Cool Mountain Root Beer

I was in a bad mood and wanted some good root beer, but unfortunately I only had this: 

Brand: Cool Mountain Root Beer

Origin: Des Plaines, IL.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Bloomington, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This wasn't great. It was too caramely with nothing else going for it. Ehh. No thanks.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Root Beer Tasting at Blue Sun Soda

On Saturday morning, my boys had a cross country race at Como Park. After that, we headed north to Blue Sun Soda for their free root beer tasting party.

The 10 sodas (and tiny sipping cups on either end) ready for sampling.

I had previously had all but "Fiz Roc City" root beer. Left to right in that photo above was Red Arrow, Dorothy's, Always Ask for Avery's, Bedford's, Death Valley, Squamscot, Fiz, Zuberfizz, Dang!, and Cool Mountain.

My 1st grader got in on the action. We tried all of them and kept track of what one we liked best.

You were supposed to grab a bottle cap and vote for your favorite by putting it in the corresponding bucket.

Henry liked Dang! the best.

Dorothy won for me. Dang! and Zuberfizz weren't far behind.

Dorothy was my 2nd ever review on this blog nearly 6 years ago. I gave it an 8. Dang! actually got a 9 from me when I reviewed it, so I guess my tastes were a little different this past weekend. Blue Sun Soda noted on Facebook that Zuberfizz was the overall winner.

Their selection of their made-in-house Whistler soda.

My pre-schooler played some pinball.

Playing an old bowling game.

"Springtime Sodas."

The boys on a noisy elephant with games and the root beer tasting in the background.

Enjoying some small sugary treats on the way home.

 I left with 10 bottles of new soda. I had just a few more from my old stash to drink first, but then I'll start in on these new sodas. I bought 2 Whistler sodas that I'll need to have soon because as I've noted recently, their caps don't seem to hold their seal for very long.

UPDATE: Blue Sun Soda added on Facebook the ranking of the top 4 of the taste test: "#1 Zuberfizz, #2 Dang, #3 Red Arrow, #4 Dorothy's." So Henry's and my picks were #2 and #4 out of 10. They also noted that they go through about a case of each soda at these "tasting" events, so they went through about 240 bottles total!

Cool Mountain Black Cherry

I drank this with a snack yesterday afternoon:

Brand: Cool Mountain Black Cherry.

Origin: Des Plaines, IL.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This had decent black cherry flavor. It was pretty deep and full. Very drinkable. Went down pretty easy.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Cool Mountain Black Cherry

I enjoyed a Black Cherry soda at a board meeting last night:

Brand: Cool Mountain Black Cherry.

Origin:  Des Plaines, IL.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was good. Simple. The black cherry flavor was deep and spot-on. Nothing fancy about this, but it was JUST how it should be. (This is all kinda similar to what I said about Cool Mountain's Cream Soda 2 years ago, so it would appear I like the way Cool Mountain does their thing.)

Score: 8 out of 10.

Cool Mountain Cream Soda

Cream Soda time. I grabbed a clear bottle of "Cool Mountain Cream Soda:"

Brand: Cool Mountain Cream Soda.

Origin: Des Plaines, IL.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was pretty good. If you like "plain" things, you'll like this. It's simply sugary and smooth. There's not a lot of flavor, but the flavor that's there is spot-on.

Score: 6 out of 10.