The next several reviews I do are going to all be sodas from the Dublin Bottling Works in Dublin, Texas. If that name sounds familiar it’s because they were the birthplace of bottled Dr Pepper and have been around since 1891. Now that your memory is jogged you’ll probably recall that Dr Pepper recently *took away* (for lack of wanting to type all the legal nonsense) their ability to bottle and sell their signature Dublin Dr Pepper. Was it deserved? Was it not? It’s been discussed so much I’m going to avoid continuing that conversation here on the site.

When that all went down several fans of the Dublin Bottling Works felt badly about them losing their main draw and so much more, myself included. If you’re still feeling bad for them I’m going to go out on a limb and guess they’d like for you to stop weeping over what they lost and take the time to see that they’re still a force in the independent soda bizz. Twelve, count them, twelve sodas are made at the Dublin Bottling Works with seven of them being Dublin originals. Today I’ll be reviewing one of those originals… Dublin Cherry Limeade.

Like all their sodas, Dublin Cherry Limeade is made with pure cane sugar so immediately I expect to be drinking a higher quality soda in a matter of moments. The label art is cute and has a retro feel which seems to be the theme among all the Dublin flavors. Red soda with a green cap also suggests to me the flavor I’m about to ingest even if it weren’t emblazoned on the bottle. Enough chatter, let’s begin!

Upon opening the bottle my nose does not detect much of a scent trying to escape. Only after I put my good nostril to the top do I notice a hint of lime trying to whisper into my olfactory glands. Since huffing the bottle isn’t progressing this review I’d better just drink up.

Delightful. For some reason my brain immediately wanted to focus on the carbonation and how it affected the feel of the beverage. While my tongue was initially splashed with a small dose of tickling bubbles it’s the end of the sip where they really ramp up and make themselves known. I don’t know why I pretend the bubbles are living creatures with a job to do… it just amuses me. After my questions about the carbonation were satiated I quickly realized that Dublin Cherry Limeade is a bit more cherry than limeade. The lime flavoring is still present throughout the entirety of my sip; I just wanted to give you a heads up if you thought it’d be a 50/50 split. Of course it is called a CHERRY Limeade which might infer that cherry should be the dominate flavor, but once again I’m going to avoid any conversation that might end in fisticuffs. The cherry flavor used is rather sweet, but not overly so. I wouldn’t quite put it in a “candy” category but it can certainly see said category from the seat it occupies. One thing that surprised me is the cherry coating my mouth gets after each sip. I really thought Dublin Cherry Limeade would have a cleaner mouth feel and I’m kind of sad it doesn’t. Of course if I’m complaining about the latter half of a drinks mouth feel then you know I didn’t have a whole lot to complain about. Overall Dublin Cherry Limeade is a good drink that I would suggest to anyone. Could the flavor be more powerful with less of a syrupy finish? Yes, but it’s still plenty good the way it is.

Verdict – Buy a Pack!

~A

This soda was provided to us by Dublin Bottling Works