Gross Gus's Dinosaur Dung Chocolate Soda

I was feeling adventurous and opened this soda this afternoon:

Brand: Gross Gus's Dinosaur Dung Chocolate Soda.

Origin: Inyokern, CA.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It smelled like chocolate. And it TASTED like chocolate. This was much better than the first chocolate soda I had a few years ago, although some of the same things can be said about it: it tasted a bit like a liquid Tootsie Rolls, and it's mainly "sip-able" (not really "drinkable"). But the flavor was much better in this one. It still wasn't GREAT, but I'll give this an average score. If you like chocolate and are intrigued, check this one out.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Postobon Kola Flavored Soda

This is Colombian, so I didn't know what to expect:

Brand: Postobon Kola Flavored Soda.

Origin: Colombia, South America.

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

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: It was very berry-like, but I couldn't name the exact flavor. It had the strangest chocolate aftertaste! Really. It was odd and nearly completely destroyed the soda for me. Otherwise, it was pretty smooth and shippable. (Just get rid of that chocolate flavor!)

Score: 4 out of 10.

Cold Front Ice Cream and my First Egg Cream

This morning, the boys and I stopped at Cold Front Soda Fountain just a few miles away here in St. Paul. Cold Front had just celebrated it's 1-year birthday a few days ago.

Birthday balloons and candy were still all over!

I got the boys 2 mini ice cream cones, and I got an "Egg Cream" soda for myself:

My boys and their ice cream: "Birthday Cake" for my 1-yr-old, and "Superman" for my 4-yr-old.

My first Egg Cream. It's chocolate syrup, milk, and carbonated water.
(So no EGG and no CREAM.)

Steve (the owner) put the 3 ingredients in the glass, got our attention, and said "here's the kinda magical part." It looked just like water with milky bubbles on the top, but then he started stirring the chocolate syrup at the bottom. In just a few seconds, it transformed to what you see above.

My boys drank half my Egg Cream. Really.

My funny dates at Cold Front.

So I suppose I should review the Egg Cream. Here I go:


Brand: Cold Front Egg Cream.

Origin: Cold Front, St. Paul, MN.

Purchase Place: Cold Front, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup and/or Sugar (according to the Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup website).

Review: The owner mentioned that this is a much lighter version of a cold chocolate milk that would be tasty on a hot day (where ACTUAL chocolate milk might be too heavy - remember "milk was a bad choice" from Anchorman?). It was like a light, refreshing, fizzy chocolate milk. It was FAR from heavy - Steve was right in saying it'd be great on a summer afternoon. Interesting flavor combo. I'll rank it just above average, and would totally have it again.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.


Oh, and as the boys were wrapping up their cones, my younger one was tempting and teasing my older one:

"Oh, do you want a bite of my cone?…"

"… PSYCH! It's going in MY mouth!"

This was only our second stop at Cold Front - we only stopped there last February for some sodas just after they opened, and hadn't been back! We need to go back SOONER the 3rd time…

Jolt Cherry Bomb

A few days ago, I had a couple of big days and a few short nights back-to-back-to-back. I needed a little caffeine boost, so I figured it was a good time to try this:

Brand: Jolt Cherry Bomb.

Origin: California.

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

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: The cherry flavor is pretty dark - it's not like Cherry Coke. And there was a subtle chocolate flavor that got stronger the longer I drank. I didn't care for the chocolate flavor - I'm one of those people against the "fruit and chocolate" flavor combination. If you like that combo, this might be worth a try. Personally, I'd give it a 4 out of 10, but because I know that many people would like this more than me, I'll bump it up to a 5. It's average. Interesting. A little different. And HIGHLY caffeinated!

Score: 5 out of 10.

Coco Fizz Chocolate Soda

Chocolate soda?!? How could I NOT at least try it?

I didn't know what color it SHOULD be, but I was a little disturbed to see it was this light:

When the bottle first touched my lips, it was as good as it could be - it smelled and tasted like chocolate syrup. But it wasn't something I really wanted to keep drinking.


Brand: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory's Coco Fizz Chocolate Soda.

Origin: Durango, CO.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: My wife said it tasted like a liquid Tootsie Pop. I think it tastes a bit like that mixed with thin Hersey's Syrup. It tastes like chocolate, which is what is SHOULD taste like. But it's not very "drinkable" - it's only "sip-able." This would be a great novelty soda to try with friends or to give to a chocolate lover, but it's not something I see anyone going out to get a case of.  It's "fun" just like Lester's Fixins Bacon Soda or Sweat Corn Soda. I'll call this a similar "novelty" soda, but I'll give it a higher rating than either of those 2 sodas.

Score: 3.5 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...)