Root Beer Milk

It turns out that this is a real thing:

Announced here on Facebook at Kwik Trip. (Also on the Real Seal page.)

Same!

Ha!!

I need to try to find this at a Kwik Trip sometime...

Lester Fixins Ranch Dressing Soda

I opened this "Ranch Dressing" soda with my extended family on a trip up north recently:

I thought it could pair well with Buffalo Wing Soda.

My youngest was ready to try a shot of it...

...but he immediately spit it into the sink

My brother-in-law and I sniffed it...

Drinking it!

 

Trying not react to the flavor! Ha! (We agreed ahead of time to try to not show our disgust.)

 

Brand: Lester Fixins Ranch Dressing Soda

Origin: Incline Village, NV.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: You know, this WASN'T horrible. It smelled quite like ranch dressing. And then the aftertaste left a ranch dressing-like film in my mouth (but not in an ABSOLUTELY horrible way). 

The biggest positive for this is that the carbonation really helped. And it had a perfect amount of sweetness to cut the almost savory ranch flavor. Both my brother-in-law and I agreed on this. 

It sure isn't a soda that I'd grab on any given day saying "boy, I sure could go for something 'ranch dressing' flavored right now!" But it wasn't BAD. The ranch dressing flavor was about spot on, so give this a (humorous) try if you're a fan of ranch. This had POTENTIAL for being scored at 1 or 2, but it's honestly better than that.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Minnesota Soda Pun

A classic joke posted by Blue Sun Soda:

Labrador Root Beer Butterscotch Soda

I was downloading files at one of the colleges where I teach this afternoon, and I brought this with me: 

Nuthin' says "champion of the USA" like a shotgun shell!  ;)

     

Brand: Labrador Root Beer Butterscotch Soda.

Origin: Camarillo, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: At first sniff, the butterscotch was subtle, so I started thinking this might be decent. And I was right! The butterscotch isn't overpowering, and the root beer is really smooth and really creamy. It's a bit strong on the wintergreen, but that wasn't a horrible thing here - I think it balances out the butterscotch a bit. My only possible complaint is that it could be TOO creamy. It's NOT a traditional root beer, but it tasted pretty good. Worth a try!

Score: 8 out of 10.

Excel Lucky Cherry Cola

I opened my first soda from last week's trip to Blue Sun Soda: 

Brand: Excel Lucky Cherry Cola.

Origin: Breese, IL.

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

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This smelled good from the start - quite sweet. It definitely leans towards "cherry SODA" and not so much "cherry COLA" as there's not a super strong cola element to this. And that's not a bad thing, because it's still quite tasty. It's a pretty solid cherry flavor. Nothing super unique, but a drinkable and tasty soda.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Refill at Blue Sun Soda

Yesterday afternoon, my boys and I headed to the "original" Blue Sun Soda up in the north metro. I slowly worked my way through the root beer aisle and grabbed just a few bottles that I haven't had before. But now after the 2 or 3 that I just purchased, I'll have had everything in this aisle: 

All root beers way down to the end.

Back by the little game room (they've really made that smaller).

The soda fountain section had some old cans being used as vases.

My assorted case from Blue Sun Soda!

I have a few novelty sodas in there that will be GROSS that I plan to try with my extended family as we get together during the summer. Stay tuned for those reviews!

Cool Mountain Root Beer

I was in a bad mood and wanted some good root beer, but unfortunately I only had this: 

Brand: Cool Mountain Root Beer

Origin: Des Plaines, IL.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Bloomington, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This wasn't great. It was too caramely with nothing else going for it. Ehh. No thanks.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Lime Billy's Bubble Pop

I opened this with supper tonight: 

Brand: Lime Billy's Bubble Pop.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Bloomington, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: This is another one of Billy's mixed up color sodas, and it's my favorite one yet! (The other's I've had I've ranked around average with scores around 5 to 6.5.) 

This tastes like an extra sweet and extra "limey" lemon/lime soda. It almost tastes like an overly sweet mojito like I've had in Mexico. One of my boys thought it tasted a little "key lime"-like, but I think he was just thinking it was sweet like a dessert. This was sweet, classic, child-like, and tasty. Nothing special, but sweet and drinkable!

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Candy and Soda from Ely's Old Fashioned Candy

Last week, my boys and I spent 2 days fishing and "camping" (in a camper cabin) up in Bear Head Lake State Park. We stopped into Ely when we first got there, and we found "Ely's Old Fashioned Candy."

My boys starting to look around inside.

Their soda selection.

These are all root beers, but I'd had them all.

Fresh popcorn and other goodies behind the counter.

My boys were picking out taffy flavors. The little buckets on the right were also
"pay by the ounce" like the taffy, so there was a lot of possible "mix and match" going on.

 
I grabbed a soda, but never took a photo of it when I drank it by the campfire. Just a nice sweet stop while playing outside with my sons!

Grandma...