Jans Boba Milk Tea Brown Sugar

My boys and I stopped at Shanghai Wholesale on the edge of the Midway / Merriam Park neighborhood of St. Paul today, and I grabbed a bubble tea that I hadn't tried before:

Brand: Jans Boba Milk Tea Brown Sugar.

Origin: Taiwan.

Purchase Place: Shanghai Wholesale Market Place, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and Brown Sugar.

Review: The "brown sugar milk tea" flavor was quite good! It was milky and sweet with a nice tea flavor. If you handed this to me, you MIGHT be able to fool me that it was brewed locally (and fresh) at a boba tea store. But the "boba pearls" were small and a bit mealy. I've had worse boba in a pre-made can, but I've also had better. Higher rating for the flavor, and lower for the boba, but still overall enjoyable.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Overfilling a Glass of Soda

Costa Rican Coke Zero

Earlier this winter, my family went to Costa Rica for a week. With my first meal at our resort, I had a Coke Zero with zero sugar, or "zero azúcar" as the can says:

My son had an orange Fanta with breakfast one morning (why not?... we were on vacation...) and he noted that it tasted better because of the cane sugar vs the HFCS we have up here in the US:

Checking the ingredients list.

Here's a video from a day we spent in a rain forest and here's LOTS of photos from this trip!

Northern Soda Company Pineapple Cream Soda

I opened this at work earlier today:

 
Brand: Northern Soda Company Pineapple Cream Soda

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: "Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop," Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Well, the name of this soda is right on: it's truly a "pineapple cream" soda! The first sip of it touching my tongue was very "pineapple-y," and I'm honestly not a HUGE fan of pineapple. This soda didn't bother me though. And then the "creaminess" came as it was a SMOOTH pineapple flavor. It ended with a great smoothness like a nice cream soda. This was surprising to me... this was better than I thought it was going to be! I wish I had this at home as my boys would have loved to have tried a sip of this. I was ready for this to be a 4 or a 5, but in the end, I'll rank it a bit better than average:

Score: 7 out of 10.

Fitz's Root Beer

I opened this during supper the other night:

 

Brand: Fitz's Root Beer.

Origin: St. Louis, MO.

Purchase Place: Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This was really, REALLY good. It had a deep flavor, and was smooth and creamy. It didn't have much of a head, but I've had this can for a while, so maybe it lost some carbonation. Either way, it wasn't (much) worse because of it. There was a nice vanilla kick that wasn't overpowering. 

I realized I had this same soda about 12 years ago (from a more traditional glass bottle) and I ranked it a 9. I think after another couple of hundred sodas, I'll rank this a bit higher now... it was GOOD.

Score: 9.5 out of 10.

Rhett and Link's Mountain Dew Taste Test

Rhett and Link tried every Mountain Dew flavor:


Direct link: youtube.com/watch?v=ltgULFQU24Y

Blumer's Root Beer

I opened this with supper last night:

Brand: Blumer's Non-Alcoholic Root Beer.

Origin: Monroe, WI.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was good! It was pretty smooth and creamy. It had a nice hint of wintergreen but withOUT being too much - I like a little wintergreen, but many root beers overdo it. Just a solid root beer.

Score: 8 out of 10.

This Isn't Porn

Big Ben's Lemon Bubbles!

I opened this while doing a lot of cooking last night:

 
Brand: Big Ben's Lemon Bubbles!

Origin: Catawissa, PA.

Purchase Place: Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This was really sweet. It was a tasty lemon soda - at first sip, I thought "this is like a Sprite or 7Up," but then I realized I wasn't tasting the LIME of those sodas. It was just lemon, but it was overly sweetened to make up for it. Very tasty. Went down easy.

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Coca Cola Zero Sugar Holiday Creamy Vanilla

I grabbed this while walking through Kowalski's the other day:

 
Brand: Coca Cola Zero Sugar Holiday Creamy Vanilla.

Origin: Atlanta, GA.

Purchase Place: Kowalski's Market, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Aspartame and Sucralose.

Review: I was a little excited for this. I had heard that it was tasty. BUT... it was just too much for me. It was VERY strong on the vanilla. It was almost like it was overly creamy and overly vanilla-y. I suppose that's what it is: a "creamy vanilla" like it says in its name. But it was just too much. Try it if you want something strong on the creamy vanilla, but otherwise stay away.

Score: 4 out of 10.