Summer Selection at Frattallone's Ace in St. Paul

I stopped into Frattallone's Ace earlier this month (to grab some supplies for a project as well as a Frostop Soda) and looked through their soda selection:

I've had most of these, but not all.

I grabbed one of the "Reed's Root Beer" candies on the right.

I still have to crack into the root beer candies, so I'll be back later this summer with a review of those.

Diet Shasta Twist Lemon Lime

I tried my 2nd soda from Menards recently: 

Brand: Diet Shasta Twist Lemon Lime.

Origin: Hayward, CA.

Purchase Place: Menards, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sucralose.

Review: This was a decent, tasty, crisp 7Up-like or Sprite-like lemon line soda. It was refreshing. I could have thought it was diet 7Up, only it's a bit heavier on the "lime" than most lemon lime sodas, which I quite enjoyed.

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.

Premium Frostop Black Cherry Soda

I grabbed this at the hardware store as I was picking up something to help make Mother's Day presents last week:

 
Brand: Premium Frostop Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Columbus, OH.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Sweetener and Cane Sugar.

Review: This is not a black cherry "cola" but just a black cherry "soda." It was VERY sweet and almost a little syrupy. My wife doesn't like things that sweet/syrupy, so I thought she'd make a face when she tried this... but she said it was pretty good. It's a heavy soda: heavy on the sweetness and heavy on the black cherry flavor. But the flavor was good! If you don't mind them a little extra sweet, give this a try.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Rico Brown Sugar Bubble Milk Tea

I was in Hy-Vee recently and this caught my eye:

Note that it's 12.3 oz and a little taller than usual.

Brand: Rico Brown Sugar Bubble Milk Tea

Origin: Taiwan.

Purchase Place: Hy-Vee, Oakdale, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar and Brown Sugar.

Review: The first sip was VERY pleasant. This tasted JUST like a milk tea I've gotten from my local bubble tea place. I was quite happy and surprised. But as I kept drinking, I finally got to the "bubbles," and they were... odd. They were extra chewy and more jello-like than I was used to compared to "fresh" bubbles at my local tea place:

Extra "foggy" and chewy. Very odd.

I'm sure there's an issue being able to make and keep these bubbles or pearls in can for many months, and that ruined the experience a bit. The taste of the milk tea itself was super sweet and spot on, but then the bubbles knocked this down a few points.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

Diet Shasta Cola

At Menards last week, I grabbed these 2 cases:

Diet Shasta Cola and Diet Shasta Twist!

I tried this one first at work.

Brand: Diet Shasta Cola.

Origin: Hayward, CA.

Purchase Place: Menards, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Sucralose.

Review: This had more flavor than I expected! It had the extra sweetness like Diet Pepsi compared to Diet Coke, but then there was an extra almost cinnamon-like flavor. Honestly, it got to feel (taste) OVERLY sweet by the end of the can. But surprisingly good (for generic and for diet).

Score: 6 out of 10.

Limited Time: Diet Coke with Plant Based Sweetener

I saw a "bin" of these at Target, so I had to grab one of these funky tall cans: 

In front of my "broken camera shelf" in my office.

(And it's hard to tell in that photo, but the can is not a normal "Diet Coke gray" color.  It's got a touch of green to it, presumably because of the "plant-based" nature of it.)
 
Brand: Diet Coke with Plant Based Sweeteners.

Origin: Atlanta, GA.

Purchase Place: Target, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Stevia Extract and Monk Fruit Extract.

Review: I feel like I can taste Stevia in things, and it's not the best flavor. But I didn't know anything about Monk Fruit (turns out it's a calorie-free sweetener that also has some anti-inflammatory properties). And it turns out I feel like I can KIND OF taste the Stevia in this - it's not as blatant as some sodas. It tasted a little "softer" than regular Diet Coke, but not necessarily "weaker." It wasn't bad, but I think I preferred regular Diet Coke better - I often drink Diet Coke, but I don't have any at home right now so I could do a side-by-side comparison. Quite decent.

Score: 7 out of 10.

John Wayne Root Beer

I swear I've had this before, but there's no record of it on this blog. So I brought a bottle to work with me a few days ago:

Brand: John Wayne Root Beer.

Origin: Reno, NV.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This was another Rocket Fizz "novelty" soda, and I've had decent luck with their sodas recently. I never know what to expect (and there's no sort of indication of what [if any] "twist" on root beer this will have), so it's always just an adventure.

It turns out it's quite good! It's very herby with a nice bite. It's sure nothing that unique, but it's also not bland or boring - it chose a side and made a decent root beer over there. Worth a try!

Score: 8 out of 10.

King Kong Cola

I brought this to work with me recently:

 

Close-up of the label. Nice.

Brand: King Kong Cola.

Origin: Incline Village, NV.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: The style of the classic illustration on the bottle drew me in (and in reading the label, it appears to have been initially started as a marketing ploy for the [non-classic] 2017 film "Kong: Skull Island"). But it didn't give me any hint as to how this was going to taste. It was a pretty classic and slightly "fruity" cola. It's nothing fancy, nothing unique, but it's quite good.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Original Coca Cola!

I've made this joke here before, but after 2 new gross Coke flavors last year (seen here and here), I fully support this:

(And for what it's worth, Pepsi can stop doing that as well...)