State Fair Kettle Corn

This bottle is from Blue Sun Bottling's lineup of State Fair themed sodas. This is in the same lineage as the State Fair Mini Doughnut soda reviewed in my earlier post. While the Mini Doughnut flavor was a delight, many strange novelty flavors can go awry. Hopefully this one is on the good side, but I get nervous before sipping on some of these inventive selections. 

The drink itself has the amber color of a ginger ale. A whiff from the top of the bottle knocks me back a bit. The aroma from this is very strong. It felt like I'd just stuck my face into an industrial sized popcorn popper. The scent is strongly wired in my brain to summon the images of walking through the halls at the Indiana State Fairgrounds as a kid. I was rarely there for the State Fair itself but there were many other events there year round and the food stands always had plenty of popcorn and hotdogs filling the expo halls with smells. This has a tad different smell though likely because our own fairgrounds didn't make kettle corn at their food counters, but you could get some from food trucks at the State Fair proper. Tasting it, it's just incredible how they can capture such flavors into a soda. It really does taste like a bucket of kettle corn. There's a slightly butteriness, but not sickening like a soda I reviewed once that shall not be spoken of again. There's also a sweet, caramel taste that is very pleasant. I've really got to try to visit these folks on my next trip to Minnesota. Definitely give this a try if you find a bottle. 

Spring Grove Rhu-berry

Another flavor from the Spring Grove lineup... this one a blend of strawberry and rhubarb. This soda is made with cane sugar and is caffeine free. The aroma from this bottle evokes memories of mixing strawberry Kool-aid powder on a hot summer day. There's a healthy amount of carbonation to heighten the taste on the tongue. It tastes strongly of rhubarb, which isn't entirely unlike strawberry. The strawberry taste arises a bit more in the aftertaste. I enjoy the nice little bit of tartness in the finish.

Northern Soda Cola

I previously discussed the history of the Northern Soda Company on this earlier post. This time around I've got a can of their cola flavor. A nice sounding crack when opening a can is always a good start. The aroma isn't strong but you can't mistake it for something other than cola. It's a solid tasting cola. It's only slightly more expensive than your main stream soda brands that use high fructose corn syrup, which I'd say is a good trade off for a small batch, cane sugar sweetened, independent brand cola. 

North Star Craft Soda Black Cherry

Blue Sun Bottling Co. produces several "brands" of soda, including the W.T. Heck and State Fair sodas reviewed previously. The North Star label provides several different fruit flavored sodas along with traditional root beer and vanilla cream. 

Great smell from this bottle. I just love black cherry sodas. This one is quite sweet. It's rich with cherry flavor but has a sugariness to it that seems 'extra' compared to a lot of other black cherry sodas. It flirts with the line that crosses into candy flavor but doesn't cross it. The carbonation level is decent as well. Overall, I think this is a nice soda but could be improved on with just a smidge more carbonation.

Spring Grove Soda Pop Black Cherry

This marks the second Spring Grove soda for the blog, the first being their Lemon Sour. It seems to be pretty hard to screw up a Black Cherry soda and they're so tasty its a wonder they aren't everywhere. This bottle is chock full of carbonation. While it opened normally, the first knock back of a sip caused it to nearly overflow as the carbonation riled it up. I think the fact they use cane sugar seems to come through in the taste... very similar sense as tasting a fingerful of granulated sugar. It has an expected black cherry flavor, though there's an odd quality about it. It's almost a chalkiness. I don't know if it's caused by their water source or something particular about the flavoring. As if to totally throw my earlier words back in my face, this is quite an average black cherry soda. There are plenty of better ones to choose instead. 

W.T. Heck Waffles & Syrup

So here's a strange one. W.T. Heck sodas come from the Blue Sun Bottling company out of Spring Lake, Minnesota. They also make the State Fair sodas, as previously mentioned in State Fair Mini Doughnut. I didn't find anything on when they started making the W.T. Heck labeled drinks, but it's an odd flavored lineup, including flavors such as Spaghetti, Blue Cheese Dressing, and Dill Pickle. Those sound sickening, but waffles and syrup sound like it could be half decent. So let's give it a shot. 

Strangely, in addition to the smell of maple syrup as I give it a good sniff, my brain is painting a picture of a diner with coffee in the air in addition to waffles and syrup. That mix of coffee with the other scents is such a mind meld because I doubt they included anything meant for that to happen but smells are strange in how they can link to memories. It's not very carbonated at all. I wonder if it wasn't well capped and the gasses leaked because it's not an old bottle. It's pretty dead on in terms of matching the taste of syrup covered waffles. Not a rich quality made syrup mind you, but nonetheless this company has impressed me with their ability to match flavor profiles to non-beverage foods. It's still bizarre to taste in a drink though, which is what will make this remain a curiosity. It's worth a taste if you come across a bottle. 

Northern Soda Minnesota Apple

A couple of teachers left their day jobs in 2018 to found the Northern Soda Company, producing craft sodas in small batches. They do only appear to be released in cans rather than bottles. Their range of flavors includes many common classics, but they also feature several more interesting flavors, such as cherry citrus and blue raspberry. The next time I find myself up in the twin cities region for a family visit I may need to try to negotiate a visit. 

The label on this particular can gives me Christmas vibes from green, red, and white combined with a slightly whimsical retro font. This particular can is marked as gluten free, caffeine free, and made with cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. The apple scent is not strong, but that could also owe a little to being canned. I often find that canning doesn't always give you as good as a scent as from glass bottles, perhaps because of the aluminum can or perhaps due to the shape of the opening. The flavor is sweet and much like an apple pie without cinnamon. Think of fresh made apple cider that's been carbonated. I do like this flavor and would recommend grabbing some in the autumn. 

State Fair Mini Doughnut

I came across this bottle on a trip to Kansas City and needed to give it a try. This comes to us from a company called Blue Sun Bottling in Spring Lake, Minnesota. These folks have a series named State Fair Soda with some interesting flavors. Although this bottle is supposedly mini-doughnut flavored, the series also consists of chocolate chip cookies, rocket bomb pop, cotton candy, and kettle corn flavors. Hopefully, I'll be able to find each of these flavors to try in the future because they sound interesting. 

I really like the scent wafting from this bottle after opening. Mini Doughnut could be a number of different flavors since they come in a wide variety of options. The scent however makes me think of cinnamon sugar mini-doughnuts. It's a heavenly scent and now I'm wondering if the taste will be able to meet that. Mmm... it's not really cinnamon flavored, but tastes like freshly made cake doughnuts, without any real powder or frosting... much more like plain cake doughnuts with a slight buttery or fattiness. The taste is something else, very original and delicious. This would make a great dessert drink. 

Tree Fort Ginger Ale

I came across this bottle in a co-op grocery in Maple Plain, Minnesota, right outside Minneapolis. Tree Fort Soda is only a few years old, but is reportedly distributed to specialty shops like organic markets, delis and co-ops around the upper-Midwest. Tree Fort was brought to life by a teenage Eva Duckler, who with help from her brother David, got the company off the ground from the beginnings as a school project for Eva. What I find intriguing is how their website mentions tasting soda as kids the way adults tasted wine. This is was very much my impression growing up as I mention throughout some of my posts pairings for some of these sodas. They claim to use all natural juices and extracts, that and cane sugar are things I'd expect from a boutique beverage company.

The ginger scent from this bottle is a pungent punch in the face. There's adequate carbonation that keeps bubbling up after opening, re-effervescing with each swig. Gladly the flavor is light. Some ginger ale's tend to border on the spice of ginger beer, and I was worried that might be the case after smelling. This ginger ale, however, is lighter than it's appearance or scent may forebode, but heavier than say Canada Dry. It makes a good palate cleanser and would probably make one heck of a Moscow Mule, if you're into those.

Buddy's Orange Soda

Buddy's comes to us from Arneson Distributing in Sleepy Eye, Minnsota. Although their website makes specific mention to the rise of soda during the prohibition era when beer makers turned to sodas, it actually appears Buddy's was born in the 1970's. In '72 the Arnesons bought an existing beer distribution company but grew into producing their own root beer, 1919 Classic Draft Root Beer. This later led to additional flavors. I'd suspect it was because of their existing beer distribution they were able to gain a foothold in bars and restaurants. 

It gives an aroma like orange sherbet. The carbonation is middling, not to much or too little. This is a pretty decent orange soda. It isn't as sugary as many on the market which may become sickening after a third of a bottle. Instead it straddles a nice zone of sweetness and the acidity of orange juice. If you sometimes drink a soda with brunch, like I sometimes do, this would do nicely.

Spring Grove Soda Pop Lemon Sour

Spring Grove is a small town of a little more than 1300 people in the far Southeast corner of Minnesota near the Iowa and Wisconsin borders. As with many sodas this story begins with a pharmacist who came up with their own concoction to start bottling. You can read more of my early blogs about how the soda industry evolved heavily out of the pharmacy industry intended as health elixirs. The pharmacist in this case was G.G. Ristey.

While the recipes are said to have remained largely untouched over time a quick scan of the label shows both can sugar as well as high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup was not introduced until the late 1950's and wasn't widely used in foods and drinks in the U.S. until the mid 1970's. There is also artificial flavor and coloring added. So the recipe you're getting isn't an old fashioned, traditional brew. However I still appreciate small production, local products. Traditionally the distribution of Spring Grove Soda has been an area about 100 miles from the town of Spring Grove. In recent years though, they've gained distributors able to sell their sodas in many states. The next time I'm in the area I will try to find some of their other flavors.

Opening the bottle releases a fresh scent of icy lemon. It is immediately reminds me of Ski, a soda I've featured here before. The carbonation isn't heavy, though visible through the glass. The liquid itself has a pucker inducing tartness to it. The tartness isn't a thirst quencher... but 30 seconds after washing through your mouth it begins to water. It's a nice change of pace and is like drinking an Italian lemon ice dessert. While I generally refrain from mentioning alcohol on this site I feel this would be a good mixer. I've mixed some vodka for a taste and it does work well as a mixer. The tartness rounds off with the vodka added. Either way you wish to try it, it's a nice little soda I could find myself drinking during the summer months.