Lotte Milkis Banana

I grabbed this from an Asian grocery store that I stopped at recently with my boys:

 

Brand: Lotte Milkis Banana.

Origin: Korea.

Purchase Place: Shuang Hur Supermarket, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a cute little 8.45 oz can. I didn't know what to expect from it. I was a little scared. This drink was a bit milky, and "powdered skim milk" was the 4th ingredient (after water, sugar, and carbon dioxide)... and I assume that's why it's called MILKis. 

As far as the taste: it wasn't bad! It didn't REALLY taste like banana, but more like banana-flavored things. It was like a liquid version of a banana Runt candy (remember those?!?) with carbonation. It was good, but a little odd, so I'll give it an average score. A fun thing to try in a small can.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Channel 45's Dr. Chuck Ells Orange/Banana Soda

So... a local TV station's "mascot" has his own soda (and yes, I'm jealous):

So there's no info on the bottle as to who makes or distributes this, but I wondered if it wasn't Blue Sun Soda. And when I found this video, my suspicion was confirmed as he standing in front of the old Whistler bottling machine at Blue Sun:

Click here to see the video on the Channel 45 website if it doesn't work above.

Brand: Channel 45's Dr. Chuck Ells Orange/Banana Soda.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This tasted like an extra creamy orange soda. The "first" part of each sip is very orange, and then it "ends" with more of the creaminess of a banana. I can't really taste the banana, but there's a sensation of it there. For being a "funny" soda, it's not bad! I'm ranking it just a bit above average.

Score: 6 out of 10.

 

Filbert's Banana Soda

This looked... interesting... sort of...

Brand: Filbert's Banana Soda.

Origin: Chicago, IL.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This was odd. I mean, I EXPECTED it to be odd, but it was odder than I thought. It didn't taste like "fresh" bananas, but it tasted a bit like "dried" banana chips. Only a bit "sharper" and harsher. It wasn't good. I didn't expect a whole lot, but this still let me down.


Score: 3 out of 10.
 

Empire Bottling Works Banana

After having the best root beer of my life, I was leery of trying such a strange-sounding pee-colored soda.

This was my 3rd Empire soda, and they've just been getting better - their root beer was pretty bad, their orange was average, and this was pretty good.

Brand: Empire Banana.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, Burnsville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: The first sniff was strong of banana. And it tasted sweet and good. It was like drinking liquified banana Runt candies (remember those?). The flavor was sharp, but right on. It had a strong banana flavor with a slight pear aftertaste - which was just fine. For being slightly a "novelty" flavor, it was quite refreshing.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Spring Strawberry Banana Flavored Fruit Nectar (More Israeli Soda)

During my last full day in Israel, I headed to a little grocery store for a snack. I looked for any unique sodas to try, but it was just a lot of basic Pepsi and Coke products (and a lot of the last soda I reviewed, which seems to be all over in Israel). This looked interesting, so I walked out with this:

On the 3rd floor balcony of my hotel room near downtown Tel Aviv.

Brand: Spring Strawberry Banana Flavored Fruit Nectar.

Origin: Rehovot, Israel.

Purchase Place: "am:pm," Tel Aviv.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This is non-cabonated, and is more like a "Naked Juice" from the US. But it's much sweeter and tastier than a Naked Juice. It's a little thick (not as thick as "Naked"), and still very drinkable.

Score: 7 out of 10.

A New Place to Get Root Beer in the South Metro!

About 2 months ago, someone named Mike sent me an e-mail. Here was the first part of his note:

Hey Steve,
I found a really weird but great place to buy root beer if you're ever in the south metro - Ace Hardware in Burnsville.  It opened a few months ago and I went in to get some caulk and saw a glorious row with about 50 different kinds of soda!  It's mostly root beers but also some cream soda, ginger beer, and others...

On Thursday night, I was heading back to St. Paul from south of the Metro, and I thought I'd swing by and check it out. It's right on County Road 42, just past the Burnsville Mall on the north side of the road, so it's only about a mile from the 35E / 35W split.

I walked in and a woman asked if she could help me. I smirked a bit and said "I heard you have a lot of root beers..." She smirked back and said "Follow me..."  We stopped at this:

37 kinds of soda on this side...

... and 46 more kinds on this side.

Doing the math, they had 88 different kinds of soda!! There are 84 different kinds picture above between those 2 photos, and they had another small shelf of 4 different kinds of slightly cheaper root beers. Oh, and I guess they had a refrigerated case in the front of "normal" sodas like Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper, but I'm not counting those.

I started filling a box, thinking I'd get maybe a dozen different kinds. (There's a price break at 6 bottles and at 24 bottles.) Well, the first time I stopped to count how many bottles were in my box, I already had 20. So I figured I'd grab 4 more and get the "24 bottle discount." (I saved about $0.25 / bottle by getting 24.) Here's a photo of what I bought once I got it home:

The woman who lead me to the sodas and chatted with me as I picked out my selection mentioned that a good dark rum is GREAT with Birch Beer, so I'll have to try that some time.

Oh, and just so I remember what 24 kinds I bought, here's a list of what's in the box:


ROOT BEERS:
- Route 66
- Sea Dog
- Caruso's Legacy Robusto
- Sioux City
- Frostie
- AJ Stephans
- Dog n Suds
- Capt'n Eli's

NON-ROOT BEERS:
- Malta Goya Malt Beverage
- Diet Cheerwine
- AJ Stephans Cream Soda
- Nesbitt's Orange
- Sioux City Birch Beer
- Route 66 Lime Soda
- Route 66 Black Cherry
- Faygo Rock & Rye
- Cock n' Bull Ginger Beer
- Jack Black's Blood Red Cola
- Jarritos Mexican Cola
- Apple Beer (the brand and flavor)
- Flathead Lake Wild White Grape

"UNIQUE" SODAS:
- Coco Fizz Chocolate Soda
- Empire Bottling Works Banana
- Flathead Lake Granny Apple


(Next time I stop by, I'll bring this list to make sure I don't get any repeats...)