The Three Stooges Wise Guy Root Beer

Yesterday, I cracked into my final soda (of the 3 I got from our quick trip to Blue Sun Soda recently) while at class:

In front of the large printer in our classroom.

Brand: The Three Stooges Wise Guy Root Beer.

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Being this was a semi-novelty "Rocket Fizz" soda, I was ready for this to be bad (or simply "not good" as the best case scenario). BUT IT *WAS* GOOD. Quite good. It had a bit of an herby bite to it, and then a lot of creaminess at the end of each sip. Getting BOTH of those sensations in a root beer can be rare. The root beer flavor was deep and solid. This was QUITE good and may just be in my top-10 of root beers. I'm shocked.

Score: 9.5 out of 10.

Boots Lemon Meringue Soda

After an afternoon of cooking in the kitchen, I cleaned up the mess as I opened this (my 2nd of 3 bottles from my recent Blue Sun Soda stop):

Brand: Boots Lemon Meringue Soda.

Origin: Bryan, Texas.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: I had Boots Sarsaparilla this past summer, and it was a real let down, so I was hoping this would be good. When I first popped the bottle cap, it smelled a LOT like lemon meringue pie. Really. It had a lemon smell, but an extra sugary creaminess of the meringue too.

It didn't TASTE as much like lemon meringue pie though. I was curious how they would mix the "lemon" and the "meringue" flavors together in a soda, and (not surprisingly) it didn't work. It tastes like some sort of lemon candy, not necessarily lemon meringue pie. I'm an endurance athlete, and it coated my throat the way a super thick, sweet GU energy gel would. That part was a little gross (fine for a GU, but weird in a soda), but overall, it wasn't bad. Not horrible, but not great.

Score: 4.5 out of 10.

Zevia Black Cherry

I grabbed this while out shopping recently:

Brand: Zevia Black Cherry.

Origin: Culver City, California.

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

Sweetener: Erythritol and Stevia.

Review: First things first: I had to Google what "Erythritol" was. It turns out it's a calorie-free sugar alcohol used as a sweetener. Here was an interesting note found on Wikipedia: "When compared with other sugar alcohols, it is also much more difficult for intestinal bacteria to digest, so it is less likely to cause gas or bloating than other polyols, such as maltitol, sorbitol, or lactitol."

Anyway, on to the review. This was a clear "soda," and it tasted like a flavored carbonated water. I think I just assumed "black cherry COLA," but it was just like a black cherry water. The sweetness was a little sharp, but the black cherry taste was pretty good. Nothing special.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

Dead World Slow Decay Vanilla Root Beer

I just cracked into my first soda from my stop at the "soda tasting" at Blue Sun Soda this past weekend:

Makes sense to me.

Brand: Dead World Slow Decay Vanilla Root Beer.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This was strong on the vanilla, but pretty good overall. The root beer flavor was on the sweeter side, but not so much that it was offensive. Pretty good for a "novelty" soda!

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

"Zombie" Soda Tasting at Blue Sun Soda

My boys and I headed to Blue Sun Soda in the north metro earlier today because I saw they advertised a "free taste testing" of "Dead World" sodas on Facebook. I figured we'd swing by.

Sodas made in Minnesota (a lot here, but mainly Joia, North Star, and Spring Grove).

The 3 free pinball machines are ALWAYS popular.

My 2 boys on the far left waiting their turns.  Last time when we were there, I pulled down a soda box
for Charlie to stand on.  I see that Blue Sun realized that was an issue and made little steps.  Sweet.

There were a LOT of people in there.

My boys got their turn after a few minutes.

The "Dead World" soda tasting at the front of the store.

All of these gross-sounding flavors (like "rot berry") are all "normal" flavored sodas.  Nothing gross.

I tried all of these. The "Slow Decay" was a decent root beer on the left! "Zeek Cocktail" was a sugary
cotton candy, "Coon Bitters" was an OK cherry cola (without much cherry flavor), and the Orange
was quite smooth and tasty. The grape was good too.  I was rather impressed overall!

The "Dead World" display on an end cap in the store.

They added a big loose candy dispenser since I was there last.

Charlie got a rock candy sucker.

I just grabbed 3 sodas: a novelty root beer, the "Slow Decay" root beer I tried,
and a Lemon Meringue soda.  Reviews coming shortly.

Henry wanted a sucker with a REAL scorpion inside.  He hasn't tried this yet...

Here's a link to my post when my boys and I went to Blue Sun Soda for the first time 6 months ago. There are lots of photos of their soda selection in that post.

So check out Blue Sun Soda on Facebook, or in person in Spring Lake Park, MN. And check back soon for some new reviews.

O-Zell Root Beer Float Soda

I cracked into this yesterday:

Brand: O-Zell Root Beer Float.

Origin: Silver Lake, California.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park.

Sweetener: Hawaiian Cane Sugar.

Review: This smelled like a super smooth root beer, but tasted much different. I can see (taste) what they were going for, but there's an odd off-taste and "sharpness" at the end of each sip. The root beer flavor was just OK, and the fake ice cream taste wasn't great. I get it - this would be a hard flavor to create. But this wasn't that good.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Tis the Season for a Sparkling Pumpkin Cider

I spotted this at Aldi this morning:

I reviewed this "soda" 4 years ago as one of my first reviews on this site. CLICK HERE to check out the review - it was pretty good! (Oh, and I still have the bottle, but still haven't done anything with it like I claimed I would in the review...)

Henry's Hard Orange Soda

My wife recently bought this for me when she was getting some wine for herself at Total Wine (she's obviously the classy one in this relationship):

Under the bottle cap.

Brand: Henry's Hard Orange Soda.

Origin: Milwaukee, WI.

Purchase Place: Total Wine and Spirits, Roseville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I didn't know how an orange soda would mix with a beer flavor. I'm not a HUGE fan of beer. But this wasn't beer-flavored at all. I couldn't make out the alcohol flavor - it was almost like a "gentle" vodka flavor. It was good! The orange flavor was pretty normal/classic, and then it just had a slight alcoholic kick at the end of each sip. I may have to try the other Henry's Hard Soda flavors!

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Cool Mountain Black Cherry

I drank this with a snack yesterday afternoon:

Brand: Cool Mountain Black Cherry.

Origin: Des Plaines, IL.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda Shop, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This had decent black cherry flavor. It was pretty deep and full. Very drinkable. Went down pretty easy.

Score: 8 out of 10.