Ginger Ale Taste Test

Most people know that I am a ginger ale connoisseur, whether as a mixer or straight.  I am generally a Canada Dry kind of gal.  Schweppes just doesn’t do it for me.  Honestly, I don’t even like how “Schweppes” sounds when you say it.  Over the years many specialty ginger ales have popped up in the market.  So when someone recently recommended that I try the Bruce Cost Ginger Ale Unfiltered, I took it as an opportunity to try several bottled specialty brands both old and new.  I decided to do my own taste test … totally unscientific and totally biased because it’s based solely on my opinion.  I rated several of the bottled brands based on 4 main factors: 1. Price, 2. Ginger flavor, 3. Effervescence, and 4. Burbability (Hey, this is an important factor which goes hand in hand with effervescence – especially if you happen to be drinking it as a hangover cure!).  The last 3 factors were ranked on a scale of 1 to 10.

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Here are the results:

Bruce Cost – This brand has real ginger in it and boasts that you can actually see it, which is true and why it got such a high score for ginger flavor.   However, it fell flat (pun intended) as to effervescence and did not have the bubbly sensation that I enjoy from ginger ale.  By the way, Bruce Cost comes in multiple flavors.  I tried a few of them but preferred the original (I am a purist!).

  1. Price $2.50
  2. Ginger Flavor 9
  3. Effervescence 5
  4. Burbability  5

Fever Tree – This brand was the most expensive in my taste test, but based on the high scores it actually lived up to price.  It ranked pretty well across the board.  Good ginger flavor, great bubbles, and nice burbability!

  1. Price $3.50
  2. Ginger flavor 7
  3. Effervescence 9
  4. Burbability  8

Vernor’s – This is the oldest surviving ginger ale brand in the United States.  It is considered a golden ginger ale which is closer to ginger beer (for reference, Canada Dry is a dry ginger ale). Unfortunately, while it obviously has staying power, I didn’t like the taste.  It is a little too sweet and basically tastes like soda or sprite and scored low in all of my totally subjective categories.

  1. Price $1.50
  2. Ginger flavor 4
  3. Effervescence 6
  4. Burbability 5

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Boylan Cane Sugar Ginger Ale – Yep, you guessed it! It is made with cane sugar and all natural ingredients.  It is a traditional pale or dry ginger ale and has a very smooth finish.  It is nice and crisp.  I liked it!

  1. Price $2.89
  2. Ginger flavor 8
  3. Effervescence 8
  4. Burbability 8

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So what did I learn?  That Canada Dry is still my favorite! Honorable mention (which also doesn’t come in bottle) goes to the recently launched Canada Dry Ten.  It is a great tasting, low-calorie knock off of the original.  It has only 10 calories and I can barely tell difference between this and original especially when mixed, so it is definitely a winner.  However, if you feel like enjoying a high-end bottled ginger ale, I’d go for the Boylan or the Fever Tree.

-I’ll drink to that

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