Wednesday, December 08, 2004

White Rock Ginger Ale


Not exciting at all. Posted by Hello

I was pleased to find White Rock ginger ale locally because I knew the company had had some hard times in the past few years. I couldn't recall seeing any White Rock products in this area for a long time.

My most memorable White Rock encounter was in the late 70's. I was with my sister and some cousins at a recreation center and we used their bizarre, archaic vending machine. They had only beverages that we'd never heard of and the cans had no pull tab on the top. The tops of the cans were like soup cans. To open them you had to lift a little door on the vending machine, put the can in, and then pull the door down and the can would get a triangular hole punched in the top. I'd never seen a vending machine like that before and haven't seen one since. It may have been one of the last ones operating in the country for all I know.

Anyway, that day I got a can of White Rock's lemon/lime soda. At the time, the can looked very exotic to me. All these years later, I'm still kicking myself for not keeping it.

White Rock's trademark is Psyche, who, in her modern portrayal on the bottles, seems to be wearing a bit more than she used to.

I wasn't expecting anything different from most of the other ginger ales on the market, but this did taste a bit different. The label said it was naturally flavored, so maybe that was the reason. There was a somewhat spicy, rooty taste with a hint of fresh dirt (a lot like what I tasted in Pepsi Holiday Spice). I got the same taste, but with 100 times the spiciness, from the frightening Goya ginger beer I reviewed a few weeks ago.

My problem with White Rock ginger ale was that it was very flat. I don't know if I got a bad bottle or they just ordinary under-carbonate their beverages.

Verdict? It's pretty good, but not my favorite. There's a lot of ginger ales out there. The major brands are a safe bet. Even Shasta ginger ale is quite good. I'd drink White Rock again, but I'd probably choose another, more easily obtainable, brand of ginger ale over it.