Boylan Limited Release Sodas

If you haven't seen Boylan's sodas then you must be blind. These sodas are literally everywhere and are quickly taking over Jones shelf space. I got a batch of these to review courtesy of the good folks at Pacific Bottleworks and I am so very grateful.

Sparkling Cider

Boylan's Sparkling Cider is a limited release, so get yourself a bottle right now if you are a fan of Boylan and ciders.

This sparkling cider has a bold apple aroma with notes of both sweet and sour apples, and just a tiny bit of caramel. The soda is not as carbonated as I expected it and starts off with a rounded, creamy mouth-feel bringing the caramel and sweet apple notes to the taste buds. The sour apples come in after and tend to stick to the back of the tongue. The sweetness suppresses most of the sourness and results in an interesting cola-like twist at the finish, which also carries some of the creamy character of the start of the drink. Very interesting and satisfying soda.

Taste - 9.0/10

Birch Beer

Coming from Europe, we do love our birch products. I grew up with birch juice and was happy when it started becoming popular here at places like Shoppers. I have also had alcoholic birch beer, but I have never had birch soda drinks before.

Boylan takes a slightly different approach with birch beer. The birch flavors come from birch oils, which are dark and give the soda its dark, cola-like color. The soda has a sharp anise aroma with hints of vanilla and caramel and something that reminds me of the basic Crest toothpaste. The taste carries the same notes, but it is much softer than the aroma. The anise much less pronounced and you get a subtle influx of earthier notes and some of that familiar, but hard to explain Crest toothpaste hint...could be a blend of mint and anise. The vanilla, caramel and mint-like notes come out near the finish and form the aftertaste.

I would compare this to an intense root beer with a touch of anise and mint. Very interesting and rather enjoyable.

Taste - 8.8/10

Orange

This is a staple flavor that is rather hard to pull off if you want to skimp on the depth and complexity of it. Boylan's orange flavor does come through, though. The aroma has a strong orange and tangerine peel bouquet while the flavor has multiple layers. It starts off with a mild candy-like orange, followed by a sweet tangerine, which takes you all the way to the end. I must admit that this is a little too sweet for my liking, but that cane sugar really rounds off the corners. There doesn't seem to be any harshness as you would get from a high fructose corn and I do like the tangerine finish. It helps round off the end.

To try something different, I diluted the last bit of this soda and it was absolutely awesome. The sweetness was cut down a bit, but the flavors remained there.

Taste - 8/10...it is sweet

Creme

Not the biggest fan of straight up cream sodas, but the deep golden color really intrigued me about this one. This creme soda has a very warm and inviting aroma that reminds me of sweet glazed donuts, vanilla and caramel. The flavor is sweet and comes at you head on with the sugary goodness of a dozen glazed donuts, followed by a sprinkling of vanilla. The finish reveals a combination of caramel and butterscotch which reminds me of Werther's candies, but damn is this sweet...oh well, at least it has cane sugar which gives the soda a very round, smooth sweetness.

Taste - 8.1/10

Root Beer

This root beer has an aroma that is very similar to the Birch Beer but with a touch more sweetness and spice. The taste is also very similar at first, but give it a few moments and the flavor starts to diverge. Vanilla and caramel will stay behind with a very minimal anise hint and a very round sweetness profile thanks to the cane sugar. The aftertaste is an interesting blend of candy cola-like and root beer-like flavors.

Man, I am sold on cane sugar. Love how it rounds off the flavors in all of these sodas.

Taste - 9/10