State Fair Soda Cotton Candy

I was doing a lot of cooking last night, and I cracked into this:

Brand: State Fair Soda Cotton Candy.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Lunds & Byerlys, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Well this tasted EXACTLY how it should have. It had that perfectly sugary flavor of cotton candy. I really don't know what else to say: if you like cotton candy and think it would be good as a liquid, then TRY THIS.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

A Minor Refill at Blue Sun Soda

Last night, I dropped my boys off at Grandma's house, and I celebrated my freedom by going to a soda and candy store. Of course. The last time I stopped at Blue Sun Soda was pre-COVID back in November. Back then, we stopped by for a cream soda tasting. But now (without the boys), I could take my time.

Colas on the left, root beers on the right.

This note was hung on the wall with no explanation. Perfect.

"Summertime Sodas:" lemon limes, an orange cream, and some novelty "fair" flavors.

Love all the greens and yellows in the lemon lime section.

Worth noting: MN legal "fireworks" are cheap now!

  

Also note that the fireworks are in their "soda fountain" area. Both the soda fountain and the arcade are not open because of COVID-19. That's understandable (I wouldn't have gotten a fresh-made soda while there, and I SURE wouldn't have been playing pinball that all kinds of grubby hands have been on) but still sad. Here's a post from a year ago that shows the soda fountain and arcade pretty well.

The main reason I stopped was because my stash at home was running very low: I was down to 2 sodas! Maybe sometime in 2013 (shortly after starting this blog) my stash got that low, but this was the 2nd lowest it's ever been.  So I picked up a random assortment of 10 bottles at Blue Sun Soda Shop: a few of their Whistler bottles, some random flavors, and even a novelty soda. That should get me through the end of summer.

Cotton Candy at Remix!

Yesterday, the boys and I stopped by "Remix" on Marshall Ave (near Cleveland) in St. Paul. We hadn't been then since before everything shut down in March. We heard they had cotton candy now and wanted to try it!

My boys staring at bulk candy (now bagged up by employees to avoid spreading germs).

Lots of "Northern" Soda made here in MN!

Some unique root beer combos (they have regular root beer as well).

We waited as they spun some cotton candy for us! They have 8 flavors to choose from, and my boys both asked for root beer (MY BOYS!). I tried pina colada, and I got a bag of mango for my wife:

Pina colada, root beer on top, and mango (as we wait for our final bag of root beer to be spun).

The pina colada wasn't my favorite, but the root beer was great! And one of my boys actually liked the mango better than his root beer (which was surprising). Remix is planning on opening a "cookie dough" bar in the back shortly! We'll be back for that!

Check out Remix on Facebook, and here's my first Remix post from November.

Father's Day Sodas...

Blue Sun Soda Shop posted this last night on their Instagram:

This selection seems pretty appropriate for Dads.  Happy Father's Day!

"State Fair" Soda Tasting at Blue Sun Soda

Saturday, the boys and I stopped by Blue Sun Soda Shop for a little tasting event they had advertised on Facebook. I knew it would be small (nothing like the big outdoor tasting event last year), but it was an excuse to get to the soda shop.

Blue Sun seems to be changing/expanding every time we stop. Last time we were there, this was where all the pinball machines were, and now it's an "old fashioned" soda shop:

Lots of flavors of soda, and also ice cream floats! (And hot dogs and chips.)

We found the soda tasting at the back of the store, which was just some open bottles and tiny plastic "sipping cups:"

"State Fair" sodas in front of John Wayne.

We all had tiny pours of all 5 kinds of soda. I looked on the labels and saw that the State Fair sodas were made right there at Blue Sun Soda. Here was my ranking from favorite (on the left) to least favorite (on the right):

"Cotton Candy" was like liquid cotton candy! Sweet and tasty! "Kettle Corn" was pretty decent,
tasting like sweet popcorn. "Rocket Bomb Pop" was just OK, "Mini Donut" was cinnamon-y
and alright, and I didn't care for "Chocolate Chip Cookie" that much.

Henry's ranking: he liked Rocket Bomb Pop and Cotton Candy a lot.
Neither of my boys cared for Kettle Corn (ranked last).

New sodas: the boys met Billy last year, and they liked his goofy sodas here. The colors
don't match the flavors. (I bought a grape Billy's Bubble Pop, and that was the yellow one.)

A previously closed space in the back is now the arcade!

The other side of the arcade on the other side of the air hockey table.

The boys using their last quarters, with 2 other kids at the air hockey table.

In that first shot of the arcade, you can see my basket of sodas in the foreground. I walked out with 8 bottles, making it one of my smallest trips to Blue Sun. Thanks for the fun tasting event! We'll be back!

Root Beer Cotton Candy (yes, you read that correctly)

When we stopped at Minnesota's Largest Candy Store last month, I saw a stack FULL of different / random flavors of cotton candy. I just HAD to try this one:

Brand: Chocolate Storybook Root Beer Cotton Candy

Origin: Des Moines, Iowa.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was better than I thought it would be. It was a pretty solid root beer flavor, and it wasn't strange or artificial tasting at all. It was a good, fluffy cotton candy with a fun root beer flavor. I shared it with my family, and they all enjoyed it too (photo above taken in my sister's garage where we stood about and ate this).

Check out all the random flavors of Chocolate Storybrook cotton candy on their website. (They also have 3-packs of "themed" cotton candy like their "Rise and Shine Trio:" bacon, coffee, and pancakes with maple syrup cotton candy!)

Score: 9 out of 10.
 

"Zombie" Soda Tasting at Blue Sun Soda

My boys and I headed to Blue Sun Soda in the north metro earlier today because I saw they advertised a "free taste testing" of "Dead World" sodas on Facebook. I figured we'd swing by.

Sodas made in Minnesota (a lot here, but mainly Joia, North Star, and Spring Grove).

The 3 free pinball machines are ALWAYS popular.

My 2 boys on the far left waiting their turns.  Last time when we were there, I pulled down a soda box
for Charlie to stand on.  I see that Blue Sun realized that was an issue and made little steps.  Sweet.

There were a LOT of people in there.

My boys got their turn after a few minutes.

The "Dead World" soda tasting at the front of the store.

All of these gross-sounding flavors (like "rot berry") are all "normal" flavored sodas.  Nothing gross.

I tried all of these. The "Slow Decay" was a decent root beer on the left! "Zeek Cocktail" was a sugary
cotton candy, "Coon Bitters" was an OK cherry cola (without much cherry flavor), and the Orange
was quite smooth and tasty. The grape was good too.  I was rather impressed overall!

The "Dead World" display on an end cap in the store.

They added a big loose candy dispenser since I was there last.

Charlie got a rock candy sucker.

I just grabbed 3 sodas: a novelty root beer, the "Slow Decay" root beer I tried,
and a Lemon Meringue soda.  Reviews coming shortly.

Henry wanted a sucker with a REAL scorpion inside.  He hasn't tried this yet...

Here's a link to my post when my boys and I went to Blue Sun Soda for the first time 6 months ago. There are lots of photos of their soda selection in that post.

So check out Blue Sun Soda on Facebook, or in person in Spring Lake Park, MN. And check back soon for some new reviews.