Ozark Mountain's "The Smugglers Run" Tropical Soda

This was brightly colored...

In front of some of our veggies from our tiny garden.

Brand: Ozark Mountain's "The Smugglers Run" Tropical Soda.

Origin: Branson, Missouri.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This flavor is hard to pin down. I'd say the majority of the flavor is mango, with a little fruit punch in there too. It wasn't really the flavor I thought it'd be, but I don't know what I expected. It's sweet, but not TOO sugary. It's for sure a "summer drink." Good for the sippin'.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

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!

Ozark Mountain Lemonade

I had one more soda to try from my Ozark Mountain stash. It was pink lemonade:

I've had "lemonade soda" once before, and I remember it being OK. This was pretty fantastic.

Brand: Ozark Mountain Lemonade.

Origin: Branson, Missouri.

Purchase Place: Online.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This had a good lemon kick, but it was also quite sugary. This was REALLY good. As I told me wife, "this would be good in the summer... with a little vodka... sitting in Aunt Jen's backyard on Lake Minnetonka." She really agreed with that statement. It was really sweet with a kick of lemon. It just tasted like summer. This is one of my favorite Ozark Mountain Sodas (along with their Root Beer).

Score: 9 out of 10.

Ozark Mountain Cream

This is pink. I tend to like pinkish-redish drinks.

The flavor is hard to perfectly describe. It's like cream soda, but without the "soda." And with a little more of a "berry" flavor, but not really berry-ie.

I couldn't put my finger on it, so I asked my wife to try it. She liked it, and said "Oh, it's a little like cotton candy!" THAT'S the flavor I couldn't describe! She was right - there was a hit of cotton candy. It's like a smooth cream-soda-cotton-candy hybrid.

Brand: Ozark Mountain Bottleworks Cream.

Origin: Branson, Missouri.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It's sugary, creamy, and pretty good. There's a slight sharpness in the initial aftertaste that is about it's only downside. It has good flavor, and a sweet long-lasting aftertaste. Creamy, smooth, and something I've never really tasted before.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

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.

Ozark Mountain Bottleworks Grape Pop

So I cracked into my "Ozark Mountain" stash last night. I'm a sucker for Grape soda, so that's where I started:

Sitting in our 10.5 inches of new snow.

Brand: Ozark Mountain Bottleworks Grape Pop.

Origin: Branson, Missouri.

Purchase Place: Online.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It reminds me a lot of Grape Faygo, but it's less syrupy. But I LIKE syrupy. I thought Grape Faygo was a bit better, but my wife thought Ozark Mountain Grape Pop was better. I have 3 more bottles of OM Grape, so I'll have to get a bottle of Faygo and do a side-by-side taste test (stay tuned for that). It's GOOD, but because my initial thought was that Faygo was a bit better, I'm giving it a half point less than my Faygo review.

Score: 7 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.

Ozark Mountain Bottleworks Root Beer

Sunday night, I was grilling burgers and peppers in the garage. I figured a root beer would go along with that quite well.

Ozark Mountain on top of the grill in the garage.

Right away, this root beer had a strong wintergreen flavor. I liked it quite a bit. I went to their website to find more info, and I found out they had a lot of other sodas. I was thinking about ordering a variety case, but they only sell individual flavors as a case. Dang. I'd love to try their other flavors, but I'm not willing to try 24 of ONE flavor at a time.

Brand: Ozark Mountain Bottleworks Root Beer.

Origin: Branson, MO.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Cane sugar.

Review: Strong, smooth flavors. It was heavy on the wintergreen, but not to the point where it got to be too much. Good vanilla flavor as well. This was GOOD root beer.

Score: 8.5 out of 10.