Thomas Kemper Soda Company started out in 1991 after Thomas Kemper Brewing Company created a Root Beer to serve at Oktoberfest in Washington. Spreading by word of mouth, TK Soda survived even after their parent company was purchased. Eventually they re-united with TK Brewing at Pyramid Breweries. They then began releasing various flavors of soda into the industry. Starting out with Orange Cream; Black Cherry, Ginger Ale and Grape soon followed. In 2007 the company was purchased by a group of individuals to continue making premium soda's. They introduced Low Calorie versions of some of their soda's, and in 2008 started using Pure Cane Sugar in all of their products.

One of the unique attributes of these sodas is the use of honey from a local Oregon company. They are also brewed in small batches of 100 to 600 barrels at a time. All ingredients are hand poured into batches, no pre made flavors. Everything is made fresh each time a batch of soda is brewed. They are then allowed to sit for up to 48 hours before they are bottled.

The Vanilla Cream soda had an inviting vanilla aroma, and I was looking forwarding to tasting it. The taste was excellent, the flavor was rich and rewarding. The vanilla was very noticable, and it tasted a little bit like an ice cream float. I couldn't really discern the taste of honey in it. As for the Black Cherry, the cherry taste was strong and there was a noticable sweetness. There was an odd aftertaste, kind of like it left a coating on my tongue. I'm not quite sure what caused that, perhaps that was a result of the honey.

TK Sodas available at Amazon and other retailers in the Western US, and they are trying to move east. If you live near a Border's with a Seattle's Best Coffee it may be available there. We'll be getting taste tests of Root Beer, Orange Cream, and Ginger Ale out sometime next week. Stay Tuned.