Review: Hotlips Pear Soda

I've always been a pear lover, and realized a long time ago that I had never had or even heard of a pear-flavored soda. Lo and behold, one fateful sunday morning in February of this year I was participating in another hobby of mine(Magic: The Gathering, in case you were wondering), and I came across precisely that which I craved. I was in between rounds and incredibly hungry. I took a three-block walk to a local deli, and looked in there case to find this...

My eyes did not deceive-this was truly a wonder to behold. I plopped down my cash, and ran ecstatically back to my chosen venue, and proceeded to open and imbibe what can only be described as pure, pear-ile bliss.

It was everything a pear soda should be, and rightfully so-they use actual pears in the making of the soda!

Hotlips is actually a pizza parlor in Portland, Or that began brewing their own soda-eventually releasing it the market at large(recently they got a deal with their bottler that brought them into the Philippines!) 

Listed on their website is which farms they purchase all of their fruit from. How's that for awesomeness? You usually only know where your ingredients come from if you make your own, so kudos to Hotlips Soda for providing us with that information. Pretty awesome of them if you ask me.

Packaging- 4/5

I like the pears on the label-especially considering the fact that they use REAL fruit to flavor their soda-some bottles reportedly contain fruit pulp.

Aroma- 4.5/5

Smells exactly like liquid pear, but not overwhelmingly so-which makes it much more realistic.

Taste- 6/7

It does suffer from the drawback of having to be pasteurized-something which makes all juice-sodas taste a little too tart/wine like in my opinion, but I can't hold it too much against them that they need shelf life. A great tasting soda, just sweet enough and very refreshing. It was a great compliment to my greek salad pita.

Overall- 14.5/17

An amazing beverage. Highly recommended. I can't wait to try the rest of their line.

Recipe: Homemade Pear Syrup

I love pears. They're my favorite non-banana fruit, and I love everything about them. The way their bulbous curve fits my hand slightly better then an apple. The sweet, but subtle flavor. Which brings me to the first of my next two posts-I wanted to make my own pear soda. However, I haven't had much time to plan out and brew my planned concoction, so the next best thing was to make some pear syrup and combine it with some club soda and see how it goes.
First, I peeled the skin from an apple and a pear. Then I set 2 cups of water to boil, adding 2 cups of sugar as I went for a basic simple syrup. After dissolving the sugar and getting a good mix in, I threw in the peels and covered, allowing to simmer for about 7 minutes. Took out a few tablespoons and allowed them to cool. I thought it was okay, but my wife tried it and said it was too much sugar and not enough anything else.
To correct this, I took the leftover pear "core"(which was only about half-eaten) from my daughter's post lunch snack and threw it into the pan with the rest of the syrup. I brought the heat back up to a medium high, covered with a lid and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Wow! I'm glad my wife was there with her sugar-repellent taste buds. Taking a sip of this syrup is liking biting into a fire-roasted pear-super sweet and very peary. It even retained the flavor of the peel-which just makes it that much better. I haven't combined it with club soda to try out the soda aspect yet, but it is great on pancakes along with being a very tasty fruit dip.
Next up I'll be reviewing a pear soda from the Pacific Northwest.