Reading Draft Root Beer

I opened this earlier today:

Brand: Reading Draft Root Beer.

Origin: Reading, PA.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a very creamy root beer. It was nearly TOO creamy. It has decent flavor, but it's almost a little weak because of the creaminess. And it had just a hint of anise - not too much. Nothing too fancy, but pretty solid overall.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.
 

Cud Foods Thanksgiving Soda Display

When my boys and I stopped at Cub Foods in St. Paul (Midway neighborhood) last week, we were greeted with this "Pepsi Products" Thanksgiving turkey:

Happy Thanksgiving!!

O-So Cherry Soda

I stopped at Lunds to get some BOGO deals, and I grabbed this in their soda aisle:

Brand: O-So Cherry Soda.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

Purchase Place: Lunds Grocery Store, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This isn't a kids cherry soda. It's not overly sweet, and it's got a full, deep flavor. However, I didn't care for it a ton. It was a bit sharper than I'd care for, so I found it to be a "sipping" soda (not a "chugging" soda). If you've ever said that some sodas are too sweet for you, then you might like this. However, if you're like me and you kind of like a super sweet soda, then this might be a bit too harsh for you. It's not *bad*, but I'll rank it a bit lower than average.

Score: 4 out of 10.
 

"Remix:" A New Candy and Popcorn Shop in the Merriam Park Neighborhood of St. Paul

Earlier this week, we stopped by the newest addition to our neighborhood: the popcorn and candy shop named "Remix." (Seen as "Remix Delights" and/or "Remix Popcorn and Delights" in a few places as well.) It's located at 2042 Marshall Ave in St. Paul - near Cleveland and Marshall, on the same block as Izzy's Ice Cream and Choo Choo Bob's Train Store.

Half the candy at "Remix." This is the back half. There's a rack like this in the front.

The candy is all in "bulk" where you scoop your own. Everything is the same price, so you can just pick and choose as you fill you bag! My boys each picked a few treats for their individual bags, and then it got weighed at the counter.

The front wall is decorated with lots of old cassettes...

.... and the light fixtures are even made out of cassettes!

Decorative tubes of flavored popcorn in the front window.

They have fudge in different flavors that is $4 a piece (for a LARGE piece). And their flavored popcorn has a few different "tiers" with lots of different flavors in each tier, and different sizes available to purchase.

Fudge!

Some of the popcorn flavors.

Different size options.

No major signage out front yet, so you have to find it on Marshall!

My boys and I think it's great! Stop by sometime! 2042 Marshall Ave in St. Paul.

Cream Soda Tasting at Blue Sun Soda

Yesterday, my boys and I headed to another free tasting event at Blue Sun Soda Shop. It was similar to the tasting the 3 of us went to 2 months ago: they just set out some sodas and some mini-cups, and you can sample them all.

The "event banner" from Blue Sun Soda's Facebook page.

Cream Sodas: Dad's, Fiz, Iron Horse, Sioux City, North Star, Tower, and Henry Weinhard.

The "voting" table: take a bottle cap (far right) and put it in the cup that you
thought was best. They even had a roll of "I voted" stickers to put on (left foreground).

My oldest and I both agreed that Sioux City was our favorite, and my youngest voted for Dad's. I remember the North Star being very creamy (it was called "Vanilla Creme"), and I think it was Henry Weinhard's that had an odd sharpness. Fiz was decent.

Some new "kiddie cocktail" sodas made right at Blue Sun Soda.

All the flavors of "fresh" soda at the soda counter at Blue Sun Soda.

My boys and I split a fresh Root Beer. It was good! My oldest got
a tear in his eye because he said it was SOOO carbonated.

I also stocked up on root beers. I had a few sodas in the basement before this trip to Blue Sun, but only 1 of them was a root beer. I took my time looking through their root beer selection, and I picked up 7 new ones (and 6 other sodas to bring home a baker's dozen). I think I've now had (or have just purchased) EVERY root beer at Blue Sun Soda Shop! Oh no! I'll need to find some new root beers somewhere else soon...

Zevia Zero Calorie Grape

I was walking through "Fresh Thyme" in Minneapolis, and I grabbed this large can:

Brand: Zevia Zero Calorie Grape.

Origin: Los Angeles, CA.

Purchase Place: Fresh Thyme, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Stevia Leaf Extract.

Review: Recent "grape soda" posts came to mind with my first sip: last month, I said "I don't know that I've had a 'bad' grape soda," and earlier this year, I said "I think most grape sodas can win me over pretty easily."

But this wasn't great. And it didn't win me over easily. I had to look at the label again to make sure I wasn't drinking flavored carbonated water. Because it had that "sharp/weak" taste of a La Croix. But no, it was a soda. Just a weak weak weak soda.

What's funny though is that the more I sipped it, the more I was OK with it. It wasn't a "drinkable" soda that you'd gulp down in 1 minute. But it was something I kept taking sips of over an hour, and I was OK with that. So initially (like after the first 2 sips), I would have ranked this more like a 3, but after spending some more time with it (in it's large 16 oz can), I became OK with it's weaker flavor and ranked it a bit higher.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Pork Roast a la Sprite

About a week ago, I got a small pork roast on sale. I used a half bottle of flat Sprite we'd had in our fridge for the last 2 weeks (from when my kindergartner was sick) to sweeten up the roast:

About 8 oz of Sprite, a 1.5 lb roast, some seasoning salt, and
an onion on top. Ready to cook for about 3 hours on high.

My 5-year-old ate it as fast as I could shred it!

Being that went over so well, I picked up a handful of pork roasts. A few days ago, I made 2 of those 1.5 lb roasts in the crock pot.  Again, I added Sprite (about 12 oz), seasoning salt, and 2 onions:

Just after pouring the Sprite - lots of carbonation.

After about 3 hours on high and 2 hours on low, here's the chunks of roast ready to be shredded.

I added some (but FAR from all) of the juice/Sprite mixture back in after shredding everything.

These meals go over well with my boys! If you haven't tried soda in roast, give it a shot in your slow cooker!

Grape Billy's Bubble Pop

I opened my "wacky" Billy's Soda that I picked up during our last trip to Blue Sun Soda:

Oops! Blurry. Didn't realize it until after I drank the soda...

... so here's a sharp version once the soda hit my belly.

Brand: Grape Billy's Bubble Pop

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: In case you're wondering, YES it's grape soda, but YES it's yellow. (See this post from a few months ago that shows a "Billy's Bubble Pop" selections where all the colors don't match the flavor.) Billy is a "lovable soda jerk" at Blue Sun Soda, and he kinda plays being a buffoon. So along with the "I made this" printed on the label, they're (kindly) making fun of Billy. My boys got to meet him in August of 2018, and he goofed around with them. Fun guy.

Anyway, back to this yellow grape soda: it's a pretty decent grape soda. It's hard to screw up grape pop. My wife mentioned that it was a little "cough syrup-y," but it wasn't too much for me - I've had sweeter/sugarier. It was almost SLIGHTLY overly smooth which was a bit odd, but otherwise it was quite good. I'll rate it slightly above average. I'll be eager to try more of Billy's soda (I don't have any more on hand - we'll have to make a trip back to Blue Sun Soda sometime soon).

Score: 6.5 out of 10.