Grand Opening at "Grandpa Joe's" (formerly Blue Sun Soda)

My son and I just got back from the north metro because we HAD to check out the Grand Opening of Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop! They purchased Blue Sun Soda in Spring Lake Park. They just announced it on Facebook 10 days ago, so a LOT has happened since then. 

A little bummed they painted over the mural out front.

It was HOPPIN' inside! Charlie was handed a sweet soda jerk hat when he walked in.

FUDGE! That's new!

This is where all the long aisles of soda used to be, and now it's all CANDY and GAMES! 

Some soda farther back.

I had to grab a "Wild Bill's" root beer, and Grandpa Joe's has some wild novelty flavors.

"Buy 5 Get 1 FREE." So I did!

This has been a big draw from social media: a $5 candy buffet!

More sodas near the register.

Soda fountain AND ice cream bar!

The bottler was up and running, and people could watch.

Back in the candy area. THEY STLL HAVE "BILLY THE SODA JERK" BACK THERE!
He was cracking people up, including my son. 

New hand-painted details by the door.

This was by the checkout. I need to try these sometime.

I still have some Blue Sun sodas to try, so this might not be my last post with the Blue Sun Soda tag, but it's the first with the Grandpa Joe's tag! My son got a few boxes of candy, and I grabbed a six pack of assorted sodas (because the 6th was free). I can't wait to go back to snoop around more without a hundred other people there. They don't seem to have QUITE as much soda as before, but it's a better experience all around - super excited to take my oldest son there sometime as he couldn't make it tonight. We'll be back!

Check out Grandpa Joe's on Facebook to stay in the loop.

Minnesota Soda Pun

A classic joke posted by Blue Sun Soda:

Refill at Blue Sun Soda

Yesterday afternoon, my boys and I headed to the "original" Blue Sun Soda up in the north metro. I slowly worked my way through the root beer aisle and grabbed just a few bottles that I haven't had before. But now after the 2 or 3 that I just purchased, I'll have had everything in this aisle: 

All root beers way down to the end.

Back by the little game room (they've really made that smaller).

The soda fountain section had some old cans being used as vases.

My assorted case from Blue Sun Soda!

I have a few novelty sodas in there that will be GROSS that I plan to try with my extended family as we get together during the summer. Stay tuned for those reviews!

Blue Sun Super Sour Soda Pucker Up Grape

Yes, it's been over 2 weeks since my last post... I've had this soda in the fridge, but I kept putting off trying it because I was a bit scared. And it's not just one I can grab and take to class as it could leave a horrible taste in my mouth. But FINALLY, here we are... 

Brand: Blue Sun Super Sour Soda Pucker Up Grape.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Bloomington, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This SMELLED just like a normal grape soda. And even when it first hit my tongue, it tasted like a normal grape soda. But then a second later, the SOUR hits, and it makes my cheeks pucker! 

Not surprisingly, my boys tried this and loved it. They thought it was quite good. 

The grape flavor is quite sweet (almost surprisingly sweet), and then it hits with the "candy" sour. The sour really isn't TOO much - yes, it made my face have a physical reaction each time, but it's still almost subtle. Almost. Not bad, and just a fun soda. This is NOT something I would pick when I just wanted to sip on something, but something I'd grab with a friend. As a "drinking" soda, it's crap. But for the experience, I'll rate this just above average.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Blue Sun Soda Shop is Expanding!

Last month, I hit another one of the locations of Blue Sun Soda Shop. And 2 days ago, they announced they are now expanding outside of the Twin Cities:

Here are some of the pics they shared:

I haven't been out to Stillwater in a while, but this would be a good trip with my boys this summer. Good luck Blue Sun Soda!

A Visit to the Bloomington Location of Blue Sun Soda

Yesterday, I stopped by the Bloomington location of Blue Sun Soda Shop. It was my first time at that location - I'd only been to the "original" store in Spring Lake Park, and I still need to visit their Richfield location as well at some point. I pulled in to their Bloomington location and was the only one in the lot:

A handful of short soda aisles.

The line of root beers!!!

Root beers more straight on.

I thought this was raisin soda at first... until I realized it was just the French translation.

The candy section of the store (past all the sodas).

I *nearly* walked away with a "vanilla bean" container of cotton candy as that sounded interesting!

Root beer barrels - these would have been good stocking stuffers!

 

I also refreshed my stash as I was there - I walked out with an assorted case of 12 sodas, including a few root beers that I've never had (and a novelty soda to take to a family gathering shortly).

Blue Sun Soda at the MN State Fair

Blue Sun Soda just posted this on Facebook:

I'm not going this year, so someone have some soda for me! Have some Rocket Bomb Pop, or some root beer from a "root beer barrel," or some Spring Grove soda at their stand by the DNA building!

Bernie Memes at Cold Front and Blue Sun Soda

In the last few days, my Facebook feed has been full of Bernie Sanders memes. And Cold Front (coffee, tea, ice cream, and homemade sodas) and Blue Sun Soda Shop (candy and sodas) have gotten in on the fun. These were their posts from yesterday on their Facebook pages: 

Well played.  :) 

Refreshing My Soda Stash

I have ONE soda left in my stash! Well, I should say "had" one soda left. My wife had a day off mid-week a few days ago, so I snuck away for an hour to restock my "soda box" in the basement. I hit up Blue Sun Soda:

I have *not* enjoyed a few of these, but I grabbed some that I hadn't tried before.

A BIG stock of their bottled-in-store Whistler sodas!

I had Kiss Army Root Beer a few years ago, but I hadn't tried the other 2. So I bought them.

Some "fancy" 22 oz $7 bottles. Just out of frame to the right is Indian Wells which we liked.

In the "all natural" section, here's a brand I haven't cared for (2 bottles rated 3.5 and 2).

Blue Sun now has a bigger "Japanese" section, so I grabbed 2!
It didn't seem right to have Elvis and John Wayne in the background...

I left with a case of 24 sodas, but I only had 2 root beers in there. After drinking those, I think I'll have had EVERY kind of root beer at Blue Sun except for 2 of the "big bottle" brands! I saved those for another time.

Thanks for refreshing my stash Blue Sun! I hope to check out your new location sometime soon as well!

"The Bottlecap Score:" a tasting journal for tracking your soda experiences!

I was recently contacted by a fellow Minnesotan named Jason who was finishing up a new book. He wondered if he could send me a copy and I could review it here. It's SUPER appropriate for this blog, as it's called "The Bottlecap Score: A Tasting Journal for Pop Connoisseurs, Soda Jerks, & Soft Drink Enthusiasts." I was pumped to receive it!

My copy in my hand!

This is a great book (and for sure great GIFT IDEA) for those like me who (one) love soda and (two) like to keep track of what's good and what stinks. This book goes a bit more in-depth than I do for each review, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Jason writes about how this ranking system works, he has a chapter on different ways to host "tasting parties" (which I have wanted to do for YEARS), he has a section for tracking your favorite and your worst sodas, and then he has a lot of room for your personal reviews that are broken into 13 different flavor-based sections (like cherry, citrus, cola, cream soda, diet, etc).

He writes a lot about the intricacies of his ranking system, but here's the simple breakdown after all those pages:

There's a lot to unpack there, but like I said, this comes AFTER a lengthy description of how to break this all down, so this is like the Cliff Notes version. Just like my blog, a "5" is considered an average score. Notice you rank ALL kinds of things. I like the idea of including things like carbonation, aroma, and memorability into the system! Those are NOT things I have in my personal ranking system (or maybe I DO have those, but they're not explicitly stated like this). But I don't know if the bottle shape or the value are things I'm personally concerned about. But the great thing is if you think the same as me, you could just decide to give everything the same score for a category or 2, and then you're just effectively ignoring it. (If it's not something you care to rank or to consider for every soda.) Overall, I LOVE how there's more info/categories here than what I share in my reviews. I'm sort of excitedly jealous of his ideas in this system!

Here's what all the later pages look like where you review your sodas:

Picture of the top half of a page in the "root beer and sarsaparilla" section (sure to be my favorite).

Each review is a half page, so you can see 4 reviews/spread. You note the brand and flavor, and then you can circle the "flavor type." I REALLY like the idea of having a scale where you can mark the "flavor strength" anywhere between "too weak," "just right," and "too strong," because that's TOTALLY something I write about, but have never thought to put in a "scale" form. Nice! 

Below the flavor scale, you can make notes, write down the date, and note if it has caffeine (something readers have asked me to note as well, but I haven't implemented that). And then there's the "bottlecap score" tally on the right.

The "favorite" and "worst" listings. Also, there's a "favorite brands" list which I would use.

There are also fun soda-related illustrations alllllll through the book:

Notice the tiny man in the corner: the entire book is a flip book of him enjoying a soda.

Jason and I emailed back-and-forth a few times about this book. In his final note, he said something that I could see happening: "As an aside, I sincerely hope you like and enjoy the Bottlecap Score. My own family has. Sometimes there is temptation to fudge numbers for the category to force a particular score, but I am generally impressed how close on the scale the final number is to my true feelings." I had already looked through the book and had that same thought of "well, I wonder if all these points would REALLY add up the way I'd WANT them to" before I went back and read that he addressed that in an email from a week ago. The book must work!

Side note: I also spotted the book in a post on Blue Sun Soda Shop's Facebook page about 2 weeks ago:

You can find it there, or check it out on Amazon here. Good luck with the book Jason! It's very helpful and a lot of fun! I'm hoping people pick it up as a gift for the soda lover in their family...