Things Sponsored by Mountain Dew

Lotte Milkis Banana

I grabbed this from an Asian grocery store that I stopped at recently with my boys:

 

Brand: Lotte Milkis Banana.

Origin: Korea.

Purchase Place: Shuang Hur Supermarket, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a cute little 8.45 oz can. I didn't know what to expect from it. I was a little scared. This drink was a bit milky, and "powdered skim milk" was the 4th ingredient (after water, sugar, and carbon dioxide)... and I assume that's why it's called MILKis. 

As far as the taste: it wasn't bad! It didn't REALLY taste like banana, but more like banana-flavored things. It was like a liquid version of a banana Runt candy (remember those?!?) with carbonation. It was good, but a little odd, so I'll give it an average score. A fun thing to try in a small can.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Tiny Coke Zero

On our flight back from Italy a week ago (when my wife and I were on an anniversary trip of a lifetime), I was offered this 100 ml can of Coke Zero:

100 ml is about 3.4 oz! Look at how big the carbonation bubbles are in the cup compared to the can. This thing was minuscule! (And adorable.)

Mirinda

This past weekend, my wife and I got back from a 10-day trip to Italy! Here's a soda found in our mind-fridge of our hotel in Rome that I tried:

 

Brand: Mirinda.

Origin: Milanofiori, Milan, Italy.

Purchase Place: Unknown (found in mini-fridge of Hotel Artemide)

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was pretty OJ heavy, even though it only contained 4% orange juice (the ingredients label noted "succo d'arancai (4%)" after water and sugar). It tasted like a lemon-lime soda with OJ added. That's about it! It was simple and refreshing, and surprisingly only 4% OJ. Tasty and simple, so I'll rank this just barely above average.

Score: 6 out of 10.

A-Treat Draft Style Birch Beer

This had been sitting in my fridge for a while, and I finally opened it:

 

Brand: A-Treat Draft Style Birch Beer.

Origin: Orefield, PA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Something about the kind of bland logo made me less excited to try this. But the first sip changed that pretty quickly! This was a real solid soda! I often don't care for birch beers, but this one tasted a lot like root beer - I mean... many of them do, but this one didn't disappoint. It's a bit heavy on the wintergreen (not TOO heavy) and it goes down smooth. A surprisingly fun soda! 

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Trying Weird Coke Flavors

Rhett and Link recently tried some odd Coke flavors. I've tried 2 of these so far, posted HERE and HERE.


Direct link: youtu.be/pzQ8S9jxO5U

Northern Soda Company Toasted Pecan Root Beer

I opened my 2nd soda from my "root beer variety pack" earlier today:

 

In front of goodies from our garden.

Brand: Northern Soda Company Toasted Pecan Root Beer.

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: Remix, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I swore that I've had this before, but I found no record of it on this blog. So I was going in for the first time. And it was good! It really wasn't much like root beer, though. It was very sugary and sweet. The pecan flavor was strong and pretty spot-on: it tasted like a pecan pie. A very sweet pecan pie with a lot of butterscotch notes as well. Again, there's not much of a root beer flavor to this as it's more of a "sweet pecan/butterscotch soda" instead of a "toasted pecan root beer," but it's still very tasty!

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Class Action Lawsuit Against A&W

If you've had an A&W in the past few years, you're entitled to compensation.

From a USA Today article:

People who bought an A&W root beer or cream soda product with a "Made With Aged Vanilla" label between February 2016 and June 2023 may be eligible for a cut of a $15 million settlement the beverage maker must pay after a court decision.

The rebate results from a class-action lawsuit claiming A&W Concentrate Co. and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., which makes the drinks, misled consumers by labeling products as being "Made With Aged Vanilla" when the vanilla taste is created by using artificial flavoring.

You have a chance to be reimbursed between $5.50 and $25.

A Homemade Blackberry Soda from Cold Front

After one of my son's soccer games, we stopped at Cold Front for some treats:

My boys with their cones.

My blackberry soda that the jerk whipped up for me.

Sipping on my blackberry soda.

 
Brand: Blackberry Soda at Cold Front.

Origin: St. Paul, MN.

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

Sweetener: Unknown.

Review: As I find with most "homemade" sodas, this was very crisp with lots of carbonation. The blackberry was sweet and fruity, and it had a juice-like quality to it - that made it a little less soda-like, but it was still very good. It was a great end to an afternoon at a soccer game.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Zero Sugar Lemon Lime Starry

I've been seeing this around lately (a "rebrand" of Sierra Mist), and I grabbed one on a walk around the neighborhood with my son recently:

On the back wall of Marshall Stop.

 
Brand: Zero Sugar Lemon Lime Starry.

Origin: Purchase, NY.

Purchase Place: Marshall Stop, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: I didn't need to try this. It was a pretty generic lemon lime soda. Sure, it *WAS* good, but it wasn't doing anything different from 7Up, Sprite, Sierra Mist (what it replaced), etc. It's just another decent lemon lime soda. It's a lot like a 7Up, but just slightly sweeter (which I guess is pretty impressive for it being a 10 calorie drink). I like lemon lime sodas, and I liked this... I just wish it was trying something new.

Score: 7 out of 10.