Food Fight: Gas station cappuccino

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Used to be, gas station cappuccino was only for road trips. There are certain "road trip only" foods like Gardetto's, Corn Nuts, and Jalapeño Popper Doritos, and cappuccino from one of those big, loud machines that comes in every wacked out flavor but regular old cappuccino is one of them. But it turns out, when you can't make it to Iowa for Christmas, it makes for a pretty decent snowed-in beverage as well. Can't exactly say the same for Gardetto's, unfortunately. Here's how two South Minneapolis gas station cappuccinos stand up next to one another.

Even in a snowstorm, the SuperAmerica on 35th and Nicollet is a snarl of SUVs filling up, dudes under their hoods adding oil in the parking lot, and people in general all shaking their fists at each other -- even moreso at night. Not so the shop's lonely, imposing cappuccino machine just inside the door. The machine bears five coffee-like (and let's be honest, they are nothing more than coffee-like) hot beverages. Unsurprisingly, none of them are regular old cappuccino. The French Vanilla provides a surge of sweetness and that familiar, kind of chemical-ly mouth film you've come to recognize from road trips past. A 16 oz cup costs $1.09.