I opened this while in a little motel in Grand Marais recently (after picking it up at the local coop): 

On the stove of our little motel room on the North Shore.

Brand: Virgil's Handcrafted Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Norwalk, CT.

Purchase Place: Cook County Whole Foods Co-Op, Grand Marais, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was quite rich. "Cough-syrup-like" as my wife said. It was sweet and tasty. It was NEARLY a "black cherry CREAM soda" as it was so creamy. That was the one thing I actually didn't care for that much. Other than that, it was pretty good! (If you like a sugary soda...)

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Yesterday morning, my boys and I stopped by the Minnesota Soda Festival at Blue Sun Soda. It was raining when we got there as it started at 10 a.m., so it was pretty quiet at that time:

Soda sampling on 3 sides of the back of the building.

The Whistler Soda bottling machine inside.

Bottles and flavoring (to the right).

My boys playing some pinball inside.

Again, very quiet at 10 a.m. when it was raining. There's Charlie in the orange, and Henry in the green playing Skee Ball.

The rain had stopped out back, so we headed out again! (They had food trucks there too.)

Of COURSE the boys wanted to try the "gross" sounding sodas (that are actually quite tasty).

For the soda tastings, you purchase tickets for 25 cents each, and then get a tiny shot of each kid of soda that you request. (I believe there were better prices if you wanted to try/drink a LOT.) Here's my boys getting their first sips of "Zombie Brain Juice:"

I tried the purple "Unicorn Yack" which showed a barfing unicorn. Tasty!

Charlie asking for more at the Whistler stand.

More people and families showing up.

I bought $3 worth of tickets (so 12 sips). I really only had 1 all to myself (the Unicorn Yack), and the boys had the rest as I tried tiny sips of theirs. We had 2 kinds of Dad's, a few kinds of Spring Grove, some Frostie root beer, the "gross" flavors above, Whistler above, and we ended by sharing some Virgil's.

They had a few different bouncy things there, and even though they were wet, lots of kids were in them.

More and more people showing up around 11:30.

It was a fun time, and luckily the weather turned around quickly enough to not ruin the whole day for the event. And Charlie had a great time with their famous Soda Jerk Billy who was ALL personality - he got his finger "stuck" trying to clean out an empty soda bottle, and Henry (my older son) yanked and yanked and couldn't pull it off for him. But Charlie zipped it off with one easy try, and felt like a stud. Then Billy did it again. It was cute.

Thanks Blue Sun Soda!

Sorry for not posting for over 2 weeks. I've been busy with family. I had hoped to try this next root beer on a family trip, but never got a chance. So I opened it up this afternoon at home:

Will I really "swear it's made in heaven?"

Brand: Virgil's Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg Root Beer.

Origin: Los Angeles, CA.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: Many years ago, I reviewed "regular" Virgil's Root Beer. And this was much better. The nutmeg was noticeable, but it wasn't overbearing. It was a nice touch. As the label promised, it WAS rich and creamy. (But I didn't swear it was made in heaven.) It was unique without being "weird" (which I was afraid of). Pretty good!

Score: 8 out of 10.

I opened this up with lunch today:



Brand: Virgil's Zero Root Beer

Origin: Los Angeles, CA.

Purchase Place: Kowalski's, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Stevia.

Review: This had a deep flavor, but slightly too much anise (which is what I thought of their regular root beer too). I wasn't a fan. Even though it had a deep flavor, it was still weak. There was an odd berry flavor in there that was OK (and unexpected - maybe the Stevia?), but that the was most this had to offer. Giving it an average score.

Score: 5 out of 10.

About 9 months ago, I reviewed Boylan Root Beer and Virgil's Root Beer. I wasn't impressed by either of them, but felt I needed to try them both again. So I cracked them open head-to-head:



Originally, I'd given them both an "average" rating: 5 out of 10. (Click here for the Boylan review, and click here for the Virgil's review.)

One of the things I said about Virgil's last year was that "it was SUPER creamy, but it was just missing a little something."  And I said that Boylans was "fine, but it wasn't great."  Well, after a few tastes of each the other night, I have to say that...

Virgil's tasted like anise water (too thin)

... and that...

Boylans just tasted a little burnt.

I think I was a little generous with a "5" rating for each last time. I would re-rank them as:

Virgil's: 4.5 out of 10.
Boylan: 4 out of 10.

I was strolling the aisles of Kowalski's last week, and I stumbled upon this:


I had some Virgil's Root Beer a few years ago, and I remember liking it quite a bit. Time to try it out again.



Virgil's brags that it's actually "brewed," and not just "cold-brewed" like most soda.

And the ingredients list is HUGE. It contains anise from Spain, licorice from France, vanilla (bourbon) from Madagascar, cinnamon from Ceylon, clove from Indonesia, wintergreen from China, sweet birch from the southern US, molasses from the US, nutmeg from Indonesia, pimento berry oil from Jamaica, balsam oil from Peru, and cassia oil from China.

But how does it TASTE?

Brand: Virgil's Root Beer.

Origin: Los Angeles, California.

Purchase Place: Kowalski's Market, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Unbleached Cane Sugar.

Review: It was good. But it wasn't as fantastic as I remember. It was SUPER creamy, but it was just missing a little something. I'll have to report back when I try another bottle to see if I can figure this out a bit more. For right now, I'm calling this "very average."

Score: 5 out of 10.