Craft Soda Week: The Best of Fruit-Flavored Sodas

This week the ol' blog is celebrating Craft Soda Week. Glug, glug, glug.

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It baffles me that the most majorly distributed fruit soda is lemon-lime. While lemon-lime is refreshing, it isn't known for being sweet; with sweetener being the second ingredient after water, why not go for fruits that are, well, sweeter.

Anyway, here's my Top 5 fruit-flavored sodas:

Concord Grape.

1.) Concord Grape by WBC Craft Soda (formerly Goose Island). Originally out of Chicago, IL. Now out of Redding, CA.
Before I tried this, I'd never understood the appeal of grape sodas, which were often cloyingly sweet, like a Jolly Rancher Slurpee. This soda, which is getting harder to find than WBC's other flavors, has made a convert of many folks I've shared it with. It is getting harder to find though, which is disconcerting.

2.) Peach by Bundaberg. Out of Queensland, Australia.
Crisp with a fizzy bite. Not as well-distributed as Bundaberg's Root Beer or Ginger Beer, which is a crying shame.

3.) Kitty Piddle (orange pineapple) by Totally Gross Soda, a subdivision of Avery's. Out of New Britain, CT.
Sweet with a tang, this unfortunately-named soda is the standout in a wonderful line of sodas, each with their own intriguingly(?) awful name: Dog Drool, Bug Barf and Toxic Slime, to name a few.

4.) Strawberry by Sprecher's. Out of Glendale, WI.

Peach 4-pack.

Natural strawberry is among the greatest flavors on earth. Artificial strawberry is its own form of sugary delight. This soda captures a little bit of both.

5.) Point Premium - Orange Cream by Point Premium, a subdivision of Stevens Point Brewery. Out of Stevens Point, WI.
The right combination of creamy and orange, the first sip of this soda goes down so smooth you want to guzzle the whole thing in seconds. But it'll taste better if you pace yourself.