Northern Soda Company Black Berry

I stopped by Remix quickly this past week to grab another can of Northern Soda:

Brand: Northern Soda Company Black Cherry. 

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: Remix, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: First of all, it took me a few glances to realize this said "Black BERRY" and not "Black CHERRY." I didn't know if it was "blackberry" flavored (which is ONE word according to the dictionary), or if it was like a deep "berry" version of "black cherry" (which would be a good reason for making it TWO words like it appears on the label).

 

Well, I can't tell you if it's "blackberry" or black berry" after tasting it, but it doesn't matter. Because it was TASTY. It had a rich, deep flavor, but it wasn't heavy and/or syrupy. It was light and fresh, but far from weak! My wife usually doesn't share my soda taste (I'm OK with syrupy, and she's not), but she loved this one as well. This was my favorite Northern Soda by far!

(See more cans of Northern Soda at Remix in this post from July.)

Score: 9 out of 10.

 

Grape Soda Doesn't Taste Like Grapes

I stumbled across this recently, and it's very, very true:

Henry Weinhard's Vanilla Cream

I really enjoyed my first Henry Weinhard's soda (which was their root beer), so I was hoping this would live up to that:

 

Brand: Henry Weinhard's Vanilla Cream

Origin: Fort Worth, TX.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sucrose and Honey.

Review: This was just OK. The vanilla was OK, but there was a slight syrupiness that was slightly off-putting. There was a nice floral hint to it. Overall, it was just "fine" - nothing great.

In my review of Henry Weinhard's Root Beer, I noted that it had a touch of honey that was surprisingly nice and subtle, and it worked well with the root beer. Well, there's another little touch of honey in this soda, but it doesn't work with the vanilla as well. It's just a bit odd. Sorry.

Score: 5 out of 10.

 

Northern Soda at Target

I spotted this end cap near the front of the Roseville Target recently:

Our local candy and popcorn store (Remix Delights) carries cans of Northern Soda, but this is the only other place I've seen them so far. They have 8 kinds here, so check it out!

Iron Horse Root Beer

I opened this earlier today as I was doing some grading: 

Brand: Iron Horse Root Beer.

Origin: Edina, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Invert Sugar.

Review: In my mind, there as 2 "classic" root beer tastes: one that super creamy and smooth, and one that's got a bit of an anise bite. This is the latter. This has a full flavor and still has some creamy notes, but then it ends with a nice anise bite. It's a little much for me (I'm not huge on very anisey flavors), but still decent. For a second I was ready to say that this was a good hybrid of "smooth and bite," but there's WAY more anise flavor compared to the smoothness. I thought it was OK, but it'd be great for someone who prefers a bit more anise.

Score: 6 out of 10.

 

Minnesota (Mini soda?)

Northern Soda Company 1950's Lime

I swung by Remix today for 2 small bags of popcorn, and I also grabbed this soda: 

Brand: Northern Soda Company 1950's Lime.

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: Remix, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was NEON green - I didn't realize that until I poured a little into a glass for my boys to share. And it was pretty good. It had a strong, sweet lime flavor that was enjoyable. My only complaint is that it was a little medicinal after a bit. Not bad overall, so I'll rank it as average.

Score: 5 out of 10. 

 

Northern Soda Company Maple Root Beer

I shared this with my boys last night: 

Brand: Northern Soda Company Maple Root Beer.

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: Remix, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This smelled pretty normal when I cracked into it - just a slight whiff of maple. But OH MY GOODNESS the flavor is about ALLLLLL pancake syrup. There's really no reason to call this a version of a root beer as it's basically a more liquid version of maple syrup. I'm OK with that, but it was a bit shocking when I first sipped it. And both of my boys agreed - it was basically "pancake syrup soda" if that appeals to you. It was good for sipping, but too rich to chug.

Score: 5 out of 10.

(This was my 3rd root beer this month! But unfortunately, it was my worst with just an "average" score of 5. The other two root beers had 8s seen HERE and HERE. A decent month for root beer!)

Casey's General Store Root Beer

My parents visited this past weekend, and they brought up a bottle of root beer from their drive up:

Photo after most of it was drank. Sorry.

Brand: Casey's General Store Root Beer.  

Origin: Ankeny, IA.

Purchase Place: Casey's General Store, Wells, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This had a pretty rich and "classic" root beer flavor. I was pleasantly surprised as I expected a "store brand" to be weaker / stranger / worse. But this was good! The flavor really hit hard, but it was pretty spot-on. It's a solid root beer!

Score: 8 out of 10.

"The Bottlecap Score:" a tasting journal for tracking your soda experiences!

I was recently contacted by a fellow Minnesotan named Jason who was finishing up a new book. He wondered if he could send me a copy and I could review it here. It's SUPER appropriate for this blog, as it's called "The Bottlecap Score: A Tasting Journal for Pop Connoisseurs, Soda Jerks, & Soft Drink Enthusiasts." I was pumped to receive it!

My copy in my hand!

This is a great book (and for sure great GIFT IDEA) for those like me who (one) love soda and (two) like to keep track of what's good and what stinks. This book goes a bit more in-depth than I do for each review, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Jason writes about how this ranking system works, he has a chapter on different ways to host "tasting parties" (which I have wanted to do for YEARS), he has a section for tracking your favorite and your worst sodas, and then he has a lot of room for your personal reviews that are broken into 13 different flavor-based sections (like cherry, citrus, cola, cream soda, diet, etc).

He writes a lot about the intricacies of his ranking system, but here's the simple breakdown after all those pages:

There's a lot to unpack there, but like I said, this comes AFTER a lengthy description of how to break this all down, so this is like the Cliff Notes version. Just like my blog, a "5" is considered an average score. Notice you rank ALL kinds of things. I like the idea of including things like carbonation, aroma, and memorability into the system! Those are NOT things I have in my personal ranking system (or maybe I DO have those, but they're not explicitly stated like this). But I don't know if the bottle shape or the value are things I'm personally concerned about. But the great thing is if you think the same as me, you could just decide to give everything the same score for a category or 2, and then you're just effectively ignoring it. (If it's not something you care to rank or to consider for every soda.) Overall, I LOVE how there's more info/categories here than what I share in my reviews. I'm sort of excitedly jealous of his ideas in this system!

Here's what all the later pages look like where you review your sodas:

Picture of the top half of a page in the "root beer and sarsaparilla" section (sure to be my favorite).

Each review is a half page, so you can see 4 reviews/spread. You note the brand and flavor, and then you can circle the "flavor type." I REALLY like the idea of having a scale where you can mark the "flavor strength" anywhere between "too weak," "just right," and "too strong," because that's TOTALLY something I write about, but have never thought to put in a "scale" form. Nice! 

Below the flavor scale, you can make notes, write down the date, and note if it has caffeine (something readers have asked me to note as well, but I haven't implemented that). And then there's the "bottlecap score" tally on the right.

The "favorite" and "worst" listings. Also, there's a "favorite brands" list which I would use.

There are also fun soda-related illustrations alllllll through the book:

Notice the tiny man in the corner: the entire book is a flip book of him enjoying a soda.

Jason and I emailed back-and-forth a few times about this book. In his final note, he said something that I could see happening: "As an aside, I sincerely hope you like and enjoy the Bottlecap Score. My own family has. Sometimes there is temptation to fudge numbers for the category to force a particular score, but I am generally impressed how close on the scale the final number is to my true feelings." I had already looked through the book and had that same thought of "well, I wonder if all these points would REALLY add up the way I'd WANT them to" before I went back and read that he addressed that in an email from a week ago. The book must work!

Side note: I also spotted the book in a post on Blue Sun Soda Shop's Facebook page about 2 weeks ago:

You can find it there, or check it out on Amazon here. Good luck with the book Jason! It's very helpful and a lot of fun! I'm hoping people pick it up as a gift for the soda lover in their family...