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.

The Wizard of Oz Cherry Cola

This was a little too "unique" to pass up....

This was made my Rocket Fizz - I visited one of their stores in Las Vegas earlier this year.

(image source)

Brand: The Wizard of Oz Cherry Cola (by Rocket Fizz).

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This had a very strong and good cherry flavor - a little "dark," but not quite BLACK cherry. It had a decent head which I haven't seen much of in cherry sodas in the past. The only downside is there's a slightly strange (slightly chemically) aftertaste which keeps this score just slightly better than average.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Dog N Suds Diet Root Beer

About 9 months ago, I had "Dog N Suds" Root Beer, and it was pretty good. Now it was time to try their diet root beer:

I enjoyed this while working on my new studio space above our garage.

Brand: Dog N Suds Diet Root Beer.

Origin: Norton Shores, MI.

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

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: It tasted "diet." It was a little thin and watery, but the flavor was pretty good. It was smooth with a hint of vanilla. If it didn't have that thin (and slightly chemically) diet taste, it'd rank better. But for a diet root beer, it wasn't bad.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Hank's Gourmet Wishniar Black Cherry Soda

As with my other "Hank's Soda," I bought this because it was named after my son. (Not really.)

Brand: Hank's Gourmet Wishniar Black Cherry Soda

Origin: Trevose, PA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This had pretty strong flavor. It had a smooth black cherry flavor (the other Hank's Soda that I had was also very smooth, so maybe that's a thing they do). It was pretty syrupy and tasty. Good stuff!

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Bedford's Root Beer

I like this bottle, so I grabbed this to drink late last week:

Brand: Bedford's Root Beer.

Origin: Port Angeles, Washington.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: The first sniff was strong with vanilla. When I tried it, it was pretty "heavy." It's one of the "deepest" flavored root beers I've had. Pretty normal, but pretty heavy and tasty.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Empire Orange Soda

I had Empire Soda one other time, and it was pretty crappy. This one was a bit better...

Brand: Empire Orange.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a pretty "sharp" for orange soda - I tend to prefer my orange drink to be smoother. My wife interpreted the sharpness as a chemically flavor, and she didn't care for the soda at all. I thought the orange flavor was good, and overall, I'd say it was pretty average.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Bawls Root Beer

I did NOT expect much from this when I opened it. A root beer from an energy drink company? Yeah, that's probably not going to be the best...

Sitting in the little bit of snow we just got - first snow of Winter 13/14.

CAFFEINE!! I think Barq's is the only root beer that I'd had prior to this that contained caffeine, and Barq's doesn't have much (22.5 mg of caffeine per 12 oz, or 1.8 mg / oz). This 10 oz bottle of Bawls had 65 mg of caffeine (or 6.5 mg / oz), which is pretty average when compared to your "average" cup of coffee which has 6.25 - 12.5 mg of caffeine / oz (according to Wikipedia). Red Bull, Monster, Full Throttle, or Nos energy drinks of equal size contains more than double the amount of caffeine than in Bawls. It's the guarana seeds that give Bawls it's caffeine - there's about double the amount of caffeine in a guarana seed than there is in a coffee bean.

Anyway... on to the review...


Brand: Bawls Root Beer.

Origin: Miami, Florida.

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

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: It was better than I thought, but it still wasn't great. The flavor was decent, but it was a bit watered-down. And the aftertaste was "chemical-like," which is maybe to-be-expected from an energy drink company. I'll rank it just below average.

Score: 4.5 out of 10.

Fitz's Root Beer

I grabbed a bottle of Root Beer after a long day of working on my new garage...

Brand: Fitz's Root Beer.

Origin: St. Louis, MO.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This is what "classic" root beer should taste like (in my opinion). It was pretty smooth with just a *slight* bite to it as well. It was a bit creamy and had a hint of vanilla. The flavor wasn't weak, and it wasn't artificial tasting. Pretty dang good stuff!

Score: 9 out of 10.

Lost Trail Black Cherry Soda

This was my first soda from my most recent trip to "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store:"

Brand: Lost Trail Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Louisberg, KS.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This had a really deep and rich black cherry flavor. The bottle nailed it when it said "Rich, dark cherry flavor teases your taste buds..." It's good, but it's pretty "heavy." It's close to cough syrup. But if you like real sugary, then check this out.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Rocky Mountain Soda Company Palisade Peaches & Cream

As I was caulking and spot-priming the siding on our new garage this past weekend, I enjoyed a bottle of this:

Brand: Rocky Mountain Soda Company Palisade Peaches & Cream.

Origin: Commerce City, CO.

Purchase Place: Rocket Fizz, somewhere in CO.

Sweetener: Beet Sugar.

Review: I expect "peaches and cream" to be creamy and smooth. But this was a pretty sharp - both the peaches and the cream flavor. Truth be told, I'm not a HUGE peaches and cream fan anyway, and this was a little off. Not my favorite.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Americana Root Beer

This had the same "Vintage Soda" cap that was on the Jic Jac Sodas (that were mostly simply OK to me in the past), so I didn't have super high hopes for this.

Enjoyed this while working on my new garage last weekend.

Brand: Americana Root Beer.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and Organic Honey.

Review: This was pretty good. It had a bit of licorice flavor, but not too much. It also had sassafras root (which, as I understand it, is really only used by micro brews because it's been banned for mass production by the FDA because it is a known carcinogen) which lends a nice subtle bite. A pretty "traditional" tasting root beer, but with a slight twist. Try it!

Score: 7 out of 10.

Another Trip to "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store"

Last week, my son and I made another trip to "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store" in Jordan Minnesota. It was our 2nd trip in just under 4 weeks.

Seen from the south heading north on Hwy 169.

My Mom and son looking for some treats.  Too bad they were all out of candy...  :)

I picked up a bag of these.

I SHOULD have gotten a bag of these, but I didn't.

My new case of assorted sodas: about half root beer and half "other."

That case contained the following ROOT BEERS:
- Bedford
- Brownie Caramel Cream
- Sparkies
- River City
- Saint Arnold
- Waialua Soda Works
- Dog n Suds Diet
- Empire Diet
- Golden Maple
- Druthers Black Cow Vanilla Creme
- Grown-Up Soda

And the following ASSORTED SODAS:
- Spiffy Cola
- The Pop Shoppe Cream Soda
- Buddy's Grape
- Reading Draft White Birch
- The Wizard of Oz Cherry Cola
- Empire Orange
- Iron Horse Black Cherry
- Hank's Black Cherry
- Lost Trail Black Cherry
- Boylan Black Cherry
- Sioux City Cream Soda

And I got 2 "NOVELTY SODAS:"

- Cookies and Cream Bites Soda
- Lester's Fixins Peanut Butter and Jelly

HERE'S the post from a month ago when were were at Minnesota's Largest Candy Store (where I took a lot of photos of their soda selection.

Stay tuned for more updates on these sodas and the root beer candies. It's going to be a tasty fall!

Oogave Root Beer

This bottle looked a little "hippy," and it was the first USDA Organic root beer I've had. I didn't know if I'd like it...

Brand: Oogave Root Beer.

Origin: Denver, CO.

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

Sweetener: Agave Nectar.

Review: I usually think of root beers as being someone on a "smooth" to "bite" scale. This was a little different - I wouldn't describe it as BITE, but I think I'd call it SHARP - maybe it was the agave nectar. It had a bit of a cola flavor, as if it were a mix between root beer and cola. It was interesting but not strange, so I'll give it a slightly better than average score.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Death Valley Root Beer

Time for another root beer from my recent "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store" stash...

Brand: Death Valley Root Beer.

Origin: Inyokern, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: It has a slight bite like Barq's. A bit of a carmel flavor, and some vanilla in there too. It's nothing "fancy," but it's pretty good if you like a little bite.

Score: 7 out of 10.

The Pop Shoppe Root Beer

Time to crack into another root beer from my recent stop at MN's Largest Candy Store:

Brand: The Pop Shoppe Root Beer.

Origin: Ontario, Canada.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Very smooth and an INCREDIBLY frothy head, but too much carmel flavor for me. That's about all. Decent, but could be better. I'm giving it an average score.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Rocky Mountain Soda Company Breckenridge Blackberry Soda

I busted out this soda while working on constructing my new garage last week:

I took a sip of this, and my first reaction was a head nod and a "Uh huh!!" That's a good sign! (And pretty rare.)


Brand: Rocky Mountain Soda Company Breckenridge Blackberry Soda.

Origin: Commerce City, CO.

Purchase Place: Rocket Fizz, somewhere in CO.

Sweetener: Beet Sugar.

Review: It tasted just like very sweet blackberries. This was pretty fantastic. There was a slight crisp bite from the blackberry flavor, and then a lot of smooth sweetness from the sugar. The taste was fantastic! (And it wasn't because it was a cold drink on a hot day... look at the photo above - it was a chilly and rainy day.) My only complaint was that it started getting a little TOO sweet by the end of the bottle.

Score: 9.5 out of 10.

Grape Fizzies - Instant Sparkling Drink Tabs

I tried something "different" from Minnesota's Largest Candy Store the other night. I had to try some "Fizzies." Here's a photo from my post last month:

Instructions on the box.

Tablets from the box.

A tab in my glass, with 8 oz of water measured out.

Fizzing!

Surprisingly opaque once it was dissolved.

Right away, I thought this would be fun for kids. I didn't time it, but it couldn't have been more than 2 minutes before it was ready to drink. So it was "fun," but would it taste good?


Brand: Grape Fizzies (Instant Sparkling Drink Tabs).

Origin: Plymouth, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sorbitol and Sucralose.

Review: It smelled "grapey." When it first touched my lips, it had a good grape flavor. But it quickly turned into something strange. It was not good. It tasted like grape soda mixed with, oh I don't know... maybe mixed with paint. I would have rated it a 2, but I'll bump it up a point for having 100% of your daily value of vitamin C (through ascorbic acid).

Score: 3 out of 10.

Chicago Root Beer

This past weekend, I had the creamiest root beer that I've ever had:

Brand: Chicago Root Beer.

Origin: Des Plaines, Illinois.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: It's SUPER smooth, super creamy, and there's a lot of vanilla. If you like "bite," there's none here. There's a slight strange carmel flavor, but it's just a minor issue. Check this one out!

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Jic Jac Blue Raspberry

This soda has been sitting in my basement for a year - since my first stop at "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store." I really did NOT like my first 2 Jic Jac sodas (Strawberry and Lemon Lime), so I was in NO hurry to try their final bottle in my stash: Blue Raspberry.

Verdict: this is BY FAR their best soda of the 3 I tried!

Brand: Jic Jac Blue Raspberry.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Sugary, sweet, and tasty. It tasted like blue cotton candy or a melted blue raspberry Icee. It was quite sugary (possibly too sweet for some), but I enjoyed it. It was much better than their sub-par Strawberry and Lemon Lime sodas. And my son LOVED the sip that he had.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Bundaberg Root Beer (Australian for Root Beer)

I had to crack into this as my first bottle from our weekend trip to "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store." The bottle was too unique to pass up for too long. So the other night, I opend this root beer from Australia:

Close-up of the pull-tab on the Bundaberg bottle.

I think this was my first "brewed" root beer that wasn't just flavored (it was slightly fermented with yeast). But it wasn't that great.

Brand: Bundaberg Root Beer.

Origin: Queensland, Australia.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I really had high hopes for this. But it was just OK. It had a bit of a different flavor that I can't really pin down, but it wasn't horrible. It needed 2 things: it needed to be creamier, and it needed to be a bit less watered-down. The flavor was a decent, but just not exactly what I'm used to when I'm craving root beer, so I'll give this an "around average" score.

Score: 4.5 out of 10.

Minnesota's Largest Candy Store (and their hours)

Last night, my family was driving up Hwy 169 back to St. Paul from visiting family in southern Minnesota. And it's hard to miss THIS while driving through Jordan, MN:

"MINNESOTA'S LARGEST CANDY STORE" along Hwy 169 about 40-45 mins south of the Metro.

Stockpiled with all kinds of sweetness.

SODA!!

MORE SODA!

YET MORE SODA!

And this is ALL ROOT BEER.  They have a sign that boasts "191 kinds of root beer."
(When we were there a year ago, they only had 92 kinds of root beer, so someone's been busy.)

My son and lots of pumpkins.

The flat-roofed section in the foreground was added since last year - it just keeps getting bigger!

I left with a piece of candy for my son, some Cow Tales and some "Fizzies Grape Drink" for me...

... and 10 different kinds of root beer:

We found out that they are open until December 1st, and their hours are 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. (They don't have a website and it's hard to find info on this place - the owner is older and "old school" like that.) But if people are around, they'll stay open later - we got there at 7:40 p.m. and the place was still hopping. They said they were going to be closing at 9 p.m. that night.

Check back soon for reviews of these root beers... I have one waiting in the fridge for me tonight. And check out more photos on my other blog (including photos of their "bacon" section!).