The Best Grape Soda

Written by Snackblog

We all know this flavor. It's purple, it's sweet, and it doesn't taste anything like actual grapes, but we all love it regardless.

Except me -- I'm better than that.

I've been trying out grape sodas for... awhile, and for the title of "The Best Grape Soda" there are actually a few contenders: Fizzy Lizzy Concord Grape Soda, Steaz Grape Soda, and Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape Soda.

The Fizzy Lizzy tastes the most like actual grapes. It is the least sweet out of the three and has a grape flavor that almost tastes like wine. It has a very complex, very realistic taste, even having a slightly bitter flavor associated with the peel of a grape. Although I do love real fruit, and I really love sodas that actually taste like them, I have a couple problems with this drink. First of all, the Fizzy Lizzy barely qualifies as a soda. It has hardly any carbonation in it, definitely not enough for the nice tingle that I expect out of a good soda. Secondly, this soda tastes way too much like real grapes, but maybe even less sweet. I really think that describing its flavor as a very mild red wine (minus the alcohol), is pretty damn accurate. If I want to taste grapes, I'll eat some grapes. If I want wine, I'll steal it out of my roommate's cabinet. When I want soda, I want candy in a liquid state.

Now onto the Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape, because this is really easy to describe. Get a normal can of grape soda, replace the nasty corn-syrup stuff with organic cane sugar for a cleaner flavor, and add in a little taste of actual grapes. Tastes great, but it's not anything amazing. If you want the classic non-grape taste of a grape soda, but better and more grape tasting, then try this one out.

So, two sodas down, which only leaves one for the crown.
Brrrpbrrrrpbrrrrbrrrbrrrp... (a sound of a horn playing something majestic).

Glorious. Behold the Steez Grape Soda. Everything from the sweetness down to the carbonation is perfect, and its balance between a realistic grape flavor and a "grape" candy is amazing. I don't know how the people at Steaz did it. You drink it, and it's unmistakably grape, but so much... so, utterly better. I bet there was just this one day, where the owner of Steaz Soda got really pissed at god/God/the gods, maybe because his/her game of golf got rained on, or something. Or, maybe it was because his/her puppy died, or a kitten maybe? Or, maybe it was because he/she had to give up all his/her bone marrow in his/her lower body, thus paralyzing him/her and ending his/her prolific but short lived dance career, in order to save his/her true love who had some terrible, rare disease, but then the transplant failed anyway and she/he died.

But regardless, he/she (probably) pointed at the sky and challenged god/God/the gods, outright. He/she challenged god/God/the gods to make something that would taste better than his/her/their original creation. And by god/God/the gods, it does taste better than an actual grape. Man, I don't know how Steaz does this, but all their sodas have the cleanest aftertaste, ever. Right after you swallow, there are no weird, clingy, syrupy tastes at all. There is just a slightly sweet, green tea aftertaste that you can barely notice.

Oh, and it's organic too, thank god/God/the gods.



You can find these sodas at:
- I've mostly seen these at places that stock a lot of organic items, like Whole Foods (I don't think that Trader Joe's has these, but I'm not dead sure).


Gang Starr - You Know My Steez