Closing Soon for the 2023 Year: Minnesota's Largest Candy Store

My boys and I made a quick stop to Minnesota's Largest Candy Store on Wednesday. I needed to refresh my soda stash, and they are closing for the season on Sunday evening, Nov 26th, 2023! Here are a few photos from our stop:

A HUGE (sun-faded) puzzle out front.

Whoa.

Some of the "superhero room" at Minnesota's Largest Candy Store.

Looking across the big candy area. Notice all the puzzles in the ceiling!

The "final" room full of space-related things. And a large Thanos!

The "Harry Potter hallway" near the end of the store.

Batman in the foreground, Harley Quinn in the background, and lots of treats in between.

See you next May!

I picked up 25 sodas (a case +1), so look for reviews on those shortly! I actually didn't take any photos of the soda section, but check out this post from 2.5 years ago for lots of photos of the soda sections.

Diet Pepsi and Cherry Coke Zero REDESIGN

I just picked up some of my normal "go-to" diet sodas, and BOTH just had a big redesign. Here, I compare the old (on the left) with the new (on the right):

Really basic redesign, but I like that it's a little retro (in the text) but with an overall more modern and cleaner look.

Cherry Coke Zero brought a bit of "classic Coke red" into the can...

... and the top half is a very visible halftone pattern that fades to the older Cherry Coke Zero color.

 

Zia Sandia Cola: Watermelon, Mint, and Lime

Here's another soda that my friends sent me:

I was looking for a line like "separation or floating ingredients is normal" after seeing stuff at the bottom!

 

Brand: Zia Sandia.  

Origin: Taos, New Mexico.

Purchase Place: Smith's, Kaysville, UT.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was intriguing to me. I thought the flavor combo sounded like a possible hit! But it was a little to tart and "zingy" for me. This is definitely an "adult" soda as it's not very sweet but has a lot of flavor. There's a subtle watermelon flavor/sweetness that is then met with a punch of mint and lime later in each sip. It's the mint and lime combo that I'm not 100% sold on - it's unique and it tastes sort of how you'd expect, but it's not ALL that tasty. Not sure what to think about this one... but it DID grow on me a bit as I kept sipping on the bottle (and it's definitely a "sipping" soda - this is not something that you'd chug!), so it raised the score from a 4 earlier on to a 5 by the end.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Ramune Original Flavor

I was at HyVee earlier today, and I found this in the Asian Foods aisle:

 

Brand: Ramune Original Flavor.

Origin: Japan.

Purchase Place: HyVee, Eagan, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup and Sugar.

Review: "Original Flavor..." what's that? I don't always do well with "mystery" flavors. After the fun task of opening these special bottles, I took a sip. I first thought it was some sort of fruit flavor, but I quickly realized that it's very "bubble gum" favored. My boys both agreed as well. It was very sweet... really TOO sweet. It was good, but I happy it was only 6.7 oz because it was a lot of sugary goodness. It was OK, but just a bit too much sweetness. Between the fun way to open the bottle and the super sweet soda inside, this would be great for a kid... but not an adult.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Northern Soda Company's Orange Cream Root Beer

I still have 2 sodas left from my Father's Day variety pack. So I left the "best sounding" one for later, and tried this orange cream root beer:

Brand: Northern Soda Company's Orange Cream Root Beer.

Origin: Arden Hills, MN.

Purchase Place: Remix, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: When I popped the top, I instantly smelled that smooth "orange cream" smell. And my first sip had a strong orange cream flavor. But then the rest of the sip was very much JUST "root beer." It was almost odd how separate the flavors were. But it wasn't BAD, it was just unusual how the different flavors hit. It's a tasty orange cream flavor followed by a very basic (but creamy and smooth) root beer flavor. Honestly, I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Brigham's Brew Cream Soda

I opened this while cooking today:

 
Brand: Brigham's Brew Cream Soda.

Origin: Salt Lake City, Utah.

Purchase Place: Harmon's, Utah.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was another soda sent to me from some friends last month. It had been waiting in the fridge for a quiet weekend after some busy ones. This smelled very creamy... if that's a possible smell. And it WAS creamy and sweet - almost TOO sweet (which means something coming from me). But it had that really deep, smooth, cream soda flavor that was quite good. If you like sweet sweet things and like a hard hit of classic cream soda, then you'll like this! But if you like more "adult" and subtly-flavored cream sodas, this might be too much for you. I'll give this a pretty average score.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

IT'SUGAR on Navy Pier

My family and I got back yesterday morning from 3 days in Chicago (see lots of photos in this post on my other blog), and we found a store called "IT'SUGAR" (not misspelled) on Navy Pier. It turns out there's one locally in Mall of America as well, so I might have to stop in sometime. It had... well... lots of sugar, including some fun sodas:

Some fun sodas in one section.

I only purchased one thing there, and it wasn't soda. They had "Cow Tales" that my family and I enjoy, but they had OREO Cow Tales which we'd never tried. They were good, but none of us could really tell any difference from REGULAR Cow Tales, so we didn't really understand the point. Still a quick tasty treat!

Again, click here for more photos from our long-weekend Chicago trip.

Granny Tries Gross Sodas

Granny tries to find her beloved Pepsi:

If the embedded video doesn't work, you can find it on Facebook here.

And I've had the 3 "gross" sodas that she tried: click these links to see my reviews of Sweet Corn soda, Buffalo Wing soda, and Bacon soda.

Limited Edition Coca Cola Creations Y3000

Just after my last post about the Coca Cola that was "co-created with Artificial Intelligence," I happened to be walking through Target and found one by the checkout:

 

Brand: Limited Edition Coca Cola Creations Y3000.  

Origin: Atlanta, GA.

Purchase Place: Target, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Aspartame and Sucralose.

Review: I wasn't that excited to try this. As noted in my last post, people were saying it tasted like perfume or banana, and neither of those excited me. Also, I don't know what "Futuristic Flavored" means on the left side of the bottle... tastes like the apocalypse?

After my first sip, BOTH of those people were right: it started with a sharp/chemically perfume-like taste that was a bit overpowering, but then it ended with a sweeter banana-like flavor. That combo was quite odd. I didn't love it.

But then after I kept drinking, I started to like it more and more. And my boys were sipping on it with me, and they had the same reaction: it got better as we drank it. Maybe the negative thoughts clouded my first sips, but it wasn't as bad as we went on. I wouldn't say I LIKE it, but I DIDN'T DISLIKE it. I don't think I'll buy another bottle, but it was decent. 

Score: 5 out of 10.

Y3000 Coke... Created by AI??

Saw this on Instagram recently: 

I don't know about AI created soda. I'll have to see if I can find a bottle around here. But the thought of "creamed corn dipped in perfume" isn't making want to hurry out to find it...