Lester's Fixins Peanut Butter & Jelly Soda

I'll be honest… I was NOT really looking forward to trying this:

The color was strange. The PB&J sandwich on the label looked disgusting. The smell was actually about right on: it smelled like peanut butter and grape jelly. So I took a swig.


Brand: Lester's Fixins Peanut Butter & Jelly Soda.

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: It actually tastes a little like peanut butter and jelly. This surprised me. I know it's called "Peanut Butter & Jelly Soda," but still, I didn't know how you could make that flavor into a liquid. It tastes a little "artificial," but the flavor isn't really that bad. I had low low low low expectations for this, and it was better than I hoped. Still… not really "good." But not as bad as I thought. Someone else described it as "fruit gone bad," but I thought it was a little better than that. I'm at a loss to fully describe this flavor, so you'll just have to try it yourself if you're curious. It scores a slightly better than average score based on my other novelty soda reviews.

Score: 4.5 out of 10.

Brownie Caramel Cream Root Beer

I needed a root beer fix on Sunday. I grabbed this:

Brand: Brownie Caramel Cream Root Beer.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: So it's has "caramel cream" in the name, and that's an accurate description of the flavor: it was very creamy and smooth, and it had a strong caramel flavor. But it wasn't a great mix with the root beer. If you REALLY love caramel, then try this out. But the caramel was jut too overpowering for me; there was little root beer flavor left to enjoy.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Root Beer Humor

A Lunch Deal That Includes a Cheap Soda (Black Cherry Soda at Lynden's Soda Fountain)

"Cheap" meaning "inexpensive." Not meaning "of low quality."

Lynden's Soda Fountain in St. Paul has been advertising a lunch deal that includes 2 hot dogs, some chips, and a homemade soda. So yesterday, my son and I stopped in over the lunch hour.

Henry's first sip of their Black Cherry soda. He loved watching the "soda jerk"
make it at the soda fountain just on the other side of the counter.

SAVE SOME FOR ME, HENRY!

They have a BIG drink menu. This is just their "simple" sodas. They have about 10x more.
And a lot of the other items sound incredibly interesting! I need to KEEP coming back!

With our dogs and chips as Henry still works on the soda.

A big mouthful of  some ICE CREAM
(with Lynden's candy selection in the background).

He had to lick it clean.

An Instagramed photo: "Lunch date with my guy. @LyndensSoda has a great lunch special: 2 dogs,
some chips, and a homemade soda for $4.95. And they even threw in a free cup of ice cream for Henry!
(And we had to get a bag of candy and licorice for Mama for when she gets home from work.)"

Well, I suppose this calls for a quick review of Lynden's Black Cherry soda...


Brand: Lynden's Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: St. Paul, MN.

Purchase Place: Lynden's Soda Fountain, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Unknown.

Review: Like many of the other sodas I've had here, it had a crisp, clean, and sharp flavor. My son wouldn't put it down. It wasn't smooth at all - it was all "sharp." (I'm assuming that's from adding the "fresh" soda water.) The black cherry flavoring was right on. It maybe could be a little smoother, but that's what you get from a soda fountain!

Score: 8 out of 10.


p.s. Here are links to my first 3 trips to Lynden's: checking it out for the first time and getting some Root Beer, going back to try more Root Beer and Sarsaparilla, and trying my first Lime Rickey. I need to make it a point to try to stop back about once a month with my son so we can share/try other great sounding soda-related items on the menu! It had been 6 months since we'd been there!

Cookies N Cream Bites Soda

Two days ago, I cracked into this interestingly flavored soda:

Brand: Cookies N Cream Bites Soda.

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: When I first sniffed this, it smelled like a nice creamy cookies and cream candy bar. And actually, at first sip, that's what it tasted like! But there was a SHARPNESS to this when I was hoping for a SMOOTHNESS. Honestly, I got farther into this bottle than I thought I would, but it still wasn't great. It was really sugary with a bit of a bite at the end of the sip.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Red Arrow Root Beer

It had been too many days since I last had root beer, so I enjoyed this with lunch recently:

Brand: Red Arrow Root Beer.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I'm going to start this with something I don't think I've ever said: the first sip of this wasn't the best, but it quickly got better and better. It was almost a little fruity - there was a hint of cherry. It had a deep root beer flavor with a hint of wintergreen. This was nice and smooth, and a pretty good root beer overall.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Golden Maple Root Beer

Wisconsin root beer with Wisconsin maple syrup in it? This was something I just had to try:

Brand: Golden Maple Root Beer.

Origin: Milwaukee, WI.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and Maple Syrup.

Review: The first sip was all I had hoped: it was a pretty smooth root beer flavor that was extra sweet because of a maple syrup flavor on top of it. It was good! The first 3 ingredients (in order) are carbonated water, pure cane sugar, and pure Wisconsin maple syrup. If you like a strong sugary flavor, then you need to try this.

The only downside to this was that it got really TOO sweet after the first 10 sips or so. I'd rate the first sips as an 8.5, but overall, the score will be lower because it just gets to be a bit too much. (At least it comes in a resealable bottle so it doesn't all have to be consumed at once.)

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Spring Grove Soda Pop Lemon Sour

I had one more Spring Grove Soda bottle in the back of the fridge from a long time ago. Time to clean that up:

Brand: Spring Grove Soda Pop Lemon Sour.

Origin: Spring Grove, Minnesota.

Purchase Place: www.springgrovesoda.com.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This is my least favorite Spring Grove Soda that I've had. It has a very tart and crisp lemon flavor that is quite good, but it's a bit sour. (Duh… "Lemon SOUR" flavor.) It's not very drinkable, but it IS very sippable. This would be great mixed with booze. Being I tried this mid-day (not quite time for booze), I mixed in a little of Rose's Grenadine, and that sweetened it right up. Doing that made me down the rest of the bottle pretty quick.

Score: 5 out of 10.