Sipping Spider Venom Cherry Cola

Last Friday, I stopped by Frattallone's Ace Hardware on Grand Ave in St. Paul (the "west" one by Macalaster College), and I took a quick look over their soda section:

I grabbed something near the top left of that image, and I opened it earlier today:

Brand: Sipping Spider Venom Cherry Cola.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was good. It had a real deep cherry flavor - very strong and sweet. It was almost a "black cherry" flavor. It has "extract of dark sweet cherry" on the ingredients list, and I don't know if it's that ingredient that makes this so tasty. It was strong flavored classic cherry cola with a bit more "pop." I really enjoyed it!

Score: 9 out of 10.

Sparkling Life Soda

My boys and I just spent 3 days winter "camping" in a camper cabin in western MN. We cracked open this soda on the first night when we were playing games in the Interpretive Center:

Battleship by the woodstove before bed.

Brand: Sparkling Life Soda.

Origin: Breese, IL.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: I don't know that I've ever had a "bad" lemon lime soda, but this one wasn't fantastic. It wasn't "bad," but it had a slightly strange sharpness at the end of each sip. My boys loved it, but they love anything sugary. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good, so I'll give it an average score of 5.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Cherry Coke Transformer

Red Ribbon Pennsylvania Punch

I opened this with the boys last night:

Brand: Red Ribbon Pennsylvania Punch.

Origin: Natrona, PA (duh).

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was non-carbonated, but I didn't realize that until after the first sip. (Even though it says it right on the label above "Pennsylvania Punch"). It was quite good! It was very sweetly grape flavored, and it was a pretty deep flavor. My wife even liked it when I thought it could be too sweet for her. My boys loved it. A unique and delicious soda!

Score: 9 out of 10.