It’s that time again when we invite 16 yr old, craft soda enthusiast, Joey Godinez to share a review of his latest craft soda experience. As you know, Craft Beverage Jobs is NOT a beverage review site, but once a month we make an exception for Joey!

Joey’s Craft Soda Review

I’m Joey. I like craft soda, a lot. In my opinion, I feel that craft sodas have a lot more to offer than a mass produced soda not only in taste, but in the variety and quality of ingredients used in their production. This is a big reason why I generally enjoy craft sodas, and I also think that drinking them and reviewing them is a great way to support the generally smaller companies that produce these beverages.

Caruso’s Legacy Juicy Orange Cream Soda

Sometimes I go into a review thinking I’m gonna hate the soda that I’m reviewing, and unfortunately I often find myself to be right. Thankfully this is the exact opposite case, orange cream sounds pretty good right about now, especially with summer approaching. Hopefully, my predictions are correct. Well, on with the review.

The Bottle

Sometimes I think I should stop commenting on the looks of the bottles, lately I’ve found most of them to be pretty dull, unfortunately, this one is no exception. Olde timey looking label, with an olde timey font, and an olde timey picture of who I can only guess to be Mr. Caruso and his wife, boring. Hopefully the drink itself makes up for this.

The Smell

I wish they made candles that smell like this!

Thankfully the smell already makes up for the unexceptional bottle, this is promising. It’s got a bit of a creamy fragrance akin to root beer or vanilla cream soda, both of which I love the smell of. The orange is a bit harder to place, but it’s definitely there, and together they produce an aroma which could be described as heavenly, and if you knew me you’d know that heavenly is an adjective that I never use. I wish they made candles that smell like this.

The Fizz

And here comes the category in which most of the sodas I review don’t do so well in, bubbliness. This soda is no exception, pretty average, maybe even below when it comes to fizz, which is a shame. I generally tend to find that citrus sodas benefit the most from sufficient bubbles, but it looks like this one won’t be.

The Taste

Time for a taste, and a wonderful taste indeed. I haven’t had an orange cream anything in years, and I’m certainly glad that this soda was my reintroduction to the combo. Tastes like liquid orange sherbet, and before I started guzzling sodas, I used to chow down on pints of sherbet, specifically orange. As I predicted, it’s a great hot weather drink, and unlike some of the other cream sodas I’ve had, it doesn’t have a weird… filmy quality to it, not sure how to describe that better.

OVERALL: Boring bottle and low fizz can’t keep this soda down. Awesomely refreshing aroma with a taste to match. 8/10

Meet Joey Godinez!

Joey Godinez is the 16-year-old son of a blogger Mom; big brother to two sisters; and lover of all things “Craft Soda”!

To keep up with all of Joey’s guest posts, just search the category Joey’s Craft Soda Review right here on the Craft Beverage Jobs Blog.