A quick trip to Blue Sun Soda

My 2nd grader and I took a trip to Blue Sun Soda this afternoon. His teacher loves root beer, so I made a list of my favorite root beers from this blog (ones rated 9 or 10) and picked up 8 for him as an upcoming Christmas present.

We brought a few dollars worth of quarters for Henry and me.

Playing a slightly older pinball machine.

Rocky Mountain had a nice end cap.

SODAS! The aisle along the wall on the right is all root beer.
Colas are in the middle of this pic. Everything is divided by flavor.

There was a birthday party going on in a back room, which is a great idea! The kids seemed to be having fun. Henry and I grabbed some free popcorn and some goodies for his teacher. I ended up getting:

- Capt'n Eli's Root Beer
- Old Fashioned Killebrew Root Beer
- Dang! That's Good Root Beer
- Barrel Brother's Creamy Vanilla Root Beer
- The Three Stooges Wise Guy Root Beer
- Route 66 Root Beer
- Hippo Size Jumbo Root Beer
- Abita Root Beer

Those last 2 on the list have been the ONLY sodas on this blog that have received "10 out of 10." The rest on this list either got 9s or 9.5s. (You can find reviews of all of these in the sidebar - look for the brand name in the tags.) I hope his teacher likes his Christmas present!

Review of first 5 hard ciders

I've had 5 out of the 10 hard ciders that I picked up earlier this month, so I thought I'd do a quick review of the 5 I've had so far.

Here are all 10 that I bought (seen in this post), but I've only tried 5.

Here are 5 reviewed in order that I had them:

Woodchuck Raspberry Hard Cider ($1.79): Great, crisp, raspberry flavor. It tastes sharp, but it goes down really well. This was sweet and tasty. Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Ciderboys "Strawberry Magic" Apple Strawberry Hard Cider ($1.49): Again, very crisp. More heavy on the apple flavor, but it's a good flavor. Just a bit tart (like a fresh apple), but otherwise pretty sweet. Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Abita Purple Haze ($1.79): This was a flavored beer. It's a lager brewed with raspberries added at the end. It tasted just like "normal" beer with just a little fruitiness. Just a LITTLE. It wasn't bad, but I'm not a fan of beer - I was hoping this was less beer-like. If you like a slightly sweeter beer, then try it. But I wasn't a fan. (I HAD to try this one because Abita makes my favorite root beer ever.)  Score: 3 out of 10.

Samuel Smith's Organic Cider ($2.99): This was really dry and reminded me of a white wine. It needed to be sweeter. No thanks. And it was the most expensive of all the 10 bottles I purchased (there are 2 more that I haven't tried yet that were also $2.99, but all the others were $1.49-$1.99).  Score: 3 out of 10.

Wyder's Dry Pear Hard Cider ($1.99): This was OK. It was dry (as implied in the name), but not as dry as the last one I had. The pear had a nice sharpness/tartness to it, and there was still a little sweetness in there too. It tasted refined (like wine), yet sweet (like a sweet cider). Score: 6 out of 10.


So Woodchuck won this round, and Ciderboys was close behind. But I have 5 more to try - I hope to be posting about the rest of these in about a month. Check back!

Abita Root Beer

Now that I'm back from sampling 2 sodas in Israel (here and here), it was time for some root beer:

Brand: Abita Root Beer.

Origin: Abita Springs, Louisiana.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: No beating around the bush: this is one of the best root beers that I've had in recent memory. Actually, it's THEE best in recent memory, and one of my favorites of all time. The sweetness from the Louisiana cane sugar can't be beat. There's a great smoothness to this root beer, and just a little bite (just the perfect amount of bite for my taste). This goes down easy and tastes great.

After well over 100 reviews on this blog, I've never given a "perfect 10" before. But I could NOT taste anything wrong with this - it was everything that was right with the world. I can't wait to get my hands on another bottles of this!

Score: 10 out of 10!

Minnesota's Largest Candy Store (and their hours)

Last night, my family was driving up Hwy 169 back to St. Paul from visiting family in southern Minnesota. And it's hard to miss THIS while driving through Jordan, MN:

"MINNESOTA'S LARGEST CANDY STORE" along Hwy 169 about 40-45 mins south of the Metro.

Stockpiled with all kinds of sweetness.

SODA!!

MORE SODA!

YET MORE SODA!

And this is ALL ROOT BEER.  They have a sign that boasts "191 kinds of root beer."
(When we were there a year ago, they only had 92 kinds of root beer, so someone's been busy.)

My son and lots of pumpkins.

The flat-roofed section in the foreground was added since last year - it just keeps getting bigger!

I left with a piece of candy for my son, some Cow Tales and some "Fizzies Grape Drink" for me...

... and 10 different kinds of root beer:

We found out that they are open until December 1st, and their hours are 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. (They don't have a website and it's hard to find info on this place - the owner is older and "old school" like that.) But if people are around, they'll stay open later - we got there at 7:40 p.m. and the place was still hopping. They said they were going to be closing at 9 p.m. that night.

Check back soon for reviews of these root beers... I have one waiting in the fridge for me tonight. And check out more photos on my other blog (including photos of their "bacon" section!).