It seems like every time I try to get this blog started again, something comes up. But I remain undaunted. As long as there are healthy, sugar-free products, cooking advice, and recipes to share, I will keep coming back. As I mentioned in a previous post, stevia-sweetened products are becoming more common, although they are still the minority in comparison with those laden with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame. And today, I'm sharing another soda brand. This one is Virgil's.

Virgil's is know primarily for their “gourmet” root beer, made from all natural ingredients, but they make a few other soda flavors as well. And they eventually began offering diet versions of their sodas sweetened with stevia. One thing that's unmistakable about Virgil's is the packaging. Instead six pack cans, Virgil's comes in packs of four 12 oz. bottles, which reminded me of the old IBC root beer bottles my mom would occasionally buy when I was growing up. That definitely earned them some nostalgia points.

Aesthetic appeal aside, Virgil's stevia-sweetened sodas come in five flavors: root beer, real cola, cream soda, orange cream soda, and black cherry cream soda. My personal favorite is the real cola. It has a spicy, old-fashioned cola taste that I find particularly appealing, and it's caffeine free. If you like your pop really sweet, then this is the brand for you. Initially, I found a few of the flavors (cream soda and black cherry cream soda) to be too sweet, although once I acclimated to the strong sweet flavor, I enjoyed them a bit more.

Overall, Virgil's makes an enjoyable range of diet pop, especially if you love old-fashioned style sodas but don't want the added calories. And if you like it, Virgil's has a new product called Dr. Better that is also available as a zero-calorie stevia-sweetened diet beverage (I haven't tried it yet, so I have not included it as part of this review).