Your Ultimate, Favorite Flavor?

[daft]

You may have tried to copy favorite commercial soda flavors, or experimented with creative recipies that gave the thrill of novelty, but which ones actually held up over time as an ultimate satisfier? I have tried mixtures to feed my coca cola addiction with only weak success. I have had heart-throbs with unusual fruit flavors, only to tire of them over time. I have failed with root beers. The one lasting spectacular success, which I require every few hours is...

1) Kumquat Rainbow! Natural kumquat syrup includes the peels with the citrus fruit and packs a mule kick of tanginess. Not a thin irritant like lemon or ginger but a deep soulful burn as if Coke were crossed with some glutinous jungle fruit. The thick mouthfeel contrasts with tingly bubbles... in fact the syrup I source from Taiwan is almost too thick to pour into my sodastream bottles when cold. So I premix in a couple of other fruit flavors which also gives multidimensions to a potentially harsh taste... thus a Rainbow.

Right now I am tripping on a delicious mixture of what jugs were on hand... natural kumquat, artificial kiwi, and natural raspberry. Sounds strange, but you kinda want something red to not only give flavor complexity but thin out the syrup to be manageable. I have found a source that pre-mixes kumquat syrup which I will try next, along with hibiscus and blueberry syrup.

 

[kaffeenjunkie]

Right now we are enjoying, lemongrass and ginger, chili lime, and strawberry blood orange syrups. All scratch made.

 

[daft]

strawberry blood orange syrups. All scratch made.

I love blood orange drinks in Italy, but could not duplicate it in the US. Then I discovered the segment sheets of blood oranges are very bitter; almost like grapefruits. The Italians seem to press squeeze those fruits (sometimes in front of you) which leaves the bitter behind. I don't have the patience for that, and I think the "Organics" brand of blood orange soda don't either.

P.S. Another plus to natural kumquat syrup is how it triggers lively bubbles like almost nothing else. You can carbonate it quite mildly and it will still give a vortex of bubbles down to the last drop. Fantastic mouthfeel, but not with unmanageable foam head. You do have to open a fresh bottle carefully... I twist it open and even if it sits still a second I twist it momentarily closed in case a whoosh of bubbles. Underpour a bit in case of mounting bubbles that collapse into a wave of aroma.

 

[MrFoodScientist]

Right now I am tripping on a delicious mixture of what jugs were on hand... natural kumquat, artificial kiwi, and natural raspberry. Sounds strange...

No, doesn't sound strange. Sounds like it would make a killer rainbow sherbet!

My all-time favorite is still coconut lime. It has never failed me. It's kind of the whole reason behind my blog's color scheme.

 

[Wagemage]

I have been trying to recreate a few.

BK's restaurant has a great root beer that is heavy on the vanilla and spearmint.
Henry winehards cream soda has something I have not been able to hammer down.
I am also working on a few ginger beers.