Whistler Cookie Dough Soda

I cracked into this while my boys were napping this afternoon:

Brand: Whistler Cookie Dough Soda.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: The first thing I noticed is there was no carbonated "SSsssss" when I popped the top, so this wasn't seal properly. It didn't taste like it had "gone bad," it just tasted like it lost it's carbonation. The flavor was weird: like a mild cola with a LOT of caramel. I see what they were going for, but it was odd. Maybe it was because it was no longer carbonated, so I think I might have to try this soda again to be fair. For right now, it was weird...

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Fritz-Kola Fritz-Limo Apfel-Kirsch-Holunder-Limonade

This was a german soda that I picked up, and I didn't know what I was about to drink:

Probably the last "classroom" photo of the spring
as I'm grading final projects right now as I drink this.

After I took my first sip, I found an added-on English sticker on the back. It said it was "Natural Cherry Soda" of Germany. On their website, they called it "fritz-limo apple, cherry and elderberry." It had a lot of apple juice and a little sour cherry juice (both listed before sugar), and then a bit of elderberry juice as well. They appear to sort of be marketing it as a juice drink, and not as a soda.


Brand: Fritz-Kola Fritz-Limo Apfel-Kirsch-Holunder-Limonade

Origin: Hamburg-Othmarschen, Germany.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It was not "cherry" at all. It was very much like chilled, carbonated hot apple cider that makes me think of Christmas. It wasn't bad - it just wasn't what I expected in a "cherry" soda. I really thought about it as I sipped it, and I could NOT taste ANY cherry flavor. It was all apple to me. It had a bit of a bite at the end of each sip that wasn't super desirable, but overall, it was pretty good. Sweet, but not too sweet. I'll give it an average score.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Whistler Cherry Vanilla Cola

I opened this earlier today and thought it could be weird:

Brand: Whistler Cherry Vanilla Cola.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: I thought this sounded weird. So I was ready for weird. But it was actually pretty good. It's a very smooth cola with a nice vanilla undertone. The cherry is a BIT fake-tasting, but it's not bad. In the end, this went down pretty easy.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Claeys Root Beer Old Fashioned Hard Candies

I've had this bag of Root Beer Candies that I've been working on for many years:

I picked these up over 3 years ago as seen in this post!

My wife was about to throw it away because I was eating them very slowly, but I'm not a huge "hard candy" guy. But then she tried one and was NOT going to throw them away. They are good! When I first started to write this, they had 21 ratings on Amazon, and 17 are a full 5 stars. (There were two 4 star, a 3 star, and a 1 star rating, but the 1 star rating is someone saying they LOVE them, so I don't think they know how to work the "star system.") Now there are many more reviews, so I think they're catching on!


Brand: Claeys Root Beer Old Fashioned Hard Candies.

Origin: South Bend, Indiana.

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

Sweetener: Sugar and Corn Syrup.

Review: These have a very "true" Root Beer flavor. They taste like a better "adult" version of the root beer barrels we all had at parades as kids. I don't often rate candies here, but if I were to give this a score like I do sodas, I'd have to say it was a better-than-average 8.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Saranac Root Beer

After a long weekend, I cracked into this tonight:

Brand: Saranac Root Beer.

Origin: Utica, NY.

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

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This tasted pretty "classic," which is a good thing. Quite smooth with no bite. There was a fair amount of a caramel aftertaste which I wasn't a huge fan of, but it was still quite good. I'll rank it a bit above average.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Dr. Pepper Fail