Diet Faygo Cola

I grabbed this on a car ride back from a camping trip, and didn't get a photo of it until I was back home cleaning out my car:

Messy car... unloading from a wet weekend of camping!

Brand: Diet Faygo Cola.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: Kwik Trip, Rochester, MN.

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: This was a decent cola, but there was nothing fancy, special, or unique about it. It had decent flavor for being diet as well - not that strong, but also not TOO weak. Very decent and what I expected (and wanted). I'll rank this just above average.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Faygo Diet Root Beer

I forgot to take a photo of this one as my wife and I grabbed it on a quick trip to Mankato recently, so here's a photo from the web:

Brand: Faygo Diet Root Beer.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: Kwik Trip, Mankato, MN.

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: This had a pretty sharp bite - it reminded me of Dad's Root Beer. It wasn't my favorite, and I didn't find it that great. My wife, however, liked it a bit. It was OK, but I don't know that I'll get it again.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Faygo Redpop

I was out doing some yard work with my son this past week, and I drank one of these in the backyard:

Brand: Faygo Redpop.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I didn't see what the flavor was until I'd had a few sips. I was trying to figure out what it was. It turns out it's strawberry. And it's pretty tasty. It's very child-like in its sugariness, but it's not TOO sweet. If you like sweet, try this out.

Score: 8 out of 10.


SIDENOTE: here's a strange Faygo Redpop commercial from the 70s starring that cross-dressing fella from M*A*S*H:

New Stash of Sodas!

Easter is this weekend, which means Lent will be over, which means I will be able to drink soda again! In celebration for this glorious day, I headed to Frattallone's Ace Hardware on Grand Ave in St. Paul earlier today to stock up on soda. But I encountered some bad news! They had NO root beer left on their shelves!!

Lots of empty spots where root beer once was.
(And technically, there's 1 diet root beer left on the 2nd shelf next to the blue stuff.)

This marks the first time a "stock up" of soda didn't include a root beer. Depressing. Here's what I brought home:

From left-to-right:

- Jones Cream Soda
- AJ Stephans Raspberry Lime Rickey
- Cicero Beverage Co. Chicago Style Cherry
- Faygo Redpop
- Saranac Black Cherry Cream
- AJ Stephans Black Cherry
- Jones Soda Zero Calorie Black Cherry
- NuGrape Grape
- Double Cola
- Cicero Beverage Co. Chicago Style Orange Cream

Check back early next week as I start to go nuts on this stash.

Pineapple Faygo

My wife got this from my parents a few months ago (she loves Diet Grape Faygo, so my parents got her a lot of that along with this random bottle), and it's just been sitting in our fridge. I got the OK to crack into it and try it.

Brand: Pineapple Faygo.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: Some Kwik Trip in southern MN (maybe Mankato?).

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: I'm not a fan of pineapples. Surprisingly, I'm also not a fan of pineapple-flavored things. Wait, maybe that's not that surprising. So I didn't expect much here. BUT I LIKED IT. I expected it to be sharp, but it was quite sweet and smooth. It had Faygo's typical over-sweetness, but I'm OK with overly sweet.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Faygo Rock & Rye

"Rock & Rye."  Is that a FLAVOR?

It said it was a "cream cola," but I didn't know what flavor this would be. I expected it to taste a lot like cola, but I was wrong. I was surprised when I cracked into it (not "pleasantly surprised" but not horribly offended either... just "surprised").


Brand: Faygo Rock & Rye.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, Burnsville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Rock & Rye apparently means CHERRY. It was a cherry cream soda which was pretty good. Like most Faygo sodas I've had, it tasted a little "fake," but it wasn't bad. It had a nice balance of cherry flavor and cream smoothness.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Faygo Root Beer

Onto my 3rd soda purchased in Vegas... Faygo Root Beer.

My Faygo and another soda on ice in our Vegas hotel room.

I really like Grape Faygo, but I'd never had their root beer. Time to try it out.

Brand: Faygo Original Root Beer.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: Rocket Fizz, Las Vegas, NV.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: The first taste is perfect. PERFECT! (It reminds me a bit of Root Beer Barrels - the candy.) But then it has a strange aftertaste that I can't put my finger on. My wife completely agrees with this assessment: great at first, and then not quite right 2 seconds later. Still, pretty damn good overall.  So far, my favorite of my 3 "Vegas" sodas.

Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Grape Faygo

I brought a few snacks to a student organization meeting 2 weeks ago. I also brought a 2 liter of grape Faygo:

Actually, I took a photo showing more of the junk food around the Faygo, and I instagramed that:

I looked online, and did you know that the Faygo website has an entire section with RECIPES? You can use their soda to make lots of different things. I'll have to try a Faygo recipe sometime... I'll make sure to report back if/when I do.


Brand: Faygo Grape Soda.

Origin: Detroit, MI.

Purchase Place: "AA Market," St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: You'll like grape Faygo if you like "syrupy" drinks. One of my students remarked "it reminds me of Dimetapp cold medicine" (she meant that in a good way). It has a bit of a "classic" soda flavor. It IS pretty sugary, and it's hard to take in large quantities. But the flavor is good and strong.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.