I can’t front, they got a hot bottle. All glass, with the raised lettering? Retro fontification on the painted label? If a pretty dame saw you drinking this out on the street she you would mentally put you in the “classy” category, maybe give you some elevator eyes. The kind that go all the way up and then all the way back down, pausing briefly at the mezzanine. I am serious.
Boylan’s Sugar Cane Cola starts off OK. It’s not as completely wimpy as some small-brew colas I’ve had, but the carbonation is a bit light, and it doesn’t have that real strong cola bite, the tearing at your mouth-innards that makes cola fun. Still, it’s passable. But then however at the end of the first few sips there was a strong, chemical-y aftertaste, which I did not see the humor in. And it got me all worried, because Boylan’s SCC is as all-natural as it gets. So what if years of over-exposure to HFCS and various chemical preservatives has my brain conditioned to interpret things that are all-natural as actually gross? Now I am worried that this is going to happen to me. If it hasn’t already. Sort of a job-related hazard, I guess.
But the aftertaste went away after a few sips, and a thing that I learned about myself while drinking this is that I don’t really care if a beverage has a weird aftertaste at first, as long as it goes away, or I get used to it, or whatever. I mean it’s not exactly science, I’m just saying. By the end it was easy sailing.
Overall not mind-blowing, but not bad. I have a suspicion that the cola is of a certain mellowness that would go perfectly with a light rum, food for thought as you plan the next of your patented 6-day benders. I can’t figure out what that weird aftertaste was, so maybe it was a fluke? Something I ate beforehand? I don’t know.
Either way, Boylan’s has a wide variety of other products, so I figure they’re worth further consideration, and I will endeavor to dive deeper at some point. Not saying when. Later-ish.
this is a sad testament because i really love all of the other boylan products i’ve tried–ginger ale, root beer, and orange soda. df might have convinced me to have grape one time and that was good too! i think he’s also tried some black cherry or something and liked it. they all have a genuine, natural flavor to them so i’m surprised about the cola. don’t give up on boylan’s!
I think it’s semi-interesting that the company calls themselves “Boylan’s Bottleworks,” as if they were just classy bottle-makers and then someone said: “Hey why don’t we make the stuff that goes IN the bottles, too? Eliminate the middleman. How hard can it be.” I hope that is true.
Anyway yeah I’ve had the Cane Cola and thought it was fine enough, but kind of fell short of expectations. The root beer is good, the black cherry is great (though I’m really biased toward black cherry and will think even the worst fakey swill is great), and the ginger ale is forgettable. I need to give the orange a shot. Summer’s rearing its stinking humid sweaty head and that’s when I tend to turn to orange.
Boylan’s Creme Soda is the best.
I recently tried the Cane Cola and was not impressed. I too experienced the aftertaste except it never went away. Also, the flavor wasn’t as strong or intense as I expected it to be.
Boylan’s makes excellent soft drinks. Their birch beer is the best on the market. I thought the cane cola was excellent, with spicey cola flavor, sweet but not syrupy, nicely fizzy. I’m always looking for alternatives to C***, and this is a good one.
Angelique is right, Boylan’s Creme Soda is the best.
Boylans Cane Cola may well be the best Cola Available today. Yes you are all “conditioned” to drink soft drinks very cold and very carbonated in order to mask the taste. In fact many of you probobly drink them chuck full of ice too. Cola’s were originally served less carbonated and believe it or not more syrupy (more than Boylan’s). In order to squeeze every fraction of a penny out of sales the big beverage companies have consistantly altered the formula’s from there original concoctions. HFCS being one of the cane sugar substitutes used primarily in the USA. You can easily be reconditioned back to a real soda like Boylans Cane Cola. Just buy a weeks supply and drink. dont have any other sodas and then try your Coke or Pepsi or whatever. Boylan real makes a great product too bad most Americans have tastes that prefer the inferior.
So, Kevin, I was just at Art Mart getting a cherry sugar cookie (quite possibly the best cookie on the planet, certainly top three) and got myself a Boylan diet root beer. I’m one of these low-brows Mick is talking about who is conditioned to fake-o sweeteners, after years of diet soda, but this one had an aftertaste that just wouldn’t die. I studied the bottle looking for the Splenda logo, because 9 out of 10 when I have a diet or lite or whatever product and it tastes weird to me, Splenda is the common factor – I just hate it. And sure enough, it’s got sucralose. But on the up side, it was kind of peppery, and my confusion about how pepper was in root beer (is that what real sasparilla is?) gave way to a merry “who cares?” because it was tasty. It also has “yucca extract” in it.
I agree with Mick 100%. High levels of carbonation are used to mask the inferior flavor that cheap sodas like Coca Cola and Pepsi have. Because most soda companies do this people are not used to a low carbonation soda. The way that soda should be. To raise profitability most companies “overcarbonate” and use cheap plastic bottles, which do not preserve the flavor as well. Next time you have a Boylan’s compare the expiration date to that of any other soda. Most of the time depending on how long it’s been shelved you will find that Boylan sodas are good for up to two or more years, Unlike plastic bottled sodas. Boylan also uses 100% Sugar Cane so that helps with flavor as well. It is hard to find something better than a Boylan. In my book Boylan sets the pace which all else should follow in. Oh, and Dr.Browns and Stewarts fall way short to the taste and quality of Boylan’s.