Milca Red Soda Pop
12 fl. oz.
aluminum can
Milca Bottling Co., Miami, FL
cold, no ice

Michael took one sip and lost all ability to continue. Pffft. Amateur. So it falls to me to soldier on.

The label on the can says it all: Soda Roja/Red Soda Pop. Not cherry, not strawberry, not watermelon. Red. The nose is pungently chemical, like all the falsest notes of Starburst cherry and strawberry, blended into a thin, artificial vapor. As a drink, it's pretty much without a single redeeming quality. It's a garish laboratory potion red, it packs a violently fizzy punch and it tastes ... red.

The only positive attribute is a certain nostalgic quality--Milca Red Soda Pop is composed of the same chemical pastiche as the Official Summer Drink of the Powers family, Faygo Red Pop. Which, in its way, is one of the inspirations behind the Summer of Soda. Like most moms, mine believes in dosing small children with massive amounts of milk. But we spent our summers in rural southwestern Michigan, far from the weekly milk deliveries of Chicago, or even a convenient grocery store. So for three months every year, we were allowed to drink soda with dinner, so the two gallons of milk in the fridge would last from Saturday to Saturday.

By the way, I checked Galco's shelves thoroughly, and I'm sorry to say that there will be no reviews of Faygo brand Red Pop, or the oddly named Rock 'n Rye, or any other flavors, unless a Powers sibling decides to submit a review of their own.



Final verdict: "'Soda Roja' is Spanish for 'soda that freakin' blows'"--MG

KP: 0 of 10
MG: Conscientious Objector