was a young girl my grandma used to always have maraschino cherries in her fridge and I'd sneak in and sip the juice once in a while. I always thought how cool it would be if a soda could taste just like that. Well, Jones did the trick and this is by far my favorite Cherry Soda ever. It's basically carbonated maraschino cherry juice and an unmistakable cherry flavor.

2. Regent Cherry Soda -- For a very short time we had these here in Central California at Big Lots. This was several years back. They were in 20 oz. plastic bottles and they were insanely good. I've never seen or heard of it since but my memory is fond of this drink. Another great maraschino cherry flavored soda with a lot of bite. The package said it was from Pittsburgh.

3. Cherry Crush -- I have long been obsessed with this drink. I first heard of it in the mid 90s and spent 10 years on the Internet searching for a way to get my hands on some. In 2003 I found some on SodaFinder and after getting raped on the price, I finally got it. Then a few years later I got some glass bottles from Dan the Soda Man for a very reasonable price. When I heard it was going national in cans I was so happy. While I like the drink a lot and love being able to find it anywhere now, I can't honestly say I love it. I know most of you are wild about it and I want to be but so far I just haven't fallen in love. I just can't agree that it has a super strong cherry flavor like many of you have said. It smells like cherry and certainly is a pretty shade of red and is a pleasant relief from the same old boring orange, grape and strawberry Crush is always jamming down our throats, but right now I just can't rate it as a great cherry soda. Having said that, I've already stocked up with 6 cases of it because I predict Pepsi will not put it out for long. People will for whatever reason continue to buy those three boring flavors I mentioned like mind numb robots and I predict Cherry and Pineapple won't sale well.

4. Cherokee Red -- I had one can of this drink years ago and quite honestly can't really remember it. I know I enjoyed it but I can't recall it enough to give a fair review.

5. Filbert's Cherry Soda -- decent but like other Filbert's sodas, not very sweet. Overall an unimpressive cherry drink.

I have heard of a soda called Red Ribbon Cherry Supreme that's supposed to be out of this world. I found some online recently and am going to buy some. Has anyone had this one? Also there is one called Baumeister Cherry Soda that I want to try.

I guess this is about it for the cherry soda discussion from my end. Any other thoughts? One side note, though Jones Cherry is my favorite I must admit I liked it better with HFCS instead of PCS which they now use. It was sweeter before!

Susan

Finally Cherry Crush made it to my local Wallyworld.I must say i was disappointed,Cherry RC and Cheerwine are much more to my liking.It wasn't terrible or anything, just plain tasting and not strong enough flavor compared to some others.It's still fun to try new things every once in a while even if it doesn't always lead to something you love.

Yes, I agree. To me Cherry Crush doesn't have a distinct cherry flavor at all. Like you said though, not terrible or anything but a bit disappointing.

Funny, prior to Orange Crush being bottled by DPS, I would agree that OC was
not all that great "the thrill is gone." LOL Last night I drank two cans of Pepsi bottled OC. WOW was I blown away. They hit the spot, big time. Any explanations?

As a kid growing up in DC Rock Creek Cherry Smash was the shiznit, especially over vanilla ice cream. Now my favorite cherry soda is that venerable Charm City classic, Suburban Almond Smash. Have to agree that Cherry Crush did not meet my expectations.

Wow - I must be in the minority here, or perhaps I haven't tried that many cherry flavored sodas. I personally think Cherry Crush has one of the strongest cherry flavors to it. Of course, I'm comparing it to Cherry 7-Up and the likes. I was just happy to get a cherry flavored soda on the general market as opposed to the over-saturation of black cherry sodas...not a big fan of black cherry.

I'm with jacksmom, I love Cherry Crush. Maybe the flavor isn't that "strong" but it's just right for me.

No you last two gentlemen are not in the minority when it comes to cherry crush...IT IS POPULAR! It is not selling nearly as well as the orange crush(as to be expected) but DAMN if it doesnt sell better then the other three in 2lts and 20oz.

ANYWAYS..I am not that thoroughly knowledgable about the expanse of cherry flavored sodas however cheerwine is one(how the heck can it not be? Thats kind of crazy) and of course cherry crush and I had big red(thats one right?) which I didnt like..I have yet to try any others but I am ALWAYS a fan of PLE(permanent line extensions) when it comes to a cherry variation...Dr.Pepper Cherry is my new favorite mixer and Code Red Mt.Dew is by far my favorite caffeinated soda..was my favorite soda until cherry crush came along and my goodness..did it blow me away..

Big Red is not a cherry flavored soda. It's a bubble gum soda, presumably like the gum Big Red.

Have any of you guys tried Jones Cherry? It isn't all that hard to find and has the best cherry flavor I've ever had.

Big Red is similar to a creme soda. Big Red gum is cinnamon flavored.