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As mentioned in our Overview of the Jones Soda Holiday collection, for 2006 Jones Soda released three flavors in classic 4-Packs. The first of those flavors we tried was Sugar Plum Soda.

Unlike the beverages in the Holiday Pack and Dessert Pack, the label style was a little different for a 4-Pack drink. (It should also be noted that, duh, we have 4 different bottles here!)

These drinks have a lot in common design-wise as the 4-Packs found in the 2006 Halloween collection (Jones Lemon Drop Dead Soda, Jones Creepy Cranberry Soda, Jones Monster Mojito Soda).

Whereas the label style on the Halloween bottles featured black lettering and borders on an orange background, the Holiday 4-Packs possess red borders, green backgrounds, and silver lettering. This is in contrast to the Holiday and Dessert Packs which feature classic Jones black backgrounds, white borders, and silver lettering.

Before you ask, "a sugar plum is a piece of candy that is made of sugar and shaped in a small round or oval shape. They are similar to truffles with a dark chocolate exterior and a plum-flavored interior." I can't say that I've ever had a sugar plum. But I would assume that this soda would work off that plum flavor. I don't eat plums, so I guess I'm taste testing blind here!

Jones Sugar Plum Soda is a light purple in color, very clearish. It resembles window cleaner in appearance… kinda like the Sparkle brand.

When you smell the drink, it actually has somewhat of an alcoholic overtone for some reason, even those it's just a regular soft drink. Very fruity, but weak aroma. Like all 4-Pack and Dessert Pack sodas in 2006, Sugar Plum is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

Frankly, the taste wasn't all that great, which was surprising to me. The bottled 4-Packs from the Halloween collection tended to buck the trend of "gross" sodas from Jones. I was thinking that the Holiday versions would do the same. I believe I was wrong.

In this case, you have a flavor that resembled watered-down grape soda with some sort of obscure aftertaste. I can't quite place it. It's not gag-inducing, but it's not very pleasant either. Tastes very chemical, if that makes any sense.

As Sugar Plum Soda is bundled in a handy 4-Pack, we have 4 different customer-contributed labels to inspect. First off we have an "adorable" baby in a Santa hat sent by Steve Spegal of Butler, KY. Never been there, but it's south of Cincinnati if anyone cares. Population 613 in 2000. Gee, sounds like a wonderful place to do nothing but take photos of your kids and send them into a soda company!

If anyone should be the poster child for Sugar Plum Soda, it's the cute little girl in the photo sent by Cassandra N. Tiensivu of Chester Township, MI. This lovely little spot is northwest of Grand Rapids and probably features classic Michigan stupidity, the Michigan Left. I feel sorry that this girl will probably never grow up to learn to drive like normal people.

Libby Head of Iowa City, IA submitted this out-of-focus photo of an ugly Christmas tree ornament. Not much to do there in Iowa, is there Libby?

Finally there is a nifty image of a gingerbread house found on a bottle label contributed by Milly H. of The Boro, TN. Um, where? After a little research, I found that "The Boro" refers to Murfreesboro, TN, a city that Milly is so embarrassed to be part of that she had to use a fake name for it and withhold her own last name. Per Wikipedia, "although Murfreesboro is sometimes considered a suburb or exurb of Nashville, Tennessee, it is far enough away and has a large enough population to maintain a separate identity from its larger neighbor."

I guess it doesn't really matter what label you throw on Jones Sugar Plum Soda. It's just not very good.