The Swimming Hole
by Todd Etter, Brent Holman
Answer: ADOPT WET NEUTRALITY
This is the final meta for Cascade Bay and it uses the ten answers from the previous two metas and the eight new answers.
The flavor text of bitter and sour, along with "water quality" suggests pH. In each answer, one of the two words can be paired with either ACID or BASE to make a common phrase (e.g. STOLEN BASE, BATTERY ACID, etc.) Looking at the other words, we can pair the answers by their non-acid/base lengths:
Looking at the paired words of equal length, one of the two words contains a single P and H. Taking the corresponding letters in the other word (ordered by length), gives the answer ADOPT WET NEUTRALITY.
HOP off | off base | pH |
DNA test | acid test | AD |
ant HEAP | antacid | pH |
stolen PESO | stolen base | OP |
HYPER jump | base jump | pH |
rain WATER | acid rain | TW |
IPHONE battery | battery acid | pH |
fan LETTER | fan base | ET |
stomach PUNCHES | stomach acid | pH |
line NUMBERS | baseline | NE |
PLYMOUTH rock | acid rock | pH |
UPMARKET value | base value | UT |
TELEGRAPH station | base station | pH |
jazz ORCHESTRA | acid jazz | RA |
HELICOPTER drop | drop acid | pH |
salary INEQUALITY | base salary | LI |
THERAPEUTIC bath | acid bath | pH |
SYMMETRICAL pair | base pair | TY |