NEW Orange Cream Coca-Cola Zero

My wife grabbed some of these to try from someone who was given most of a 12-pack away on our local "buy nothing" page because they didn't care for it:

Why is "orange cream" centered in this shot,
but then not "zero sugar" or the text at the bottom?

Brand: Orange Cream Coca-Cola Zero.

Origin: Atlanta, GA.

Purchase Place: gifted from our local "buy nothing" Facebook group.

Sweetener: Aspartame and Sucralose.

Review: Cracking this open, I was assaulted with the scent of orange cream. That smell (and flavor) was pretty spot on! The problem is that I like cola, and there's no cola flavor left because it's just orange cream.

I like Coke Zero - it's in my top 5 of normal "daily" afternoon caffeine pick-me-ups. And I also like Cherry Coke Zero - the cherry flavor works itself in nicely with the cola. But this soda is just ALL orange cream. There's no cola flavor left - this is just an orange cream SODA, and not an orange cream COLA. I wish the orange cream was a little toned down so the cola flavor could come through a bit more. I'll put this right in the middle of "average."

Score: 5 out of 10.

Northern Soda Company's Orange Cream Root Beer

I still have 2 sodas left from my Father's Day variety pack. So I left the "best sounding" one for later, and tried this orange cream root beer:

Brand: Northern Soda Company's Orange Cream Root Beer.

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: Remix, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: When I popped the top, I instantly smelled that smooth "orange cream" smell. And my first sip had a strong orange cream flavor. But then the rest of the sip was very much JUST "root beer." It was almost odd how separate the flavors were. But it wasn't BAD, it was just unusual how the different flavors hit. It's a tasty orange cream flavor followed by a very basic (but creamy and smooth) root beer flavor. Honestly, I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would.

Score: 7 out of 10.

A 'Root Beer Variety Pack'

When we stopped by Remix for some shave ice, I noted that I spotted a variety pack of root beer. Well my wife grabbed it as an extra Father's Day present for me:

The "variety pack" on our counter!

The 6 sodas inside. (The "regular" root beer has a printed can, but the rest are stickers on a plain can.)

I'll be back with reviews on all of these over the next few weeks! I can't wait!

Christmas Sodas

I just finished up with a final late Christmas party with my family. We shared lots of food and some tasty sodas:

My family thought the Ozark Mountain Orange Cream tasted like the orange floats my Grandma used to make, and they thought the Durango Soda Company Zuberfizz Creamy Root Beer was so creamy that it tasted like a root beer float as well. Both went over well. (I originally gave the Orange Cream a 6 and the Root Beer an 8.5 in my reviews, and I still stick by those ratings.)

Happy New Year!

Frostop Orange & Cream

After a warm afternoon of picking veggies in our tiny garden, I came in to enjoy this:

And you can see a lot of tomatoes and a few zucchinis in the background.

Brand: Frostop Orange & Cream.

Origin: Hopkins, MN.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This was VERY smooth and creamy. It was sugary, but it wasn't too much. It's a straight trippin orange cream, yo. Pretty good. It was as advertised and a little better than I had hoped.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Cicero Beverage Co. Orange Cream Soda

I grabbed an Orange Creme soda to enjoy as I was grilling burgers the other day:

Brand: Cicero Beverage Co. Orange Cream Soda.

Origin: Chicago, IL.

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

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was REALLY smooth and creamy. It reminded me of having Orange Floats and Root Beer Floats at my Grandma's house at Christmas and Thanksgiving. (Random but fun holiday tradition.) It was tasty, but had just a slightly odd aftertaste that made it less desirable. But if you like a good Orange Cream, check it out.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Frostop Red Birch Beer

My son and I stopped at the Frattallone's Ace Hardware on Lake Street in Minneapolis a few days ago. After seeing that the Ace on Grand Ave in St. Paul had no root beer selection, we had to see what this one had to offer. They had a few things I wanted to try:

They were all Frostops, and I didn't have a great experience with Frostop Root Beer when I had it in 2012. So I wasn't sure if these would be OK or not. I started with the Red Birch Beer as I was doing some yard work.

This had a very red color. I had to pour some in a glass to show it off:

Back-lit by my kitchen window.

Brand: Frostop Red Birch Beer.

Origin: Hopkins, MN.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup and Cane Sugar.

Review: This was surprisingly good. I got a hint of cherry and cinnamon out of this, and it had a little sharpness. The best way I can describe this is like if you were to eat Bottle Caps candy and pop a Root Beer one and a Cherry one in your mouth at the same time. Boom. It'd taste just like this. A bit of root beer, a hint of cherry, and just a touch of cinnamon. Tasty. Goes down well. And it's nice that it comes in a larger resealable bottle - I enjoyed this over the course of 2 days.

Score: 9 out of 10.

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.

Soda Shaq Orange Cream Soda

So far, I'd had one pretty crappy Soda Shaq, and one that was pretty decent. It was time to try the Orange Cream:

Brand: Soda Shaq Orange Cream Soda.

Origin: Woodbury, NY.

Purchase Place: 7-Eleven, somewhere in Colorado.

Sweetener: Sugar and Honey.

Review: Well, it was the middle of my 3 Soda Shaqs. It smelled like the orange floats I used to have at my Grandma's house, and the initial sip was pretty smooth and tasty. But 1 second later, it turned into a chemical-tasting shit storm. It was the same issue I had with Vanilla Creme Soda Shaq - it just tasted "fake." It wasn't horrible, but it was sub-par.

Score: 3.5 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...

Ozark Mountain Orange Cream Soda

I've had Orange Cream soda once before. It sounded gross (I mean... "orange cream?!... nasty!), but my first bottle was REALLY good. I was hooked.

Yesterday, it was time to try some Ozark Mountain Orange Cream.

Brand: Ozark Mountain Orange Cream.

Origin: Branson, Missouri.

Purchase Place: Online.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This had a good Orange Cream taste, but it wasn't quite as "creamy" as I'd like. It had a little sharpness that took away from the creaminess. It had a good flavor, but just a little too much of a kick.

Score: 6 out of 10.

A Surprise In The Mail!

I got a little surprise last week. Someone from Ozark Mountain Bottleworks saw my review of their Root Beer last month. And they wanted to send me some of their other flavors to try!! (My one complaint that I noted in my review of their root beer was that if you wanted to purchase individual flavors directly from them, you'd have to buy an entire case of 1 flavor.)

We e-mailed back-and-forth last Tuesday, and a big box appeared on my porch 2 days later:

Opened up, with the four "4-packs" folded on top.

Underneath, there were 4 bottles of 4 different kinds of soda (plus a bonus Root Beer in the upper left).

Ozark Mountain Root Beer, Grape Pop, Lemonade, Cream, and Orange Cream.

Sodas and the box they came in.

It turns out, Ozark Mountain Bottleworks is a super small company. Chris (the guy who e-mailed me) said the company is just him, his wife, and his Mother-in-Law. And sure enough, I found a photo on their Facebook page wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, and it shows the 3 of them:

So THANKS, you 3 wonderful people from Ozark Mountain! That was TOO KIND of you!

I have a bottle of their Grape Pop and their Orange Cream in the fridge, and I plan to crack into one of them tonight. Stay tuned for my thoughts on their sodas!

Check out the Ozark Mountain Bottlework website.  And "like" them on Facebook.