Mr. Cola Review

Even with the internet and a phone to help gain insight on Mr. Cola’s origins, its conception still has a shroud of mystery. Mr. Cola’s straight forward, black and white label clearly states “since 1949” but has been through the hands of at least two manufacturers within its 62 year history. Grapette (Grapette has since been bought up by Walmart) owned and produced Mr. Cola from 1962 and discontinued production in 1970. More than ten years would pass before the Orca Bottling Company of Washington State, introduced its first beverages to the market. Orca bought a Pepsi bottling plant that had been flooded and subsequently was written off Pepsi’s insurance company in the early 80’s and with this stroke of luck was able to buy defunct formulas and contract with other soda producers to develop a full line and thus Mr. Cola found its way back to the market shelves.

The basic black and white packaging and the heavy caramel color seems straight forward with some possible aesthetic appeal to the hipster community. The flavor has a light, sugar cane base sweetness with slight bite of phosphoric acid. The aftertaste almost reminds me of a slight artificially sweetener taste that you would expect from a diet soda. This aftertaste although light, would sway me toward another cola on my next purchase. Also I understand that Mr. Cola’s style is that of a minimalistic, James Dean cool, with basic black and white paper label, but with the quality of the pop being in question, I’m left to wonder if Orca should put more thought into bettering a brand that’s been discontinued at least once before.

The Orca Bottling Company’s story and its website offers inspiration to all those whom dream of owning a legitimate business and with a handful of soda’s that are relatively good (dad’s root beer and Sioux City Birch Beer) I believe that Orca should Either redesign or retire Mr. Cola.

4 Bottles out of 10

Boylan Cane Cola Review

With Coca-Cola and Pepsi dominating the soda market and creating in essence an iron curtain to prevent other bottling companies to enter into the mainstream, it’s safe to say that a majority of the consumer population has never heard of Boylan Bottling Company. But Boylan, a family owned company founded in 1891, is in many ways the perfect underdog that American’s would love to root for and has the potential to wow the soda consumer market with its gourmet flavors and high quality ingredients delivered within a glass bottle with Boylans’ neat logo, done in ceramic paint, on front.

Boylan currently produces 21 unique blends, all made with sugar cane, including Boylan’s entry into the cola market, Cane Cola. Cane Cola is considered a turn of the century cola due to its toned down sweetness and acidic flavor. Upon first opening the bottle I found just enough carbonation to tell me that it was fresh. On first taste, the soda was smooth without the sharp kick that you expect from the other cola big shots. Cane Cola resembles Pepsi Throw Back in comparison to sweetness and acidic kick but had a short after taste, probably derived from the sugar cane, of a light sugar sweetened water.


Throw in the nicely designed glass bottle and I would prefer this cola over the major two’s anytime. In fact Red Rock Cola is the only cola that I would choose over Boylan’s Cane Cola.      

8.5 bottles out of 10