Inotea Pobble Passion Fruit + Apple

I grabbed this from Aldi over the weekend:

Here are a few of the "popping pearls" in a glass. 

Brand: Inotea Pobble Passion Fruit + Apple.

Origin: Newark, NJ.

Purchase Place: Aldi, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was quite good! It was very sweet, and tasted like a "good" apple cider that you might get on the holidays for the kids - like the sparkling kind, even though this wasn't sparkling. It was mainly apple flavored, and then the "popping pearls" had more of the passion fruit flavor inside. Yes, they are little pearls that are liquid filled that "pop" when you bite into them - I don't think everyone is ready for that experience. :)

My wife tried it, and she doesn't like things that are too sweet, so I thought she wouldn't like this. But after her first sip, she paused and said "... oh, that's GOOD." And my boys loved it too, so it went over well in our house. We'll have to try the other 2 flavors we saw at Aldi as well!

Score: 8 out of 10.

Inotea Brown Sugar Bubble Tea

I grabbed this while shopping with my son at Aldi recently:

Brand: Inotea Brown Sugar Bubble Tea.

Origin: Newark, NJ.

Purchase Place: Aldi, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar and Brown Sugar.

Review: The tea was quite good! I shared a sip with my boys, and they both loved it. It was what I'd expect from a boba tea store when I order a "Milk Tea" or anything along those lines.  (One store near us calls it a "Royal Tea Latte" even though it doesn't have any coffee flavor.) I had no complaints about the tea!

But the tapioca pearls were another story. They were kind of pasty and hard. They weren't "chewy" in a good way, but in a bad way. They almost wanted to disintegrate when bit down on, but only after a fair amount of force. I like tapioca pearls, but apparently they need to be fresh. The drink ("pre-pearls") would have earned about an 8.5, but I had to knock it down after having the pearls. 

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

VitaLife Root Beer Prebiotic Soda

I grabbed one of these from Aldi recently:

Brand: VitaLife Root Beer Prebiotic Soda.

Origin: Batavia, IL.

Purchase Place: Aldi, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Stevia.

Review: This is a kombucha-like prebiotic soda that's flavored like root beer. Because of that, it has a LOAD of fiber: the 3rd ingredient is inulin which makes the can loaded with 9 grams of fiber. The ingredients list was pretty big, so I didn't know what to expect with the taste.

It smelled like root beer, and upon first taste, it TASTED like root beer as well. But after a second, it gets a little odd caramel / fruit / sweet taste that just kind of takes over. That ruins the experience a bit - it starts well, but ends tasting odd. If it could just stay as the initial flavor, this would be an 8 or so in my book, but the weirdness that happens at the end of each sip really takes its toll overall. Decent, but not great.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

Goya Coconut Water

While technically not a soda, I opened this with my boys a few days back: 

 I took a photo of it, and later realized it was the Spanish side...

... so I had to turn the can and take one of the English side.

Brand: Goya Coconut Water.

Origin: Jersey City, NJ.

Purchase Place: Aldi, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This smelled nicely like lightly sweetened coconut. But it was odd tasting. (Even after shaking it well like it said to.) The biggest thing that put me off was how thick it was. It had the thickness of syrup, but it wasn't nearly that sweet. So it was odd to wrap my head around. Sure, I'm not a huge fan of coconut-flavored things, but this I couldn't do. And neither could my boys - they both gave up on it after a sip. No thanks. I have to rate this pretty poorly.

Score: 2 out of 10.

Crazy Candy Co. Cola Sour Belts

I grabbed these at Aldi about a week ago: 

 

I don’t feel like I can rank these on my 1-10 scale as there’s not much to compare them to. My scale is meant for soda, and I don’t really review candy. But I can still say what I thought of these, without an official ranking. 

The cola taste was pretty spot-on. It reminded me of a chewy version of a cola Bottlecap candy. I liked the flavor! And I’m not one for sour candy, but this wasn’t too bad – the sour was a nice “zing” without being a punch in the face. (However, I’d probably be eating them faster without the sour coating, so maybe it’s good that it’s there to slow me down a bit. Ha!) Overall, I’ve been enjoying grabbing 1 or 2 of these out of the cupboard throughout the last few days.

Trying Barq's Frozen Root Beer and Vanilla Ice Cream Float

About exactly a year ago, I posted about seeing that these things exist, but I noted I couldn't find them anywhere. Recently, my wife brought 2 cases of 8 home from Aldi:

It's kind of like a push up where you peel off the top.

A light squeeze makes it slowly rise up.

So it's creamy ice cream mixed in with a root beer flavored ice cream. It's pretty good! Both of my boys loved them! And I thought they were a nice size: just 3 oz and 90 calories.  (And sorry for the speck of paint on my hand in that last photo... I was painting some of my siding, which is why my wife thought of grabbing some root beer and ice cream treats for me.)

Frostie Root Beer

My wife brought this home for me on a hot day when I was working outside:

The bottle cap.

Brand: Frostie Root Beer.

Origin: Detroit, Michigan.

Purchase Place: Aldi, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: When I had this root beer 7 years ago, the sweetener was HFCS and I noted that it felt "flavored" and not like actual root beer. (Whatever that means.) Frostie changed their formula, as now it's sweetened with "pure cane sugar." And truth be told, I didn't look at that until after I tasted it and thought "oh, this is pretty good!" It was a pretty classic flavor, with a bit of a bite. Last time, I gave it a 6 out of 10, but I'm raising it this time to an 8. Worth a re-try if you've had it in the past!

Score: 8 out of 10. 

Summit Craft Root Beer

This past weekend, we took a quick trip to a local state park, and I brought along some root beer to share. My wife had picked up a 4-pack of this at Aldi here in St. Paul last week:

On the picnic table during our lunch.

I gave my boys some in their own cups, and then Henry cleaned up the bottle when it was time.

Brand: Summit Craft Root Beer.

Origin: Batavia, IL.

Purchase Place: Aldi, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It had a good head and was pretty smooth. The end of each sip had a bit of a wintergreen bite, and it was maybe a BIT more than I cared for, but it wasn't too bad. Pretty decent overall.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.
 

Nature's Nectar Pumpkin Cider at Aldi

My wife stopped at Aldi a few days ago, and she found a treat for me. She introduced it saying "I'm not sure if this will be great or horrible..."

We both sniffed it after we popped the top. It smelled strongly of ginger, and I thought it might taste too "harsh" for my liking. But the first sip was pretty good! And it was in a ceramic-cork bottle that I'll be able to save for when I start brewing some of my own root beer. (I think you can use bottles like that... I guess I'm not totally sure because I haven't done it yet.)

Brand: Nature’s Nectar Sparkling Spiced Pumpkin Cider.

Origin: Batavia, IL.

Purchase Place: Aldi, St. Paul.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: It tastes like an apple cider / pumpkin spice / sparkling soda. It actually tastes MORE of apple than it does of pumpkin (apple juice is the second ingredient behind carbonated water), but I'm not complaining. It's unique but not too "out there." It tastes like fall. It's a good Oct-Nov treat.

Score: 7 out of 10.