A quick trip to Blue Sun Soda

My 2nd grader and I took a trip to Blue Sun Soda this afternoon. His teacher loves root beer, so I made a list of my favorite root beers from this blog (ones rated 9 or 10) and picked up 8 for him as an upcoming Christmas present.

We brought a few dollars worth of quarters for Henry and me.

Playing a slightly older pinball machine.

Rocky Mountain had a nice end cap.

SODAS! The aisle along the wall on the right is all root beer.
Colas are in the middle of this pic. Everything is divided by flavor.

There was a birthday party going on in a back room, which is a great idea! The kids seemed to be having fun. Henry and I grabbed some free popcorn and some goodies for his teacher. I ended up getting:

- Capt'n Eli's Root Beer
- Old Fashioned Killebrew Root Beer
- Dang! That's Good Root Beer
- Barrel Brother's Creamy Vanilla Root Beer
- The Three Stooges Wise Guy Root Beer
- Route 66 Root Beer
- Hippo Size Jumbo Root Beer
- Abita Root Beer

Those last 2 on the list have been the ONLY sodas on this blog that have received "10 out of 10." The rest on this list either got 9s or 9.5s. (You can find reviews of all of these in the sidebar - look for the brand name in the tags.) I hope his teacher likes his Christmas present!

Route 66 Cream Soda

In my office yesterday, I opened this between classes:

Brand: Route 66 Cream Soda.

Origin: Chicago, IL.

Purchase Place: Lunds Grocery Store, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Real Cane Sugar.

Review: This was nice and smooth the way a cream soda should be. There's nothing incredibly unique about this, but it's a solid/decent cream soda. It has a BIT of a sharper flavor at the end of each sip which is SLIGHTLY different, but otherwise, just a normal cream soda. I'll rank this just above average.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Lunds Soda Selection

I was at Lunds in St. Paul yesterday, and I noticed they had really added to their individual bottle soda selection:

In the past, they had maybe a few bottles, and then a few options of 4-packs or 6-packs (as you see on the right in this photo). But this was a LOT more individual bottles than I'd seen before. I picked up 2 to try at home (an "O-So" and a "Route 66"). Thanks Lunds!

Route 66 Cream Soda

Time for a creamy cream soda:

Brand: Route 66 Cream Soda.

Origin: Lebanon, MO.

Purchase Place: Frattallones Ace Hardware, Burnsville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: I expect cream sodas to be smooth. This was not. It had a strange sharpness to it. It wasn't that good. The aftertaste was like cream soda, but the first part of each sip was harsh and not tasty. This was BY FAR my least favorite Route 66 soda to date. No thanks.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Route 66 Black Cherry

So far, I've had good luck with "Route 66" sodas: I gave their Root Beer a 9 out of 10, and I gave their Lime Soda an 8 out of 10. So I was hoping their Black Cherry would live up to my past experiences with their sodas.

Brand: Route 66 Black Cherry.

Origin: Lebanon, MO.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This is pretty good. It's not too heavy or syrupy (which I actually LIKE in some sodas), and the flavor is spot on. It could have a BIT more punch, but that'd make some people like it more and some like it less - they seem to have taken the "middle road" and made a good soda to please a good number of people. It's a decent Black Cherry soda as it stands. I'd definitely have this again.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Route 66 Lime Soda

I enjoyed Route 66 Root Beer 2 months ago, and now it was time for some lime!

The color was very similar to Simpson Spring Lemon & Lime soda, and I really liked that soda. So I had high hopes for this.

Brand: Route 66 Lime Soda.

Origin: Lebanon, MO.

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

Sweetener: Real Cane Sugar.

Review: So it wasn't QUITE as good as Simpson Spring Lemon & Lime, but it WAS good. It was very smooth and sugary, without being too heavy or syrupy. Honestly, if they called it "Lemon Lime," I would have believed it. It's a solid Lime soda.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Route 66 Root Beer

I opened my first bottle from Frattallones Ace Hardware.

When I checked their website, they had a link with recipes: cake, frosting, pulled pork, cookies, etc. I'll have to try some of those out sometime!

Brand: Route 66 Root Beer.

Origin: Lebanon, Missouri.

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

Sweetener: Real Cane Sugar.

Review: Overall, it's smooth, deep, has a subtle-carmel flavor, and nice amount of vanilla. This was quite delicious from the first sip. Pretty smooth with a little bite. This ranks up there as one of my current top-10 favorites.

Score: 9 out of 10.