Lift Bridge Black Cherry Soda

We grabbed this from Lund's in Minneapolis last night:

Brand: Lift Bridge Black Cherry Soda

Origin: Stillwater, MN.

Purchase Place: Lund's, Minneapolis, MN (St. Anthony Main area).

Sweetener: Natural Sugar.

Review: I've generally enjoyed Lift Bridge sodas in their extra large cans (and I like that they are made just outside of the Twin Cities here in MN), so I was excited to try this. And it lived up to my expectations. I had to re-look at the label 2 times to make sure it didn't say "Black Cherry CREAM" because it had a very creamy flavor. Trying to remove the "creamy" flavor from my mind while tasting, the black cherry is pretty average, but that's not a bad thing. It's a tasty, creamy black cherry soda.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Barq's Frozen Root Beer and Vanilla Ice Cream Float

So I just found out that THIS exists this summer:

I need to find these. Although, there are 24 in there, and I *could* go a bit overboard and have... I dunno... like 24 of these at a time. So I'll need to watch myself.

Right now, I can only find them on Instacart.

IBC Root Beer

The boys and I cracked into this yesterday:

Brand: IBC Root Beer.

Origin: Plano, TX.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This is a root beer that I've had a dozen times. It's maybe the first "glass bottle" root beer I remember having as a kid - my Mom would buy a 4-pack during the summer as a treat after hot July hay baling. This had a real deep flavor. It had a nice balance of "smooth" and "bite." The sweetness had a slightly off taste at the end of each sip, but that was the only (minor) issue. It went down easy and was quite tasty!

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Ingredients in Coca Cola

An opinion that many of us could get behind...

Cherry Vanilla Blue Sky Soda

I stopped by Mississippi Market on West 7th in St. Paul because we were driving by and I needed 1 thing for tacos later that day (a can of black beans), and this caught my eye:

Brand: Cherry Vanilla Blue Sky Soda.

Origin: Tustin, CA.

Purchase Place: Mississippi Market, St. Paul, MN. (The one on West 7th.)

Sweetener: Invert Cane Sugar.

Review: I'm always in for a surprise when I try a "hippie" soda - I never know what to expect. This one was quite good though! The vanilla was nice and sweet and smooth, and the cherry was good too. It didn't have the depth of a "cola" (and wasn't labeled as such), but it didn't skimp on flavor and went down well. Quite good!

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

A&W Root Beer

I went camping with my boys over the weekend. I brought this bottle of A&W to share around the campfire as I haven't reviewed that yet here on this blog:

On our picnic table with our tent peeking out back there. More photos from our trip here.

Brand: A&W Root Beer.

Origin: Plano, TX.

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

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: I kinda went into this with high hopes. In my mind, A&W has been a decent root beer that I sort of compared all other root beers against. I recalled it was much smoother and tastier (to me) than Barq's ("Barq's has bite!"). But it ended up being just OK. It went down well, but I had hyped it up too much in my mind. I'll call it pretty average. It was smooth, but the sweetness wasn't all that great. It was just OK. (At least I had good company around the campfire...)

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

After our supper and root beer.

Playing in the creek before bed.

Polly's Pop Black Cherry

Last night, I opened this while cleaning the kitchen:

Brand: Polly's Pop Black Cherry.

Origin: Independence, MO.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This sure wasn't a black cherry "cola" - this was just a black cherry "pop" as the brand name implies. It was pretty smooth and just a bit creamy. Nothing remarkable, but pretty tasty. It went down easy.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

RC Royal Crown Cola

I had a lot of these as a kid at my grandparent's house, but I haven't had one in years...

Brand: RC Royal Crown Cola.

Origin: Plano, TX.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was a decent cola. It had the normal cola flavor, with a slight fruity sweetness at the end. Nothing remarkable, but still good.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Fluids Soda 10-30

I opened this a few hours ago:

Brand: Fluids Soda 10-30.

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: First of all, I did NOT know what this flavor was. There was nothing on the bottle saying what this would taste like. I figured it might be a cola, but it didn't smell like that. And it was quite dark - darker than a cola it would seem. When I took a sip, it was sweet and anise-like. (But I don't really like anise, and this wasn't horrible.) I then saw someone online (in its ONE Amazon review) say it kind of tasted like black jelly beans, and I could see where they were coming from. Unique and OK.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

Melba's Fixins Key Lime Pie Soda

I opened this on a hot afternoon yesterday:

Brand: Melba's Fixins Key Lime Pie Soda

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This is quite smooth and tasty! I expected this to be (AT BEST) a soda that I sip and didn't enjoy much. But it ended up being very drinkable. My oldest son likes key lime greek yogurt, and it reminds me of a liquid version of that. It was good!

Score: 8 out of 10.