Root Beer - 223 Reviews

White Rose Root Beer

White Rose Root Beer
Sometimes putting a product in nicer packaging is just not enough. Giving a terrible record a really great looking album cover may be aesthetically pleasing, but it isn't going to help the music suck any less. Now there is nothing inherently bad about this root beer. It's perfectly average, and tastes like a store brand that you would find in a big plastic 2lt bottle. Sure it's sweetened with cane sugar, but that can only take it so far. I appreciate that they put forth the effort to have this in a glass bottle and use a clean, classic, simple look to the label, but again that doesn't make the contents taste like anything special. I would happily drink this if it was served to me, but I just wouldn't go out of my way to purchase some myself.

I read some other people's reviews of this soda, and it seems that they had a very different experience than I did and said that it was an unusual root beer because it had a fruity taste to it. I simply did not get that at all, so maybe I will get another bottle of this after all and see if I notice a difference.
Rating
🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
White Rose
Country
United States
Sweetener
Pure Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 4/11/15, 9:56 AM
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BrighamÒ€ℒs Brew Hand Crafted Root Beer

BrighamÒ€ℒs Brew Hand Crafted Root Beer
I was recently out on tour working for Beach Slang on their tour with Cursive. My responsibilities run the gambit, and one of them is selling merch. Now most bands have tip jars at the merch table that allude to the fact that the tips will be used for drugs and alcohol At our table I have a jar with a sign that reads “Tips for (Root) Beer.” It makes people laugh, and in the instance of our Salt Lake City show it struck up a conversation with a local who hipped me to the fact that Wasatch, a local brewery, made a fantastic root beer. I was told that a nearby grocery store sold it, so as soon as the show was over I hoofed it over to the store and purchased two bottles.

Now it's a well-known fact that Utah has a high Mormon population. It's also pretty widely known that there is a cap to the percentage of alcohol that can be in beer. The people I was on tour with all agreed that it was a terrible thing; the beer tasted different and you just got overly full and felt gross drinking it. Due to these facts I am surprised that there aren't more sodas coming out of the area. Also, speaking of Mormons, this root beer is named after Brigham Young, the second prophet of the religion. That's a whole bunch of weirdness to me. That would be like having a Jesus cola. Actually, I would drink that all day long. Someone get on that. I'm looking in your direction Danny and Real Soda.

Now the laws may forbid the sale of beer that people actually like, but they say nothing about delicious root beer and this is the result. The flavor is full and creamy. The use of honey is always celebrated in my book, and it's inclusion is duly noted by me. I wish it were a bit stronger, but my rule is if you're using honey, go big. Most people probably don't think the same way. Overall the ingredients blend together nicely and the notes of vanilla and wintergreen are distinguishable, and not lost as they are in a generic root beer mix.

At the end of the day two bottles, simply wasn't enough, especially since I was sharing in the van. It's a wonder none of us got sick with all the soda bottles we were passing around all tour. That little box on wheels must have been a germ factory.
Rating
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
BrighamÒ€ℒs BrewWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 3/18/15, 10:55 PM
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Old Town Root Beer Company Sarsparilla

Old Town Root Beer Company Sarsparilla
Welcome to Old town folks. We have our world renowned gunfight shows at the top of every hour from noon until 8pm. If seeing men in white hats shoot at men in black hats is what your heart desires, then there is no better place to you to be every sixty minutes. Don't be alarmed when the man falls from the roof after being shot. It's all an act and he lands on some hay bales that break most of his fall. Sure you hear a rib snap every once in a while, but he knows the danger he puts himself in for $10 an hour.

There's really not much around here other than the show. Our town is pretty small and you can see it all in fewer than 15 minutes. Might I suggest that you check out the shooting range while you wait for the show? For a quarter you can shoot our guns that make cans flip and someone play the piano. I'm not sure if they work with lasers, or just shots of air, but it's quite fun for about 3 minutes. The rest of your time you might as well saunter over to the saloon and get a nice cold one. I of course mean sarsaparilla, since this is a family establishment and we don't have a liquor license. I know all of you out there are hoping to drink a nice Sioux City sarsaparilla, but it's my duty to inform you that we only serve the Old Town Root Beer Company's version. I know it's not as good, but our owners are trying to scrape every nickel they can out of this “amusement park,” so they made their own soda. It's not too bad. It's not as strong as I like my sarsaparilla, then again they spell it “sarsparilla.” I don't know what's up with that. It tastes like someone took some of the good stuff and mixed it with an equal amount of standard root beer, then added a bit more vanilla. The result is that it's the creamiest sarsaparilla I've ever tasted. It's a nice change up, but the harshness and boldness is what I love about this flavor, and it's absent in here. Oh well, it's all we serve, so it's what you're going to get. Better nurse it for a while, we still have 34 more minutes until the next show.
Rating
🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Old Town Root Beer CompanyWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 12/27/14, 2:22 PM
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Live Kombucha Soda Revive Root Beer

Live Kombucha Soda Revive Root Beer
Come on guys; why do you always have to be such jerks? I run to the corner store to get snacks for everyone and you're all giggling. Obviously something went down while I was gone. I also have a strong sense of taste and after one sip it's obvious that one, or more of you, dumped some beer into my root beer. That is so not cool. I know it's a cheap soda, it's not like it's micro brewed or anything, but still it's my drink and you know I hate beer. I mean it still tastes like the generic root beer it is, but now it also has that unmistakable spoiled taste of your cheap beer underneath the classic root beer flavor. It's not the worst ever, I could still power through it, and someone who didn't hate beer would probably think it was interesting and tasty.

Why is everyone laughing even harder now? You knew I would boast about my strong sense of taste and you took bets as to what I would say was in the drink? It's beer, right? Oh it's actually kombucha? So what you're saying is that I've been drinking root beer mixed with fermented tea? I guess that's not as bad, and you guys pulled a good one on me, but I still think it's kind of gross. I stand by my statement of it tasting like beer. Actually, it tastes like old stale beer. Man, the more I think about how it tastes the less I can handle this. One of you jerks can finish this, and you owe me a new drink!
Rating
🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Categories
Iced Tea, Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Live Kombucha SodaWebsite@LIVE_Soda
Country
United States
Sweetener
Evaporated Cane Juice
Author
Jason Draper on 11/19/14, 10:08 AM
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Olde Brooklyn Baybridge Birch Beer

Olde Brooklyn Baybridge Birch Beer
People over the age of 50 and those in their 20s and 30s have very different prospective on Brooklyn. The place has changed through the decades, as has much of New York. It's been cleaned up. It's been gentrified. It's had most of its seediness removed. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. Sure you can feel safer walking down the street to buy a slice and a soda, but wasn't the danger part of the adventure? Actually, I have no idea. The first time I went to Brooklyn was 1997 and things were well on their way to becoming what it is today. I'm sure if I lived there I would want it to fall somewhere in the middle. I don't have to step over dope fiends on my way home, but I also can afford to live here and don't have to annoyed by all the trendy youngsters. I am officially an old man.

I will say that if the taste of this soda was any indication of the old days, I would take them. This is a really solid birch beer, that's a tad on the sweeter side of things. It's important to note that it is a red birch beer, and there is an almost fruity hint to it. It's also got a nice amount of wintergreen in the mix. I would love to be hanging out on a stoop with a “ghetto blaster” eating a slice and washing it down with a bottle of this soda. Oh man, I'm an old man that really wants pizza.
Rating
πŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒ
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Olde BrooklynWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Raw Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 11/15/14, 3:46 PM
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Dang Root Beer

Dang Root Beer
Sometimes I hate myself. I currently hold ill will against me because all I can think of while drinking this root beer is a non-existent radio edit of the Sophie B Hawkins song Damn Dang I Wish I Was Your Lover. Actually I don't even know if I hate that song. I don't think I have any opinion about it either way, it simply exists. That is not a feeling I want to have when I drink a root beer and luckily Dang! root beer does not leave me apathetic. It's on the smoother side of most brews and that is something I like from time to time. Luckily, this happens to be one of those times. I'm really enjoying this it's a traditional style brew. Sometimes you're looking for something more than that, something new and exciting, but then you drink a soda like this and you remember why it is the go to for most root beer, it's just great. I don't mean to say that this is a clone of everyday root beer. It's in the same ballpark as that, but it's playing for the majors, not that done AA team.

Now, decide for yourself.
Rating
πŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒ
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
DangWebsite@DangRootbeer
Country
United States
Sweetener
Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 9/23/14, 5:52 PM
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Grand Teton Brewing Company Kettle Brewed Soda Root Beer

Grand Teton Brewing Company Kettle Brewed Soda Root Beer
When Armageddon finally comes and those of us who survive are hidden away in different pockets of world figuring out how to survive technology will not be our savior. I realize that sounds a bit evangelical, but I don't believe any sort of omnipotent being will save us either. What will keep the survivors alive is reverting to the old ways. Working the earth with our hands and learning how to build things, instead of relying on contractors. If there's something that you want you will have to figure out how to produce it yourself, or barter with someone who does. If you ignore all of the death and the end of civilization as we know it, this actually sounds appealing.

When I'm living in my mountain residence that my friends and I have constructed I hope one of us had good enough sense to learn iron work so that they could forge us a kettle to make our own root beer. This bottle of soda is exactly what I hope/expect our home brew would taste like. It's heavy on the wintergreen and the sassafras, just as any good mountain brew should be. It's a nice herbal root beer that screams of the mountains…€¦and licorice. This is by no means a standard “store brand” root beer. Care was put into brewing this, not just adding flavor syrup to carbonated water.

I wonder how many batches it would take our survivor crew to get our soda to this level. I hope not too many because I the idea of enjoying my own root beer that I brewed in a metal pot over a bonfire is so appealing that it's killing me.
Rating
🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Grand Teton Brewing CompanyWebsite@GrandTetonBrew
Country
United States
Sweetener
Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 9/16/14, 6:12 PM
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Pop Shoppe Root Beer

Pop Shoppe Root Beer
Where is the classic bottle? I feel cheated that I am drinking a Pop Shoppe soda that is not in a “stubbie” bottle. Look at our other reviews if you don't know what I'm talking about. Growing up 10 minutes from Canada, Pop Shoppe played a role in my childhood and their iconic bottles were a big part of it. Actually it was more likely College Club from Rochester, NY just using their bottles after Pop Shoppe closed down in '83, but my memories are the same. My friends and I would walk down to the store, pay our quarter each and grab a bottle from the cooler. Inevitably one of us would not open the bottle with the opener at the store, and forget that it didn't have a twist off cap, so far too much time would be devoted to trying to get the bottle open on a curb or something. We were kids, we were dumb…€¦.wait I opened a bottle on a curb just last week. Okay, so I may be an adult now, but I'm still dumb apparently. My point is those bottles were a big part of the Pop Shoppe charm. Their sodas generally fall on the better side of average (read: store brand), but the fact that they come in glass bottles makes them seem more legit.

I'll try to put my bottle envy in check to review this. Flat out, it's a strange root beer. It has a slight medicinal taste to it, and it makes me think that someone mixed a bottle of root beer with a bottle of Moxie. It makes me feel like it would be the kind of root beer that would be sold from the back of wagons in the old west. I don't really think that happened, but in my dreams it did, and you have no jurisdiction over my dreams. It also has a fairly strong wintergreen flavoring to it. Somehow after all of that it is still creamy. I don't hate it. In fact I find it fairly interesting. If all root beers tasted the same this planet would be an even more boring place to live.
Rating
🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Pop ShoppeWebsite@popshoppepop
Country
Canada
Sweetener
Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 8/2/14, 11:43 AM
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Cicero Beverage Co Salted Caramel Root Beer

Cicero Beverage Co Salted Caramel Root Beer
Like many of us, from time to time you have probably found yourself wondering what exactly happened to the river of psychomagnotheric slime from Ghostbusters 2. Sure Vigo was using it as a power source, but after we was blasted back into the painting and drained of his powers, what happened to the slime?

Well the truth of the matter is that the slime was a bit of a problem for the city. As you know it fed off of emotions, and being such an angry city (at least while Lady Liberty herself isn't walking around blasting feel good tunes), it was only a matter of time before the city destroyed itself. Not wanting that to occur officials loaded it up into thousands of tanker trucks and shipped it off to Chicago, without them knowing. Hey, if a city is going to destroy itself it might as well be in the Midwest, right? A weird thing happened though, Chicago's love of food and sweets somehow changed the river of slime into a river of salted caramel, which can be seen on this bottle's label. Strange times indeed.

The Cicero company dips into this river from time to time when they want to make root beer. They put just a dab into each bottle and it flavors it right up. There's already caramel in a lot of darker sodas and the addition of the “slime” really amped it up. Luckily it's not overly salted. Wouldn't a really salty soda be the worst thing ever? Can you imagine your disappointment? There's a bit of salt in here, but it's not over the top. In reality this just makes me think of pretzels. Actually, I want some really bad. A bag of pretzels and a bottle of this would pair up for the perfect Midwest snack.

I'm not the world's biggest caramel guy, so I admit that I couldn't finish this entire bottle, but if you are a lover of that specific form of sugar, this has your name written all over it. Especially if your name is Vigo of Gozer.
Rating
πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Cicero Beverage CoWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 7/22/14, 2:12 PM
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Old Town Root Beer Company Root Beer

Old Town Root Beer Company Root Beer
Call me old fashioned but long days can only be cured by sitting on a porch stoop drinking root beer. Early mornings with not enough sleep followed by staying late at work and who knows what the rest of the day holds? Probably a handful of garbage. You deserve something nice. A treat. A root beer.

What's better than root beer? Root beer that has honey in it. What better with root beer with honey in it? Root beer with honey and licorice. Since this root beer doesn't have that, and beggars cannot be choosers, honey it is. It's probably a difficult task to keep the smooth taste of honey and the bite of root beer but they've done it. That's why they're in the root beer major league. They have hats. Nice, embroidered hats. As if there were any doubts. What? Did you think they were silk screened? Please. They embroider everything when you get to the pros. Everything.
Rating
πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Old Town Root Beer CompanyWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Cane Sugar
Author
Mike Literman on 7/15/14, 6:20 PM
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Anchor Ginger Root Beer

Anchor Ginger Root Beer
If us here at Thirsty Dudes are anything we are men of the sea. The crashing waves and the salty air are all we know of life. With the ocean breeze in our hair we point our bow towards whatever fancy we have at the time. Wait no, that's not us at all. The ocean is a terrifying place that holds many creatures that mankind will probably never know of. I'm actually shocked that I even knew what a bow was. Mike and I are content to sit on the shoreline, stare out at the ships on the horizon and sip on some root beer. I mean I do have an anchor tattoo, but I never claimed that I wasn't a hypocrite. I also never complained about double negatives.

While we may be full of lies, one thing that is a truth is that we have dreams of creating (more like having someone make for us) a hybrid of root beer and ginger beer. We've proposed it to several companies, but they didn't seem very interested. They are all fools. How perfect would a nice dark, woody root beer be with the kick of some hot ginger beer? I'm sure ratios would have to be very specific to keep the flavors in line, but that is what folks in lab coats are for.

When I came across this Anchor Ginger Root Beer, I thought that perhaps my prayers had been answered. The sea is an unknown place (for the most part) and so is this beverage. It could hold wonderful secrets or disastrous monsters. You have no idea how many creatures I find in bottles of sodas; at least most of them are vaguely indifferent to me.

While this was not the soda of my dreams, it is almost there. Really the only thing that is missing is the heat. There is no burn at all in this bottle. It's more of a ginger ale root beer instead of the ginger beer root beer that I so desperately wanted. I will happily take what I am given though. This really tastes like someone made a batch of ginger ale the correct way, with real ginger, and mixed it with a creamy root beer. It has a nice classic root beer taste that is on the darker side of the spectrum that ends with a strong vanilla after taste. The ginger is the majority shareholder in the beginning of each sip, but the vanilla in the root beer is all you are left with seconds after you swallow.

I am a big fan of this, and I hope to come across it again in my travels. I can use it to help me get by until I can talk a company into perfecting my vision. Maybe I should just try combining sodas myself to see how it turns out. I mean that has to end well…€¦right?
Rating
🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Categories
Ginger, Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
AnchorWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 7/13/14, 11:49 AM
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Hippo Size Burley Birch Beer

Hippo Size Burley Birch Beer
People are constantly asking me what the difference between root beer and birch beer is. I usually tell then that birch beer is like a darker root beer that is historically made from bark of the birch tree, whereas root beer is more often made from a variety of roots/barks. I have to admit here and now that I have been spreading lies. I'm going to let you all in on a secret that the soda world doesn't want you to know. The real difference between these two similar sodas is that root beer is extracted from the tusks of a walrus, and birch beer comes from those (teeth) of the hippopotamus. Strange I know, but 100% true. You can surely understand why this would be kept a secret. It would be hard to market a beverage that comes from animal teeth.

Hippo Size gave hints with their sodas, but they hid them behind a promise of gargantuan, hippo sized flavor. They were right with that boast. This is a fantastic representation of what can be extracted from a hippo. The animal that got this from must have been eating a lot of mint, because this has a very strong wintergreen taste, which is fantastic. I really enjoy this red birch soda that is made with white birch extract. I'll leave that for another science lesson. This really hit the spot. It's creamy without being anything like a cream soda. It's just what I needed after a long day like today.

Orca beverages have been breathing life into some long forgotten soda companies, and they are doing a great job at it. I certainly would never have had this if it wasn't for them, and I thank them for the experience.
Rating
πŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒ
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Hippo SizeWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 6/26/14, 9:24 PM
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Dang Butterscotch Root Beer

Dang Butterscotch Root Beer
Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in a post Harry Potter world. Both the book and movie franchises have come to their conclusion. As I write this it has been two and a half years since the final movie and they are trying times. Butterbeer has made its way into reality from the imagination of a British woman. While it may not be exactly what the author had in mind, a butterscotch flavored cream soda burst onto the scene and captivated the taste buds of dozens. Okay, hundreds, if not thousands. It was not quite for me, but it exists and that is an interesting thing. It was the first butterscotch soda I have ever tasted, and as a person, who dislikes the candy, I found it fairly enjoyable.

Dang! has put together a little variation here. Instead of using cream soda they went with root beer for their base. To be fair this may have existed long before the other soda, but since I have never come across it until now, in my find it's post-Potter. I must say that I enjoy this a whole lot more than the Flying Cauldron Butterbeer. The root beer flavoring tones down that of the butterscotch. Don't worry, both flavors are most definitely present, but neither of them overpowers the other. This is fairly creamy, smooth and delicious. The flavor starts briefly as a nice dark licorice heavy root beery that quickly fades to tones of butterscotch, but the best part is the aftertaste is a perfect medley of the two.

I am looking forward to someday coming across Dang's regular root beer, because that initial flavor gives me a lot of hope for it. As for this, well it's a memorable soda that I wouldn't drink all of the time, but it would make a nice little treat every once and a while. If you are a fiend for butterscotch, you should most definitely track some down. You won't be disappointed.
Rating
πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›πŸ₯›
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
DangWebsite@DangRootbeer
Country
United States
Sweetener
Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 12/22/13, 4:15 PM
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Schmohz Brewery Sammi Rae Root Beer

Schmohz Brewery Sammi Rae Root Beer
It is always a treat in my travels when I come across small local breweries that make their own soda. I had never heard of Schmohz Brewery until I came across this root beer in a small coffee shop in downtown Flint, MI. The home of the brewery is actually Grand Rapids, but it found it's way a short distance to Flint, which might I say has come quite a ways since I last visited there a decade ago. Back then the city was a ghost town, and everything seemed to be falling into ruins. This time there were some businesses that seemed to be thriving and things looked like they were on the up and up. Good job Rust Belt, let's keep reviving these cities.

Okay, enough about economic downfall and rejuvenation. We're here to talk about root beer so let's get down to brass tax. This root beer starts off fairly light in your mouth. It seemed like the ratios of the other ingredients to water were a bit off. Once I took a couple of sips I realized that while it's in your mouth it tastes a bit weak, but once you swallow it has a nice dark aftertaste. This doesn't taste like your run of the mill “classic” root beer. It's a but darker and you can tell it's microbrewed. There is nothing overly strong about the flavor. It's certainly there, but it's something you have to kind of sit and ponder over as it's not on the nose like most root beers.

Sugar and “More Sugar” are both listed in the ingredients, so I was expecting this to be overly sweet, but it's not at all. It has an average, and possibly even a little low level sweetness going on.

Finally, I'd like to acknowledge that a portion of the proceeds of this soda are donated to Sammi Rae of Hope, which is an organization that helps families who are suffering with the possible loss of a family member that can result in high medical bills. Sammi Rae helps those families to not lose their homes. Sounds like a great organization to me, and it's more than enough reason to take a chance on this pop if you ever find yourself in Michigan.
Rating
🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Schmohz BreweryWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 12/18/13, 7:34 PM
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Bundaberg Root Beer

Bundaberg Root Beer
When Jay goes on tour, he comes home with some different drinks. If you stay in one place, things get stale. Jay knows that all too well so he's on tour a fair amount and, if I didn't know better, he spends as much time with the band as he does on the hunt for new drinks.

Now he just was in the United States but came across this little Australian tart. You know a drink that comes both in glass and with an awesome pull-tab is going to be good, so is it? Well, it's good and it's better than most but is it as good as I wanted to be? I don't think so. It is a nice, dark licorice filled root beer. That's for sure. What's wrong with it then? It's a little too sweet. Is it the molasses? Maybe. It almost tastes like a good root beer with something like a grape hard candy in it. That's not the worst thing but whatever that "candy" thing is in there, it knocks its great potential down a peg or two. Am I in the position to be assigning proper peg state? I like to think that I am. I would like to think that in turn someone out there is placing me on some ladder whether it be a skill ladder, sexual ladder, or something in between. We can all agree that those are the two extents of social ladders, right?
Rating
🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
BundabergWebsite
Country
Australia
Sweetener
Cane Sugar
Author
Mike Literman on 12/3/13, 10:32 PM
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Honest Fizz Root Beer

Honest Fizz Root Beer
It's no secret that us here at Thirsty Dudes are very large fans of root beer. I was going to say junkies, but then I realized that we're not guzzling any version of the stuff we can find to get that sweet, sweet (literally) fix that we need. We have a bit of a refined palate when it comes to this particular beverage. Sure, if we're at a party and someone offers us store brand, we will drink it, but we search out those sodas whose companies have spent some time perfecting their brew. With all of that in mind, I would like to inform you that diet root beer is the devil. It is the liquid form that the dark lord takes to steal souls from the living on this planet we call Earth. It is always the lowest grade of root beer that has had its sweetener swapped out for something zero calorie; usually aspartame or sucralose. It's blasphemy and I want nothing to do with it.

All of the above is what I would have said to you until I tried this can of Honest Fizz. This product went up against all of the odds and came out victorious. First off, it's in a can and not a glass bottle, which does not bode well for it. Properly brewed root beer simply does not come in cans. Yes, that is the snob in me coming out. Of course it's also fighting again being the most unholy force in the universe. The thing is Honest did the unthinkable and they made a zero calorie root beer, that I not only could stand drinking, but that I down right enjoyed. I think the secret is that they started with a quality product before adding the sweetener (erythritol). This doesn't taste like an everyman root beer. This tastes like something that was microbrewed. It has a darker taste than something your local supermarket would produce. Sure, once they added the erythritol there is a bit of diet flavor in the aftertaste, but the superb quality of the root beer does a nice job of covering it up, unlike all of the rest whose products taste more like diet than root beer.

I liked this so much that I could see myself drinking it on a semi regular basis. With zero calories and no sugar, my body will be sure to thank me for that.
Rating
🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Categories
Diet, Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
HonestWebsite@HonestTea
Country
United States
Sweetener
Erythritol
Author
Jason Draper on 11/28/13, 3:30 PM
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Frostie Vanilla Root Beer

Frostie Vanilla Root Beer
It's been a few years since I've had a Frostie root beer. It's not like Old Man Winter on the bottle and I had a falling out or anything, it's just not readily available in Buffalo, and while I'm traveling I'm always looking for something new. Cut to me entering the Village Beer Merchant in Buffalo with a friend and I see this little guy peaking out of the cooler. Interest piqued.

From the picture on the bottle this would appear to be root beer float flavored. While that sounded interesting, it also seemed a little gross. I don't want dairy in my sealed soda. Lucky for everyone involved it's more of a root beer …β‚¬β€œ cream soda hybrid that is very heavy on the cream soda side of things. It tastes like vanilla extract rather than vanilla ice cream, and the results are excellent. I would actually say this is 70% cream soda and 30% root beer. Keep that in mind because if you go into this wanting a strong root beer you will be sorely disappointed.

Now there are two different versions of their regular root beer the cane sugar one and the HFCS one. It's not shocking that the cane sugar one is superior in every way. This unfortunately is sweetened with corn syrup, so it's a bit on the thicker side. I can only hope that I come across a cane sugar version some day and fall in love even more.
Rating
🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
FrostieWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Author
Jason Draper on 11/20/13, 6:52 PM
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Harmony Springs Beverages Sarsaparilla

Harmony Springs Beverages Sarsaparilla
I purchased this on a trip that I was sure was ultimately going to result in my death. On our last tour we played a last minute show at a coffee shop in Western Mass. We didn't know anyone at town, and didn't have a place to stay. Suddenly this 20 something year old gentleman approached us and told us he had been couch surfing and living out of his van, be he had a place we could crash, as long as we were okay with having a bonfire. We agree, follow him to a 7-11, where I purchased this soda, and then drove for what seemed like forever into the heart of nothingness. It seemed like we were nowhere near any sort of town, and even streetlights were nonexistent. The words of a bonfire got me to thinking that we were certainly going to be sacrificed. Most of my body was telling me to turn around and head the other direction, but we are poor and cheap and didn't want to spring for a hotel. Finally we turned into a driveway of a creepy old farmhouse. A single motion detector light came on and it didn't help our feelings of dread. The area was dead silent. There was no trace of any other human life for miles. We ascended the stairs to enter the house and I took a breath waiting for murder and mutilation. As he flipped the light switch I was sure a family of crazy hillbillies would be waiting for me, but instead I was greeted with construction equipment. You see at the show our host was vague about everything, but he quickly explained that this was his grandmother's house and she had passed away the year before. His parents were remodeling the whole thing, and it was to be their retirement home in the country. He showed us to some nice new mattresses for us to sleep on and then we went out to enjoy a nice fire on a chilly night. It ended up being one of my favorite nights of tour, and great conversations were had. In the morning light we saw that the place was probably one of the most relaxing places I had ever been. There were hundreds of cows in a field next door, pear trees and even a little waterfall in the stream behind the house. We were dumb dumb heads and we watch too many horror movies.

You didn't come here to hear about my potential demise though. You're here for sarsaparilla, and it's a fine place to be. Due to the caps I was expecting this too be the same mix that College Club and Avery uses, but this has a much darker licorice taste to it. I was very surprised at how bold the flavor was. When companies use the same labels for all their sodas and the only denotation of the flavor is on the cap, I expect something on the higher level of good, but not great. What was that something about books and covers? This is an exceptional sarsaparilla that Massachusetts is lucky to have readily available.
Rating
πŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒπŸ₯ƒ
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Harmony Springs BeveragesWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
100% Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 10/13/13, 3:04 PM
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Spikes Root Beer

Spikes Root Beer
How many hot dogs can you eat? Do you have the fervor it takes to take on the former world champion Takeru Kobayashi, or do you just like to take it easy and eat a whole mess of dogs at a leisurely pace? Either way if you can force down at least six dogs at Spike's Junkyard Dogs in New England you can get yourself a t-shirt and a picture on the wall. I wouldn't say it's an elite group that has achieved this as the walls are basically covered in said pictures, but there is a certain pride that comes with it.

If you still have room in your gullet after you have downed an unhealthy number of hot dogs (or veggie dogs) I would suggest ordering yourself a bottle of their store brand root beer. You would think that for a store brand it would be some average root beer that is normally made by a different company, but that has been rebranded. It seems that Spikes has had this specifically brewed for them. It's sweetened with cane sugar, which puts them ahead of the average game if you ask me. On top of that it's fairly heavy with the wintergreen, which makes it stand out as slightly different amongst its peers. It doesn't taste like it's just made from a mix, or with “root beer flavoring.” I suppose after you eat 23 hot dogs (the greatest number consumed at the location we were at) you're probably not going to notice the subtleties of the flavor though.
Rating
🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
SpikesWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Pure Cane Sugar
Author
Jason Draper on 10/2/13, 10:12 AM
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Central Coast Brewing Old Fashioned Root Beer

Central Coast Brewing Old Fashioned Root Beer
I'm on tour right now and the band I'm with just played at Slo Brew in San Luis Obispo, CA with Titus Andronicus. People got us excited about this venue because it's also a restaurant and they feed all bands that play here. All the band members were asked what they wanted but they didn't think to ask me, the merch guy.

Then my good friend Max Gregor came to the rescue and bought me a slice of pizza and this huge bottle of root beer. I was totally surprised and it made my night. The pizza was as good as I was going to get in California, but the root beer was pretty decent. It's a local brewing company and you can tell this isn't their first batch of root beer. It has a nice sweetness, but not too sweet. It's a very "safe" root beer and would be a good introductory to someone new to root beer outside of Barqs and Dad's.
Rating
πŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒπŸ§ƒ
Categories
Root Beer and Soda Pop
Company
Central Coast BrewingWebsite
Country
United States
Sweetener
Not Listed
Author
Derek Neuland on 9/11/13, 2:18 AM
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