Red Rock Premium Root Beer

I opened this while cooking Reubens this afternoon: 

Brand: Red Rock Premium Root Beer.

Origin: Austell, GA.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Bloomington, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was an generically OK root beer. It didn't "take a stance" and try something quite specific (other than being just slightly red as you can barely make out in the photo). It had a slightly caramel flavor, and was pretty neutral on the "bite vs smooth" scale. Not bad, but nothing special. I'll rank it just a bit better than an average "5."

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

NEW! Coca Cola Zero Sugar Limited Edition "Starlight" Space Flavored

So, what is the flavor of "space?" 

Brand: Coca Cola Zero Sugar Limited Edition "Starlight" Space Flavored.

Origin: Atlanta, GA.

Purchase Place: Target, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: My wife grabbed a small pack of these tiny 7.5 oz cans for my this morning at Target. She had to Google the flavor to make sure I wouldn't hate it, and what she found out was that people were calling it very sweet with a raspberry or minty flavor (which seem VERY different to me).

First of all, it's quite red which was surprising. There's really no "normal" Coke taste to it. It has a strong "vanilla" flavor, but more like "plug in air-freshener woodsy vanilla" and not a preferable "vanilla bean." There's a hint of "abandoned humid cardboard warehouse" in there as well. So what I'm saying is that I'm not a fan.

To be honest, if I wasn't expecting Coca Cola, I'd maybe rank this a bit higher. It's a unique flavor, and I can give them that. But when I'm expecting just a "twist" on Coke Zero and get hit with air freshener in a damp cardboard factory, I'm not happy about it. I didn't even finish my 7.5 oz can, and I don't know what to do with the rest of the cans she got me.

Score: 2.5 out of 10.

Cripple Creek Brewing Celon's Mythical Creme Soda

I opened this with my boys tonight:

 

The label looks like an old stock certificate. Love it.

Wait, are they "Filbert's" in disguise?!? Because the bottom cap seems to say so!

Brand: Cripple Creek Brewing Celon's Mythical Creme Soda.

Origin: Naperville, IL.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Bloomington, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: At first sniff, this was a sweet vanilla-heavy cream soda. And the flavor was about the same. It was quite smooth, but it had a surprisingly sharp little bite in the aftertaste that wasn't fantastic. But decent flavor. This must be related to Filbert's as it's getting a pretty average score like the vast majority of Filbert's sodas I've had (except for the "8 out of 10" I gave their root beer a long time ago).

Score: 6 out of 10.

Walking to and from school, uphill both ways, in the snow, barefoot.

To be clear, Coca Cola didn't have 3.5 grams of cocaine, but maybe 1/400 of a grain (less than 0.0002 of a gram - less than 2 ten-thousandths of a gram) per ounce of syrup in 1902 according to Snopes. Just wanted to make that clear, but the image is still funny though!

State Fair Soda Cotton Candy

I was doing a lot of cooking last night, and I cracked into this:

Brand: State Fair Soda Cotton Candy.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Lunds & Byerlys, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Well this tasted EXACTLY how it should have. It had that perfectly sugary flavor of cotton candy. I really don't know what else to say: if you like cotton candy and think it would be good as a liquid, then TRY THIS.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Northern Soda Company Black Cherry Soda

Three non-bottle reviews in a row?!? Yep. I had my second (and final) can from last weekend's Kowalski's trip:

Brand: Northern Soda Company Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: Kowalski's Market, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was really good! Just a solid and deep flavored black cherry. I was surprised when I poured out a sip for my boys and saw it was nearly clear (just the slightest pink tint!). I thought it was a bit on the sweet side, but my wife (who hates overly sweet things) thought it was quite tasty. There's nothing special about this, but it tastes really good! Solid soda!

Score: 8.5 out of 10.