A Homemade Blackberry Soda from Cold Front

After one of my son's soccer games, we stopped at Cold Front for some treats:

My boys with their cones.

My blackberry soda that the jerk whipped up for me.

Sipping on my blackberry soda.

 
Brand: Blackberry Soda at Cold Front.

Origin: St. Paul, MN.

Purchase Place: Cold Front, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Unknown.

Review: As I find with most "homemade" sodas, this was very crisp with lots of carbonation. The blackberry was sweet and fruity, and it had a juice-like quality to it - that made it a little less soda-like, but it was still very good. It was a great end to an afternoon at a soccer game.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Joia Blackberry Pomegranate & Ginger Soda

This sounded a little strange, but they're a local company that I WANT to like, and the first kinda strange sounding soda that I had of theirs was actually pretty good. So I gave this a try this past weekend:

Brand: Joia Blackberry Pomegranate & Ginger Soda.

Origin: Minneapolis, MN.

Purchase Place: Lunds Grocery Store, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: It's got a pretty strong and unique flavor. It's a little strange, but still drinkable. Barely. My wife said it tasted a little like perfume (and I can see what she means). All of the flavors can be tasted: blackberry, pomegranate, and ginger. It's a bit sharp with very little smoothness. It has a bit of a bite from the ginger. Not a very tasty soda.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Rocky Mountain Soda Company Breckenridge Blackberry Soda

I busted out this soda while working on constructing my new garage last week:

I took a sip of this, and my first reaction was a head nod and a "Uh huh!!" That's a good sign! (And pretty rare.)


Brand: Rocky Mountain Soda Company Breckenridge Blackberry Soda.

Origin: Commerce City, CO.

Purchase Place: Rocket Fizz, somewhere in CO.

Sweetener: Beet Sugar.

Review: It tasted just like very sweet blackberries. This was pretty fantastic. There was a slight crisp bite from the blackberry flavor, and then a lot of smooth sweetness from the sugar. The taste was fantastic! (And it wasn't because it was a cold drink on a hot day... look at the photo above - it was a chilly and rainy day.) My only complaint was that it started getting a little TOO sweet by the end of the bottle.

Score: 9.5 out of 10.

Goodies in the Mail

I got a surprise on our front step yesterday.

First layer.

Second layer

Some blogger friends who follow my triathlon blog sent me some sugary treats from Colorado.

"Soda Shaq?"  Seems suspicious.  Gotta try it.

Tommyknocker Strawberry Creme, and a set of 5 Rocky Mountain Soda Company sodas.

Theresa and Brandon tell me that Soda Shaq is a 7-11 exclusive, and that the 6 others are from local brews ("local" to them in CO). They hadn't tried them, so they're curious what I think of them.

THANKS GUYS!! I'll be trying these all shortly, so check back to see if I like having some of Shaq's cream in my mouth...