Sparky's Fresh Draft Root Beer

Brand: Sparky's Fresh Draft Root Beer.

Origin: Pacific Grove, California.

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

Sweetener: Pure cane sugar.

Review: This is a strong root beer - it has a vanilla, carmel, and root beer barrel flavor. If you like bite, this has a decent one. It's rich and dark. It seemed to get better the more I drank. I believe this is a brewed root beer and not just a root beer flavored soda. It's not my favorite (I like a little more smoothness), but it was pretty good. It's a bit different, but in a good way.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Soda Shaq Strawberry Cream Soda

This was my last of 3 Soda Shaqs that I was sent from a friend. The first 3 were really bad, kinda bad, and pretty good, so I didn't know what to expect with this one. (Click here to see all of my Soda Shaq reviews.)

Brand: Soda Shaq Strawberry Cream Soda.

Origin: Woodbury, NY.

Purchase Place: 7-Eleven, somewhere in Colorado.

Sweetener: Sugar and Honey.

Review: This was better than I thought it'd be. It smelled right, and it tasted right. It wasn't amazing, but it was a decent "strawberry cream" soda. It didn't have the horrible aftertaste that some of the other Soda Shaqs had. I'll give it a just-above-average score.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Waialua Root Beer

As I was doing some painting in my studio space recently, I grabbed a root beer to enjoy while working:

Brand: Waialua Root Beer.

Origin: Waialua, Hawaii.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and Pure Maui Natural White Cane Sugar.

Review: The label says "Finest Hawaiian Quality," and if that's the case, I would stay away from anything less than FINEST Hawaiian Quality. I did not care for this. It had 2 major problems: the soda was watery, and the taste was off. It needed more flavor, and it needed to be a different flavor. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish it, but it was far from something I need to have again.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Iron Horse Black Cherry Soda

I was recently in the mood for some cherry:

Brand: Iron Horse Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Edina, MN.

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

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This was a very creamy black cherry soda, but it stopped just shy of being considered a cream soda. It was good, but nothing super fantastic. I'd have this again, especially if I were in the mood for something relatively creamy.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Saint Arnold Root Beer

I cracked into this a few days ago:

Brand: Saint Arnold Root Beer.

Origin: Houston, Texas.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a pretty strongly flavored root beer. It was good and strong on the vanilla. It was a *strong* smooth root beer, with a little bite at the end. Pretty tasty.

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Buddy's Grape Soda

I was in the mood for something sugary the other night:

Brand: Buddy's Grape Soda.

Origin: New Ulm, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was GOOD. I can't say it was *thee* best grape soda I've ever had, but it sure ranks up there. The grape tasted "natural" and sugary. There was a bit of smoothness at the end (but not nearly enough to be labeled anything like a "creamy grape soda"). This was a great classic grape soda. Try it.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Root Beer BBQ Pork

My brother-in-law is a meat cutter, and he's made a number of roasts with different sodas - we often use 7-Up. On Monday, we made a pork roast with root beer. I used some Triple XXX Root Beer because I had a bottle last year and knew it was pretty good stuff. (I got a 12 pack of fun sodas from my parents earlier this year for my birthday, and she had some Triple XXX in there, so I used that bottle for this roast.)

Triple XXX Root Beer along with a 4+ lb pork roast covered in seasoning and onions.

Just 2 seconds after pouring the entire bottle of root beer over the roast - notice the head at the top and to the left.

I made all that Sunday night, put it in the fridge like that until Monday around noon, and then put it in the crockpot so it'd be ready by suppertime on Monday night.

After about 5 hours on high in the crockpot.

Drained, shredded, and warm.

With some of the "root beer juice" added back, along with some BBQ sauce.

It doesn't taste STRONG of root beer. But when I was shredding it, I ate some pieces that were a little extra dark, had a slightly "carmely" root beer taste.

It's that simple: some seasoning, an onion, and a bottle of root beer over a pork loin in a crockpot until tender. Then drain, shred, add back some of the liquid, and add some BBQ sauce. Try it out sometime!

River City Root Beer

The bottle had it's recipe for River City Root Beer Floats on it, and it would be a great root beer to make floats.

Working on my studio space… again.

Brand: River City Root Beer.

Origin: Sacramento, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This had a pretty classic root beer flavor. It wasn't perfect overall, but it was creamy, pretty smooth, and had just a little bite. This will please a lot of people.

Score: 8 out of 10.