Fitz's Grape Pop

I opened this last night:

Brand: Fitz's Grape Pop.

Origin: St. Louis, MO.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was quite good! I've mentioned before how I'm OK with "syrupy" sodas (and I figured this could be syrupy), but this wasn't too overly sweet. The grape flavor was strong and tasty. It was rich and full, but stopped before getting too sweet. A pretty good grape soda!

Score: 9 out of 10.

Hollywood's Original Shirley Temple Soda Pop

I cracked in to this earlier today:

Brand: Hollywood's Original Shirley Temple Soda Pop.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This wasn't good. It was incredibly "sharp" and harsh. It had a very strong/strange strawberry flavor that was just too much along with the carbonation. I had a few sips over an hour, but I didn't come close to finishing this. Gross.

Score: 2 out of 10.

Zevia Cola

I stopped at Whole Foods today and tried this:

Brand: Zevia Cola.

Origin: Los Angeles, CA.

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

Sweetener: Stevia Leaf Extract.

Review: This wasn't great. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't care for it. The cola flavor was weak, and it was really "thin" like many diet sodas. It had a strange sharpness (that I think I get a lot from Stevia), but then a decent slightly fruity kick. Not great overall.

Score: 4.5 out of 10.

Fitz's Cream Soda

Yesterday, I opened this in my classroom:

Brand: Fitz's Cream Soda.

Origin: St. Louis, MO.

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

Sweetener: "All natural pure can sugar."

Review: This was OK. There was nothing too special about this. It was quite creamy, with a strong sweetness too it (nearly too much for this sugar-loving boy). I obviously didn't care for the (slight) over sweetness, but there was a slightly fruity flavor that helped this recover. Nothing stood out - it was OK but not amazing. This gets a middle-of-the-road score from me.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Stubborn Classic Root Beer

I'm sipping on this right now after class:

Brand: Stubborn Classic Root Beer.

Origin: Riviera Beach, FL.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This is very unique. I wasn't sure I liked it at first. It almost has a butterscotch flavor - maybe a slight burnt butterscotch flavor. But it's not bad. I sure wouldn't call this "classic" root beer as they do, but it was an interesting twist on the classic root beer flavor. Smooth and creamy. Not bad.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Review of 4 Hard Sodas: Not Your Mom's, Henry's, Strongbow, and Coney Island

Here's my second an final "mini review" of some hard sodas / flavored beers that I picked up at Total Wine:

All the bottles from a few months ago, but this review is just for 4 of the 9.

Here's my review of the final 4 (in the order that I drank them):

Not Your Mom's Apple Pie: This was a beer flavored with vanilla and apple juice, which sounded good to me. It's rare that my wife and I have the same reaction to a drink, but this one was the exception. My wife's quote after taking a sip: "Mmmmm, oh that's goooo... wait, OH NO!" Yep, I had the same thought. It's a very sweet apple pie flavor initially, but then there's a HARD hit of over-the-top cinnamon. I see what they're going for (it's like a super rich pie crust flavor), but it's quite literally 10x what it needs to be. It was nearly undrinkable.  Score: 2.5 out of 10.

Henry's Hard Cherry Cola: I liked this. It was just a little malty and not too "beer-y." And it had just a good cherry cola flavor. This went down easy. Score: 7 out of 10.

Strongbow "Cherry Blossom" Hard Cider: I'll be honest - I don't remember drinking this one. It must have been OK, but not great. Or horrible. Oops. Sorry. Score: 5 out of 10.

Coney Island Hard Root Beer: Possibly my favorite hard root beer! It had a strong vanilla flavor, and not a huge bite of booze. Still, I couldn't help but thinking if did NOT have alcohol in it, it would have been a great root beer. Score: 8 out of 10.


So I need to try more Coney Island hard sodas, because (as seen in the link below) I've liked them quite a bit - they hold 2 out of my top 3 scores for these 9 beverages.

If you missed it, here's the review of the first 5 of these hard sodas/ciders.

Whistler Carmel Cream

I had another soda from my Whistler stash the other day:

Brand: Whistler Carmel Cream.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was flat (as was another Whistler soda I had this past summer), so this local bottler needs to get something figured out or people will be annoyed. (I'm annoyed.) However, the flavor was OK. It tasted about like I figured a "carmel cream" would taste. Flavor was quite good, but it was flat, which turned me off quite a bit. If this had a proper seal and proper carbonation, I'd rank this maybe 2 points higher.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.