Root Beer - 223 Reviews

This has a real sharp smell and it beckons your call, like a siren to the black abyss. I steer my mouth/ship towards the bottle/sharp rocks. Here's where I can no longer make similes between enchanted sea women and pop because this took a turn. If I may make one last Greek mythology reference, if I was a boat, I would have avoided the sirens call, not waiting for it like Bernard Sumner and friends wanted me to do, because this was one of the smoothest drinks I've ever had. It's a birch beer that goes down smooth like a cream soda. It's really strange.

It is not bad. Let it be known, but I wanted a gnarly bite, like I normally get with my birch beers. It's like those fireworks that you like but don't last long enough for you to be fully satisfied with. There is a quick giant explosion and then a quick disintegration. Sure, I could make a Cure reference, but that's too many English new wave bands in one review for even me.

That last statement isn't true. There are never enough obscure references in our reviews. If anything, there isn't enough "review" in our reviews. Guess what, it's not going to change.

With a name like "Buckin' Root Beer", I was fully expecting this to have a lot of bite. I like that in a root beer. The more bite, the better. Or maybe the folks at Jackson Hole want me to drink this on the back of a bull at a rodeo? I have a feeling that isn't the case, as I'd probably wear more of the bottle than what I could manage to drink.

I've been saving this root beer for a week now. Was it worth the wait? Very much so! This is a really heavy root beer, but it also has lots of flavors. As I suspected, this has a good amount of bite to it, with a really nice anise taste. It just gets better and better with every sip, unlike some sodas which lose flavor as the bottle goes down. The bottle says that this is batch brewed, and I must say that this is a great batch!

So that last stress reducer drink didn't quite do the job. I realized the only thing that was going to make me feel better was sitting down with a little Twin Peaks and cracking open an ice cold root beer. A lot of people have been recommending Tower to us, so this seemed like as good a time and any to give it a go.

On first sip I knew this was something good. It had a taste that just let you know that it was brewed and not just flavor syrup. I tasted hints of various herbs. This is not a creamy root beer by any means. As I let each sip sit on my tongue I discovered more and more flavors. Then about halfway down something happened. The root beer started to taste smoky. I don't know how or why it happened, but I had my ladyfriend try it and she noticed it as well. It was interesting to say the least. It took me by shock at first. It was like someone put a couple of drops of liquid smoke in my bottle when I wasn't looking. After I got used to it I really enjoyed it. It made me feel like I was at a bonfire sipping on some quality soda. I imagine this is how root beer tasted to cowboys when they sat around their fires at night on the prairie. Eventually too much smoke would get in their eyes and someone would say, "white rabbit" to set the world right. A white rabbit in a black lodge with Cooper.

Dear friends from the "Great White North,"
My intentions are not to offend you, but what do you really know about rodeos? I understand that a good portion of your police force rides horses, but I don't think the words "rodeo" and "Canada" have ever appeared in the same train of thought before. Hockey, now that's something that makes me think about Canada. You were in the right to use that on your cans of cola. The site of maple leaves and a buckin' bronco together just doesn't sit well with me. It's like when someone who obviously has never looked at any print design in his or her life decides to make a flyer for a show. Not only is each band's name in a different wacky font, but so are all the crucial info for the show. Oh and it's all typed over a way pixilated picture of train tracks, or something just as tacky. Maybe that's going a bit overboard. Your general layout isn't bad, I just can't get over that rodeo thing.....Oh wait never mind. I just took a sip and it made me forget about any flaws to the packaging. This is one hell of a root beer. This is in fact a root beer that cowboys would drink...if it were in a glass bottle. A cowboy would loose all of his cred if he were seen drinking out of a can. Did they have cans in the wild west? I think not! Seriously though, this is top notch. It has chicory root, vanilla, coriander and clove in it. I can get into any root beer where all of the spices and ingredients are all boiled down into wonderful syrup. It gives it such a rugged flavor, as if it should be drank out on the prairie while riding your dusty horse down the trail.

I am serious about the glass bottles though. If Vintage Soda packaged their pop in glass bottles I would give them five bottles all around. They make a serious soda.

I'm not sure if it's actually the container that is the difference, but I've found that most soda in cans is not as good as bottled varieties. This is especially true of root beer. I have never had a canned root beer that was anything more than acceptable. Given this, I didn't think this root beer was going to be anything to write home about.

Upon first sipping this, I was surprised how good it was. The actual color of it was clear, which is uncommon with root beers. Since this is an organic drink, they probably decided to not add unnecessary coloring to it. Plus, most people who drink out of a can don't check what color a drink is, only obsessive drink reviewers such as myself. We should really come up with a term for drinks that are clear when they normally aren't. I'll have to think this over more. Any suggestions?

Anyways, this root beer is great. It's really smooth with a very light root beer taste. While I'm a big fan of heavy and complex root beers, a light but flavorful root beer is nice from time to time. The root beer taste was very close to root beer barrel candy, which I've stated many times that I love. Maybe that's the taste they were going for and was the reason they put the root beer barrels on the can's artwork.

Looks (and preconceived notions) can be deceiving. Thus far, Simpson Spring has output mostly mediocre soda. So when I found this in my box to review I had a feeling it was going to be a very generic root beer. While this isn't the most complex ever, it's far from bland.

The smell threw me off because it didn't smell like run-of-the-mill root beer. It was a familiar smell, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As soon as I took my first sip, it hit me: birch beer. This starts off as a normal root beer, but has a really nice crisp birch beer aftertaste. It's a really good 1-2 combo with a really good bite. Much like the combination of root beer and sarsaparilla, I would have never thought of this pairing but it makes sense. I love it! Now I challenge a company to make a Root Beer-Sarsaparilla-Birch Beer. If there has to be a holy trinity, my vote goes to them!

Avery. I once dated a girl that lived on Avery. She was nice. She was Italian, and for some reason, she felt like she had some link to the mob. I don't know if it was true, but it certainly never sat right with me. I just thought that she thought that since she was Italian, it was common knowledge. I hope someone comes to see me tomorrow to break my legs for saying that. I won't deny I said it, but I certainly will have a story to tell.

So this girl, Sarah, we didn't date that long, a few months. I was 16 or 17 at the time so I had no idea what a jerk I was going to turn into. Along came Christmas and I bought her a bracelet. Nothing big. I think I got it at a department store for like $20. It was nice, though, thoughtful, at least. I gave it to her and she broke up with me. Why? That's a fun one. She said that her dad got her mom the same bracelet and that she thinks that she meant too much to me so she broke up with me, right on her cousin's porch.

No I'm not regretting anything. I've done a lot of stuff since then and have had a handful of girlfriends, but what if I gave her this root beer?

"Hey, Sarah. I got you this root beer and wrapped it like you wouldn't know what it was. It's named after the street you live on so you can keep it like some cool souvenir if you want. If you don't want to keep it, I understand. Who wants a sticky old bottle? Plus, it's pretty good root beer. Just the right amount of sweetness and flavor to get you through even the hardest days."

Do you think if I gave her that over ten years ago that we'd be together? Probably not, I suck. Seriously. I can't believe I've been in long-term relationships at all. You know what I can believe? I can believe that this root beer is pretty good and I would choose it over a "regular" root beer any day. Barq's? Mug? Supermarket brand? Nope. Avery's? Yep. Just poppin' my "P"'s.

When I saw this in the cooler at New Seasons, I thought it was a gift from the soda gods. Two of my favorite sodas, root beer and ginger beer, combined!? But then I realized that it was a diet soda sweetened with stevia. My excitement died down, but I still had to try it. This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It's a lot smoother that I was expecting. It's also very carbonated which surprised me. The root beer taste hits first, and it's a very light root beer. The ginger comes shortly after and sadly wasn't that intense. I was hoping this was going to be sweet with root beer, but with a spicy ginger aftertaste. Sadly this was not the case. As far as diet sodas go, this isn't that bad. I just wish the ginger taste was stronger and the root beer didn't taste watered down.

Barq's is a fairly controversial root beer. I feel the populace either hates it or adores it. I will admit that in a former life as a caffeine junky I was a fiend for the stuff. At the time I thought, "Root beer with caffeine? I believe there is a god!" Yep, the often-mentioned bite in Barq's is caffeine.

It's been a long time since I've had a Barq's and I didn't know if I would ever say hello to this old friend again. When I went out to eat this evening I got a combo meal thing that was cheaper than if I got the items I wanted separately. It also included a drink. There wasn't much to choose from the in the old cooler, so I went for a Barqs. I don't mean to sound like a snob, but I've become accustomed to a fairly high standard of root beer. When I took a sip of this, it had a familiar root beer taste, but it missed the mark of what I remembered it being like. You can tell it has more spices than your run of the mill root beer, but it almost has a cola-esque undertone. Did I mention that it's really syrupy?

I will admit that it's better than I expected it to be, but it's nothing close to great. I think it's happened I think I've finally become a "grown-ass man," and I can leave the syrupy candy sodas in my past.

I'm not sure if he introduced me to it, but I've always associated root beer with my dad. Whenever we would go to the store, root beer would always be his go-to soda. While he never ventured outside of the realm of A & W/Dad's/etc..., those early trips to the store made me want to try new root beers as I was pushed off into the world of soda alone.

Hosmer Mountain must be a wonderful place (if it is a real mountain). I imagine it to be a beautiful snow capped mountain much like the one in Immortal's music video for Blashyrkh. On that mountain, you can find bottles of delicious soda, much like this one. The best thing about this wonderful mountain inhabited by a black metal band is that the soda is endless, and always cold.

This root beer is good and simple. If I were reviewing this soda on eBay, it would be like this: "A++++ soda! Very delicious! Fast shipping! Would drink again!"

There is a lot riding on this review. Up until now, Virgil's has a nearly perfect record (with the exception of a 4 bottle review for their black cherry cream soda.) Virgil's has stepped into dangerous territory: diet soda. For the most part, diet soda and us do not usually go well together (except for a couple exceptions like the Thomas Kemper Diet Cola). I was really scared to buy this because I didn't want my opinion of Virgil's being one of the best soda companies to be tainted. But in the name of Thirsty Dudes everywhere, I have to.

Unlike most diet soda's that are usually sweetened with sucralose or aspartame, this is sweetened with stevia. I was hoping this would make it more tolerable. Sadly, it did not. I was really hoping the delicious and complex flavors of Virgil's root beer would overcome the gross chemical taste, but it failed to do so. The classic Virgil's taste is there for the first second of the sip, but then is washed away with a wave of dish soap water. Literally, if someone else had opened this bottle for me, I would be suspecting them of putting dish soap in it. It's pretty vile.

I'm sorry to have to give you a bad review Virgil's, but this is not good at all. I picked up a couple of the other "zero" flavors and I'm not that excited to try them anymore. Please stick to making your amazing non-diet sodas.

Often and typically, when we Thirsty Dudes go to a grocery store, we skip by the "in house" brand drinks. It's not that they're bad. It's just that they are terribly similar and not too impressive.

Jay and I recently got back from a camping expedition, which many of this week's reviews will probably reference. While taking five from camping, we went to town and stopped at a local supermarket. There, Jay found this white birch beer. I bought it along with marshmallows and Tums for Jay's aching belly and we hit the road. When we got back to the cabin, I cracked that bad boy open, took a sip and pondered while the rest of the team took sips. It had a light birch beer taste off the bat then was followed by a cream soda taste and then at the end was a candy-like root beer taste. Yes, it was sweet. No, it was not naturally sweetened. It was still good at you can find that Sure Fine pretty easily around here. Keep an eye out and give it a shot.

The only thing, soda wise, I don't like about the Northwest is the lack of birch beer. It's nowhere to be found. Luckily the good folks of Hosmer Mountain sent me this bottle to satisfy my birch beer craving. I have come to love white birch beer more than other varieties of birch beer. It has a much lighter and cleaner taste. I love the 'birch' flavor in this bottle. It's the perfect sweetness and taste. I just found my favorite birch beer.

Danny at Real Soda knows how to make a quality frothy beverage. This is a top-notch birch beer with a nice amount of bite to it. For those not familiar with birch beer it is similar to root beer, but with a slightly different twist. It has a woodsier taste to it. The label design leaves something to be desired, but really that doesn't matter when you have a quality soda like this. I wish I had more to say, but I'm off to go see Off! play. Keith Morris here I come.

The name doesn't lie. This truly is "Awesome Root Beer." It's nice and creamy. Smooth like. It's also not crazily carbonated, which is a nice change of pace.

My only real question is, why does it say "Cane Sugar or High Fructose Corn Sweetener"? Do they really vary their recipe from batch to batch? I'm 99% certain I have a cane sugar version here.

I also love the label. It looks like it was drawn with colored pencils, which holds a certain charm for me. It also brings about the conversations of all time top five desert islands (fill in the blank). You know, these conversations that nerds like myself have all the time. Typically they are about records or books. I'm going to compile my desert island list of root beers in no particular order: Virgil's Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg, Weeping Radish, Gale's, Margo's Bark, and Sparky's. I know I will probably change this eventually, but as of now that's it right there.

First things first Dr. Tima. Do you in fact actually have a PHD? If so, what field is it in? Are you like our hero, Dr. Peter Venkman, and hold a degree in Parapsychology? I have other suspicions. I believe that you, Dr. Tima, are actually a giant bee sent by your queen to overthrow humankind. Don't think I didn't notice that little picture of that man-bee on the bottle. I know that is actually you with a fake smile. Those eyes are plotting I tell you!

After a quick internet search, I have learned that if my intuition is correct and you are a bee hell-bent on destroying the human race, your lifespan is only 40-50 days. I will assume that this bottle is older than two months, which means that you my insect friend are now dead. How does it feel to be rotting? That's what you get for trying to start a revolution!

You may not have succeeded in your plans, but you did leave the world with one delicious root beer. Sure Thomas Kemper uses honey to sweeten their sodas, but it's mostly for sweetness and there isn't a huge honey taste. The now deceased doctor took it way further. The honey flavor is right up front in your face. For a little bee, he also took a lot of time to actually brew his root beer with wintergreen, vanilla, sweet birch, anise, cloves, and yucca plant extract. This is a serious root beer with an added sweet bonus. After drinking this I can only say that Tima surely was truly a scientist. He left this world with a little bit of golden heaven for our tongues to enjoy.

Sometimes times are hard. Money is tight. Your kid keeps crying. Your car gets a flat tire. You break your arm and don't have health insurance. The list goes on. Times like these make people turn to drinking. Hey, no need to reach for the hard stuff. Sometimes you just need a killer root beer. Everyone can agree, except for the Japanese, that root beer is pretty great. It accompanies most meals and is perfect for warm and cold weather. BBQ? Root beer. Carnival? Root beer. Funeral. Root beer? Sure. You can drink root beer at my funeral.

This root beer has enough bite that it's approachable for everyone and it's got a nice, cane sugar taste. All of Sioux City's "root" drinks are great and I would recommend them for everyone, including the Japanese, because they're people, too.

Amazing. That is the first word that comes to mind when drinking this. Sweetness is perfect, the bite is good but not overwhelming, and it goes down smooth. But yet, it's not a smooth drink, it is kinda heavy but in that good root beer/sarsaparilla way. This is by far my go-to Sarsaparilla. I must have drank a half dozen bottles of these over the past couple months before I realized that I forgot to review it each time. It's just so good. It's hard to stop drinking it.

In the movie Clifford there is this one scene that I just love. Mary Steenbergen is berating Charles Grodin for not liking children. Charles Grodin yells, "I love kids. As a matter of fact I have a nephew I'm very fond of". She asks him his nephew's name and he responds: "I want to say.... Mason. Clifford! Little Clifford!" I can't get that out of my head when I'm drinking this.

This hasn't gotten that good of reviews before, but I really like it a lot. It's very creamy and has almost a caramel flavor to it. Apparently the company that makes Dad's root beer used to make it. This seems like a much better version of Dad's. Way to move backwards. Oh and Clifford is criminally underrated.

Ah. What a lovely day out today. It seems like just yesterday I was wondering when I could stop wearing two coats and it seems as though today is the day. Today I ate two hot dogs (a summertime treat) and took a walk with my hoodie open. What a day. The sun wasn't out and I didn't have to squint. The bus was packed to the gills (even though a bus isn't a fish) with stupid teenage kids kissing each other for some reason, but I didn't care. I knew that at the end of it all, I was going to go home and get a cool bottle of root beer. I went through my pop, juice, "other", and found just what I was looking for. Just what was going to top it off? I felt like a dude who hates his job and just wants to come home and drink a low quality beer. But instead of hating his job, he's merely aggravated with it and instead of drinking a low quality beer; it's a medium to high quality root beer. Aside from those two minor details, it's basically the same thing.

This was good and it hit the spot. As advertised, it was creamy. Not too sharp and not too bold. This root beer is a safe bet with any root beer connoisseur. You can taste all of the flavors as intended and I actually thought that it got better as I got towards the bottom of the bottle.

That being said, I had to get ketchup across the street...and when I was gone, my girlfriend, soon to be ex-girlfriend, decided that she would finish my root beer. I got home disappointed to see that what I anticipated to be the best part of the root beer, much like the bottom is the best part of a sundae cone was gone. So it is.