Get ready for a classic “kid in a candy store” scenario. Yesterday the mister and I had a day-long trip to nearby Scottsdale (zoo, antiquing, lunch). Since we were going out there anyway, I had to have a detour at Pop The Soda Shop — a hot local business that I’d heard a lot of good things about, but never visited before. This place stocks bottles of just about every obscure, locally made soda in existence (they sell online, too). Naturally I picked up a dozen or so of a variety of flavors. In the next few weeks, I’m going to post write-ups on each of them.
Our first subject will be Waialua pineapple, a soda originating from Hawaii. Although the label on the bottle sports a retro-style hula dancer, the company in fact got started only a few years ago by a newlywed couple who noticed the lack of soda bottlers on the islands. Right away I noticed that the drink has an appealingly light color, not the screaming piss yellow one would normally associate with pineapple soda. The lightness also extends to the taste. It’s got a really refreshing flavor — good and pineapple-y, sweet but not overpoweringly so. The fact that they use pure cane sugar and not corn syrup as sweetener makes a huge difference (that’s why hardcore Coke drinkers prefer the insanely sweet concoction from Mexico over the U.S. version). Now that I’ve tried the pineapple, I’m very curious about Waialua’s other three flavors … especially the mango. Guess we’ll have to schedule another Pop The Soda Shop trip!
