Lime Billy's Bubble Pop

I opened this with supper tonight: 

Brand: Lime Billy's Bubble Pop.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Bloomington, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This is another one of Billy's mixed up color sodas, and it's my favorite one yet! (The other's I've had I've ranked around average with scores around 5 to 6.5.) 

This tastes like an extra sweet and extra "limey" lemon/lime soda. It almost tastes like an overly sweet mojito like I've had in Mexico. One of my boys thought it tasted a little "key lime"-like, but I think he was just thinking it was sweet like a dessert. This was sweet, classic, child-like, and tasty. Nothing special, but sweet and drinkable!

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Lemon Billy's Bubble Pop

I opened this with lunch today:

Brand: Lemon Billy's Bubble Pop.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: Billy's sodas are meant to be goofy so they are not the color you'd expect them to be based on the flavor.  But I swear I can taste the red! It's like a soft, smooth lemon flavor with some sweet grenadine added. I kept sipping this to confirm - it TASTES "red." Really. All that being said, it's not horrible. It's a real subtle/gentle lemon flavor that has no bitter "punch" like lemonade. It was just OK.

Score: 5 out of 10.

 

Cherry Billy's Bubble Pop

I opened this last night:

Brand: Cherry Billy's Bubble Pop.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: Much like my first Billy's Bubble Pop, this was quite sweet and syrupy. I'm seeing these "Billy's" sodas as being for kids, as they are pretty normal flavors, but just EXTRA sweet. (And my kids think it's hilarious that the colors don't match the flavors.) Not bad, just really sweet. Otherwise a pretty normal cherry.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Grape Billy's Bubble Pop

I opened my "wacky" Billy's Soda that I picked up during our last trip to Blue Sun Soda:

Oops! Blurry. Didn't realize it until after I drank the soda...

... so here's a sharp version once the soda hit my belly.

Brand: Grape Billy's Bubble Pop

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: In case you're wondering, YES it's grape soda, but YES it's yellow. (See this post from a few months ago that shows a "Billy's Bubble Pop" selections where all the colors don't match the flavor.) Billy is a "lovable soda jerk" at Blue Sun Soda, and he kinda plays being a buffoon. So along with the "I made this" printed on the label, they're (kindly) making fun of Billy. My boys got to meet him in August of 2018, and he goofed around with them. Fun guy.

Anyway, back to this yellow grape soda: it's a pretty decent grape soda. It's hard to screw up grape pop. My wife mentioned that it was a little "cough syrup-y," but it wasn't too much for me - I've had sweeter/sugarier. It was almost SLIGHTLY overly smooth which was a bit odd, but otherwise it was quite good. I'll rate it slightly above average. I'll be eager to try more of Billy's soda (I don't have any more on hand - we'll have to make a trip back to Blue Sun Soda sometime soon).

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

"State Fair" Soda Tasting at Blue Sun Soda

Saturday, the boys and I stopped by Blue Sun Soda Shop for a little tasting event they had advertised on Facebook. I knew it would be small (nothing like the big outdoor tasting event last year), but it was an excuse to get to the soda shop.

Blue Sun seems to be changing/expanding every time we stop. Last time we were there, this was where all the pinball machines were, and now it's an "old fashioned" soda shop:

Lots of flavors of soda, and also ice cream floats! (And hot dogs and chips.)

We found the soda tasting at the back of the store, which was just some open bottles and tiny plastic "sipping cups:"

"State Fair" sodas in front of John Wayne.

We all had tiny pours of all 5 kinds of soda. I looked on the labels and saw that the State Fair sodas were made right there at Blue Sun Soda. Here was my ranking from favorite (on the left) to least favorite (on the right):

"Cotton Candy" was like liquid cotton candy! Sweet and tasty! "Kettle Corn" was pretty decent,
tasting like sweet popcorn. "Rocket Bomb Pop" was just OK, "Mini Donut" was cinnamon-y
and alright, and I didn't care for "Chocolate Chip Cookie" that much.

Henry's ranking: he liked Rocket Bomb Pop and Cotton Candy a lot.
Neither of my boys cared for Kettle Corn (ranked last).

New sodas: the boys met Billy last year, and they liked his goofy sodas here. The colors
don't match the flavors. (I bought a grape Billy's Bubble Pop, and that was the yellow one.)

A previously closed space in the back is now the arcade!

The other side of the arcade on the other side of the air hockey table.

The boys using their last quarters, with 2 other kids at the air hockey table.

In that first shot of the arcade, you can see my basket of sodas in the foreground. I walked out with 8 bottles, making it one of my smallest trips to Blue Sun. Thanks for the fun tasting event! We'll be back!