Hot Lips

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz Glass
BevNET Review: Like everything that Hot Lips has done to date, their Cherry Soda is something special. In this case, it's all about the cherries, with Pacific Northwest grown cherries taking center stage in this product. So, if you are looking for one of those candy flavored cherry sodas, this isn't the product for you. With the cherries, they've added carbonated water, sugar, and vanilla. The resulting product is big on real cherry flavor before finishing up with just a hint of vanilla. It's a very simple, but extremely enjoyable tasting product. Visually, the Hotlips brand is far from your ordinary way to brand a CSD line. Whatever it is, it's clean and fun, with big images of cherries making it super easy to figure out what this product is. Overall, it's extremely drinkable and fun — exactly what a CSD should be. Reviewed on: 11/15/2010

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz Glass
BevNET Review: Hot Lips’s Blackberry soda is a superbly executed super-premium CSD made with only four ingredients. What’s most unique about this flavor (and the rest of the Hot Lips line) is its use of local fruit (blackberries from Willamettte Valley, OR) as its primary source of flavor. The result is a very nice fruity flavor that tastes exactly like blackberries. It’s light, but sweet, with a touch of blackberry pulp floating throughout the mix. There’s also a touch of lemon to the finish, which helps cut the sweetness a bit. Packaging is honest looking and straightforward, with minimal text on the label and an uncomplicated list of ingredients. It has a funky, hipster sort of look to it, which is a nice change of pace from the countless carbonated soft drinks that are selling retro or old-fashioned themes. Whether you like the look or not, that makes for a memorable experience, especially with the superb execution of what’s inside the bottle. Overall, a superb product. Reviewed on: 2/1/2010

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz Glass
BevNET Review: Between their Raspberry, Blackberry, Black Raspberry, and Boysenberry flavors, there are a lot of very similar flavors in the Hot Lips line. From a technical perspective, we think this is the best of that bunch, thanks to a very natural raspberry flavor that hits your tongue as soon as you drink it. It’s lightly carbonated and moderately sweet, with the fresh taste of raspberries (and their pulp) providing the majority of the flavor. Compared with the countless other drinks that use less expensive flavorings, there is, well, no comparison – this blows them out of the water. This is the direct result of a formulation that uses only four ingredients, including carbonated water, raspberries (from the Willamette Valley in Oregon), cane sugar, and organic lemon juice. Packaging is a 12 oz. brown glass bottle that’s rather squat in shape. The product’s branding and label design are unique, with a hip, almost offbeat feeling that is far from the norm of the premium carbonated soft drink category. Love it or hate it, it’s definitely memorable and the execution is clean and catches the eye. Overall, this is a very unique, high quality, and enjoyable drink that’s definitely worth a try.Reviewed on: 2/1/2010

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz Glass
BevNET Review: While we can’t recall sampling more than a few pear flavored sodas over the years, we’re pretty sure that we’ll remember this one. By using actual pear juice in the mix (the amount is not disclosed), they’ve achieved a very accurate and natural tasting pear flavor. They’ve combined it with very lightly carbonated water, lemon juice, vanilla, and cane sugar, resulting in something that’s sweet and fruity. Aside from the product needing more carbonation, we wouldn’t change a thing. It’s clean and smooth, which is a testament to the high quality ingredients used in the mix. On the outside, the Hot Lips brand is certainly not you run of the mill premium CSD. That could certainly help this brand be memorable to consumers (especially those who frequent their Oregon-based pizza restaurants). However, it’s not as visually appealing as some of other flavors (such as Raspberry) that use fruit imagery that contains colors that better match the Hot Lips logo. Regardless, we like its offbeat and fun attitude, which is a nice change of pace from the more serious looking entries that crowd the premium CSD category. Overall, it’s a very enjoyable product that’s well executed, but we’d probably pick one of the other Hot Lips flavors over this one.Reviewed on: 2/1/2010