Charlie Bucket has the chocolate factory. Harry Potter has the candy trolley roving the aisles of the Hogwarts Express. Colorado Springs has Squeak, a self-described modern-day soda fountain that’s as close to such sugar-fueled fantasies as we nonimaginary people can get.

With 70 flavors, the soda menu is exciting and imaginative. The food menu is short and basic — the main cooking implements seem to be a microwave and a panini press — but you don’t come to Squeak for the food. You come for the wall of packaged and bulk candies (more than 50 varieties), the sodas, the shakes and floats, the cotton candy, the bright décor, and the general atmosphere of joy and child-like indulgence.

Soda highlights

This is soda alchemy, priced at $2.19-$2.89. With 70 flavors plus a choice of cane sugar or Splenda for sweetener, plus choice of color, possible combinations boggle the imaginations of young and old. The “Tour of Fizz” punch card is the shop’s challenge to sample and document them all.

Squeak has perfected the classic, rich cream soda for traditionalists. Less classic but still as fun is Harry Potter’s favorite Butterbeer ($1.10 upcharge). Spoiler alert: It’s a strong butterscotch cream. The cheesecake soda, which I tinted bright blue, illustrates the fun of the alchemy: The mouth can’t help but be surprised to taste in liquid form what should be solid.

The choices expand even further when you decide to make a float ($3.37-$4.39). Squeak’s ice creams are made specifically for the shop using gelato machines. In addition to vanilla and chocolate, you can add any of 15 flavors to your soda, including cotton candy, cookie dough and Jamaican coconut.

I chose a black cherry soda, which was genuinely fruity and avoided the dreaded cough-syrup artificiality. Coupled with Death By Chocolate ice cream, it was a pint of Ben and Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” with no spoon required.

All ice creams can be served in a cup or cone, or as a shake, as well.

Food highlights

The Chipotle Chicken Panini ($5.99) was served with (surprisingly tender, given the microwave) white-meat chicken, ripe tomatoes, cheddar cheese, bacon and store-bought multigrain bread. The “homemade chipotle-mayo dressing” the shop advertises was a little invisible. The sandwich’s sister, the California Melt ($5.79), whose “homemade avocado ranch dressing” also whispers, includes chicken, bacon, mozzarella and tomatoes on sourdough.

Neither sandwich is likely to cause raves, but they’re served fresh, hot and crisp — though not fast — and are made with high-quality ingredients. I also respect Squeak’s grilled cheese combinations, such as the New Yorker ($2.99) with Swiss cheese on deli rye. Grilled cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods, and rather than being pedestrian, Squeak’s four types of cheese sandwiches add a homey — and refreshingly inexpensive — touch. 

(Speaking of inexpensive, the kids’ meal offers half a grilled cheese, half a quesadilla or a hot dog, one side, milk and a mini cone of ice cream for $3.99.)

Ambience

The soda shop folks are rightfully proud of their décor, which includes a bright, somewhat Suess-ian wall painting that won gold for “Best Mural” in The Gazette’s Best of the Springs poll in 2011. The mural is so popular that Squeak sells postcards of the painting for 25 cents.

Despite its Candy Land atmosphere, this Candy Land is small. The shop has a large outdoor patio, but the interior is tiny, with only a handful of tables. Still, Squeak manages to squeeze in board games and a Wii video-game system to occupy the kids once the sugar hits the bloodstream.

But for such an ideal family-friendly destination, the facilities lack some family necessities, such as changing facilities in the bathrooms and more highchairs.

Drawbacks

Squeak’s sodas are obviously its crowning glory and main concern, with food taking second place. You could walk across the shopping center’s parking lot to Safeway and walk out with all the comparable ingredients of a Squeak sandwich. They assemble more than anything, rather than cook.

I would welcome pumping up the flavor of “homemade” dressings or adding more interesting sandwich toppings.

Service

With all of the soda shop’s moving parts, I think two people could provide a high level of customer service. Sadly, on my visits, Squeak had one worker behind the counter, smiling but scrambling to complete both sodas and food — and to answer the phone.

That scrambling removes a little bit of the magical shine of the shop, in my opinion.

Service was incredibly slow, and then food emerged one sandwich and soda at a time, which always causes an awkward go-ahead/no-I’ll-wait situation.

If I have to wait, at least give me the soda first to make the wait sweeter.

PHOTOS BY BETHANY SCHOEMER/THE GAZETTE Photo by

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