Hires Root Beer

"Since 1876"… would this be any good?

Brand: Hires Root Beer.

Origin: Plano, Texas.

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

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This tastes like a straight-up mix of popular root beers. It has the smoothness of A&W, with a little bite from Barq's. If you told me it was a mix of those, I would have totally believed it. There's a little hint of something else in the aftertaste, but it's pretty good overall. Nothing fancy, but a slightly better-than-average score from me.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Ozark Mountain's "The Smugglers Run" Tropical Soda

This was brightly colored...

In front of some of our veggies from our tiny garden.

Brand: Ozark Mountain's "The Smugglers Run" Tropical Soda.

Origin: Branson, Missouri.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This flavor is hard to pin down. I'd say the majority of the flavor is mango, with a little fruit punch in there too. It wasn't really the flavor I thought it'd be, but I don't know what I expected. It's sweet, but not TOO sugary. It's for sure a "summer drink." Good for the sippin'.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

Fanta Cans

Just a fun photo that I wanted to share that I found on 9gag:

Yacht Club Root Beer

I tried Yacht Club DIET root beer about 2 months ago, so now it was time to see if their regular root beer could out-score the average "5" that I gave to their diet.

Brand: Yacht Club Root Beer.

Origin: Centredale, RI.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: Ehh. It was OK. It had a bit of an anise flavor, and it wasn't very creamy at all. It was a little too "sharp" for my liking. The flavor was earthy, but not that great. Again, this will get an average 5. It was OK.

Score: 5 out of 10.

General Mills to start making "Wheaties Beer"

So this is about to become a thing:

Image source.

Fulton Brewery across the river in Minneapolis will soon be making Wheaties beer. They're scheduled to start selling it on the 26th of August. Here's an excerpt from the General Mills blog:

“We were intrigued from the get-go on this idea for many reasons, including that we’re both Minneapolis companies, and that the beer and the cereal both started from the same place in terms of raw ingredients and the same city,” says Ryan Petz, president and co-founder of Fulton.

I'll let you know if/when I try it!

Image source.

Fireman's Brew Root Beer

Opened this last night:

Brand: Fireman's Brew Root Beer.

Origin: Inyokern, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was pretty good. There was a bit of an anise flavor which lead to a subtle bite, but it still retained some creaminess that I like in a good root beer. Not bad!

Score: 8 out of 10.

National Root Beer Float Day!

TODAY is "National Root Beer Float" day. If you need an excuse to crack open a root beer, this is it.

I found an article online sharing 5 "grown up" versions of root beer floats to try today.  SPOILER ALERT: it's basically just adding different shots to your root beer float.  But click here to check out the article to try something different.  Happy ROOT BEER FLOAT Day!

The "root canal float" seen in this article.

Rowdy Roddy Piper Bubble Gum Soda

Pro wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper passed away 3 days ago. In his honor, I thought I'd review his bubble gum soda:

Brand: Rowdy Roddy Piper Bubble Gum Soda.

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Solid bubble gum flavor. But really, really sweet. It's super sugary. Kids might really like this. I tend to like pretty sugary sodas, but this is just too much.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Fanta Orange

On a recent warm evening, I opened this with supper:

Brand: Fanta Orange.

Origin: Mexico.

Purchase Place: Cub Foods, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: Nothing fancy here, but decent orange soda. Smooth. Oh, and as I've noted before about Fanta sodas, the mouth of the bottle is super rounded and smooth. It's awesome.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.