A Minor Refill at Blue Sun Soda

Last night, I dropped my boys off at Grandma's house, and I celebrated my freedom by going to a soda and candy store. Of course. The last time I stopped at Blue Sun Soda was pre-COVID back in November. Back then, we stopped by for a cream soda tasting. But now (without the boys), I could take my time.

Colas on the left, root beers on the right.

This note was hung on the wall with no explanation. Perfect.

"Summertime Sodas:" lemon limes, an orange cream, and some novelty "fair" flavors.

Love all the greens and yellows in the lemon lime section.

Worth noting: MN legal "fireworks" are cheap now!

  

Also note that the fireworks are in their "soda fountain" area. Both the soda fountain and the arcade are not open because of COVID-19. That's understandable (I wouldn't have gotten a fresh-made soda while there, and I SURE wouldn't have been playing pinball that all kinds of grubby hands have been on) but still sad. Here's a post from a year ago that shows the soda fountain and arcade pretty well.

The main reason I stopped was because my stash at home was running very low: I was down to 2 sodas! Maybe sometime in 2013 (shortly after starting this blog) my stash got that low, but this was the 2nd lowest it's ever been.  So I picked up a random assortment of 10 bottles at Blue Sun Soda Shop: a few of their Whistler bottles, some random flavors, and even a novelty soda. That should get me through the end of summer.

Single Soda Bottles for the "Stay At Home" Order

Starting tomorrow, Minnesotans are asked by Governor Walz to "stay at home" for 2 weeks. (Which is a slightly more lenient version of "shelter at home" that some states are doing.) I was out yesterday to get some groceries at Cub Foods (not our normal place, but they had a few deals), and I noticed their bottled soda selection at the back:

What I was happiest to see was the handful of local Spring Grove Sodas on the 2nd-from-the-top shelf! Including root beer! So head to Cub and stock up for your "stay at home" (although grocery trips are OK over these next 2 weeks).

Sunshine Bottle Works All-Natural Root Beer

We did a lot of cooking today (while staying inside in the name of "social distancing"), and I opened this to sip on while cooking:

My wife and 8-year-old making bagels in the background.

Brand: Sunshine Bottle Works All-Natural Root Beer.

Origin: San Luis Obispo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This first sip of this was pretty normal, but then I was BLASTED with a heavy molasses aftertaste. Truly. I checked the ingredients, and nothing stood out there - if anything, it sounded good: "natural flavors with spices of wintergreen, anise and birch."

My wife took a sip, made a face, and said "YEP!" My 8-year-old didn't like it, and that's super rare when it comes to sodas! My 5-year-old thought it was OK. But I didn't even finish the bottle. This might go down as my first root beer that I never finished! Just too much molasses flavor.

Score: 1.5 out of 10.
 

Coronavirus Updates from Blue Sun Soda Shop

Here's an update from a few days ago from Blue Sun Soda Shop:

We are still open. The soda fountain is closed and so is the arcade. Those must stay closed until this passes.

We may be reducing hours of operation in the future as well.

We employ 12 jerks in total and would like to keep them employed. We are not Amazon and if we closed up we would not be able to keep paying our jerks so we are day-by-daying this whole thing.

None of the jerks are being forced to work if they do not want to either.

Billy is no longer giving out hugs.

If you come in the store please respect distance, wash your hands, and know that all of us will get through this sooner rather than later.

We are even discussing Whistler Case delivery to your home.

Good luck everyone. Wash your hands. Sneeze in your elbow. Stay away from crowds.

Blue Sun Soda Shop

That was from a week ago. Here's an update from yesterday: you can fill out this form totaling 24 sodas and they will have it ready at the door for you to pick up:

Good luck out there! Support local when you can!