Boylan Cane Cola

I was grabbing some mulch at Ace (on Grand near Snelling Ave) last week, and I also grabbed this:

I liked the design of the bottle cap.

Brand: Boylan Cane Cola.

Origin: New York, New York.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was OK. It had that flowery sweetness that many "good" colas have, but it was pretty subtle. There wasn't anything special or unique about this. Pretty average, so I'm giving it an average "5."

Score: 5 out of 10.

Boylan Grape

I've had an up and down relationship with Boylan. It was time for another try. So I opened this over the weekend:

Brand: Boylan Grape Soda.

Origin: New York, NY.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was sugary and delicious. It had a deep grape flavor and went down easily. It's been a few years since I had Faygo grape soda, but it reminded me of that (but maybe a bit smoother and better). Tasty stuff!

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Boylan Diet Black Cherry Soda

Well, here are 2 back-to-back posts about a Diet Boylan soda. I thought that "regular" Boylan Black Cherry was pretty good when I reviewed it nearly 2 years ago, so now it was time to see how their Diet fared:

Brand: Boylan Diet Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Teterboro, NJ.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sucralose.

Review: It's been a long time since I had "regular" Boylan Black Cherry, so it's hard to do a true head-to-head comparison, but I THINK I like this Diet Black Cherry better. It's a little creamy, but just a BIT - not enough to be a nasty cherry-cream. It's quite sugary tasting with a pretty deep flavor for a diet soda. There's a slightly off aftertaste, but not bad. This is pretty good, and quite good for a diet!

Score: 8 out of 10.

Boylan Diet Root Beer

I tried this yesterday:

Brand: Boylan Diet Root Beer.

Origin: Teterboro, NJ.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sucralose.

Review: Like many diet sodas, it's a little weak. It's also a little "chemically" and tastes a little off. But there is a nice little berry aftertaste that's unique. It's not that great, and it's even sub-par for a diet. Not the best.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer

I've had this in the fridge for the last few days, and I finally cracked into it yesterday:

Brand: Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer.

Origin: Teterboro, NJ.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I tried to figure out this flavor. It was VERY creamy, but it still had a slight bite at the end. It tasted like a creamy cola that had a little bit of cherry and vanilla in it. It was different and unique, but it was good and will be pleasing to a lot of people! (Usually, I think unique sodas will be gross to a lot of people and tasty to just a select few, but I feel like this doesn't fit that mold - it's better.) It's a little on the sugary side, but if you're like me and you like sugar, then it's pretty great.

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Boylan Black Cherry

I really didn't care for Boylan Root Beer (see this post), but I still bought their Black Cherry to try:

Brand: Boylan Black Cherry.

Origin: Teterboro, NJ.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a decent Black Cherry. It leaned a little to the "sharp" side - it wasn't very smooth. It was good, but nothing fantastic, so I'll give it a just-better-than-average score.

Score: 7 out of 10.

RE-Review Head-To-Head: Virgil's and Boylan Root Beer

About 9 months ago, I reviewed Boylan Root Beer and Virgil's Root Beer. I wasn't impressed by either of them, but felt I needed to try them both again. So I cracked them open head-to-head:

Originally, I'd given them both an "average" rating: 5 out of 10. (Click here for the Boylan review, and click here for the Virgil's review.)

One of the things I said about Virgil's last year was that "it was SUPER creamy, but it was just missing a little something."  And I said that Boylans was "fine, but it wasn't great."  Well, after a few tastes of each the other night, I have to say that...

Virgil's tasted like anise water (too thin)

... and that...

Boylans just tasted a little burnt.

I think I was a little generous with a "5" rating for each last time. I would re-rank them as:

Virgil's: 4.5 out of 10.
Boylan: 4 out of 10.

Boylan Root Beer

This has been one I've been wanting to try for a while...

Brand: Boylan Bottling Co. Root Beer.

Origin: Teterboro, New Jersey.

Purchase Place: Lunds Grocery Store, St. Paul (Highland Park), MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Honestly, I don't know. I didn't get a strong feeling either way with this root beer. It had a little anise, but not too much for my taste. It was fine, but it wasn't great. I'll have to crack into another one of the 4-pack and report back to see if I can nail down the flavor and my thoughts on it. So for now, I'm giving it a 5. And like I said in my recent post about Vigil's Root Beer, I'll post back when I try it again.

Score: 5 out of 10.