A&P Premium Draft
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company was once the US’s largest supermarket chain, boasting up to 16000 stores in the 1930s. Today, they’ve declined to about 450 stores, mainly in the NY/NJ area. My Dad, who helps fuel my root beer addiction (and perhaps is the root (pun intended) cause of it) found a four pack of this root beer at Big Lots when shopping with my Mom. For those of you who don’t know, Big Lots is a great place to find weird and discontinued beverages. Dad was pretty excited to find this, as he grew up drinking it purchased from his local A&P.
I haven’t asked him his opinion yet (especially after I gave him some Maine Root in exchange for this), but I was pretty disappointed. There’s basically just no flavor here. The beverage overall has little flavor, and what is there doesn’t have the traditional, or even innovative, root beer flavor, but tastes more like flat Dr. Pepper does. Juxtapose this with pretty heavy carbonation for a “draft” style root beer, and you’ve got basically flavorless dark carbonated sweet water made with high fructose corn syrup. No Thanks.
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 2
Maine Root Sarsaparilla
I really don’t know what’s going on in Maine, but EVERY root beer I’ve had from there lately has been fantastic. As I mentioned in my Cap’n Eli’s review, a friend of mine sent me some local Maine brews, and sent me this Sarsaparilla along with their Root Beer. To me, Sarsaparilla has always been kind of like Root Beer’s weaker more effeminate cousin. You know, the one who you were forced to hang out with, and secretly thought was OK, but really didn’t want to admit you were related to?
Anyway, I digress. This beverage was pretty good, and better than most root beers that I’ve had, although it just doesn’t have as much flavor. Their root beer is a whopper though, and a review is coming soon. I really like the company, and it seems that they have their head on straight when it comes to natural ingredients and fairly acquired materials. I’m always willing to pay more for quality and care, and will always support companies like Maine Root who understand that.
Now, if they only sponsored runners who blog about running and drinking root beer…I’m talking to you Maine Root!!!
www.maineroot.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 7
Old Town Root Beer
I really liked this root beer. It has a “hefty” taste and mouthfeel, almost thick, but still refreshing and not overwhelmingly sweet. The flavor that hit me first was honey, followed by brown sugar, and then followed by a nice blend of licorice and sassafras. Great stuff! Sweetened with cane sugar, and nicely carbonated for an aggressive initial bite with a nice smoother finish. This is a great “burpy” root beer!
I got this and their sarsaparilla soda at World Market, and when doing some research, it looks like the company may be out of business now, so buy it up!
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 8
Napa Valley
I don’t even really know what this is. It seems like some kind of “boutique” root beer, like somebody decided it would be a good idea to use the reputation that Napa Valley had built producing wines and try to capitalize on it. According to the bottle, the Napa Valley Soda Company has been around since 1872, but apparently they aren’t around anymore, since the website on the bottle is dead, and the only trace I can find of them is on the wetplanet website. This root beer comes in a clear bottle, which in my mind is always a bad idea for root beer. Fruit sodas, yes. Root beer needs a brown bottle, man! Anyway, I’ve never had a good root beer in a clear bottle, and this didn’t break the trend. The claims of “organic” and “natural flavors” on the label were totally discounted by the use of HFCS and “artificial flavors”. The beverage did have a heavy carbonation, which I’m partial too, but was super-sweet with a subnote of anise. This also had one of the highest calorie counts of any root beer I’ve ever seen. Completely a waste of time that should barely call itself a root beer!
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 1
Abita
Considering that the Abita company makes some pretty respectable beers, I was really disappointed by their root beer. Made in a true draft style, it wasn’t very carbonated and was just far too sweet. This usually isn’t a problem with cane sugar sweetened root beers, but the addition of molasses along with the Louisiana turbinado cane sugar was just too much in this beverage. There’s a fair amount of yucca in the root beer too, stated to be added to create foam and a strong head, but it mucks with the taste and delivered a completely average head.
http://abita.com/brews/root_beer.php
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 4
Capt’n Eli’s
A friend of mine sent me a couple of these and some Maine Root to try (Thanks Brendan! twitter.com/mainerunnah, dailymile.com/people/mainerunnah). I must say that I’m pretty impressed with what Maine has going on with root beer. I don’t know if it’s because there’s nothing else to do up there, or because root beer goes so well with lobster, but some of the better craft brews I’ve had lately have come from that northerly state.
The first sip of this revealed a bold crisp flavor strong on anise and wintergreen with a hint of vanilla underneath. The beverage had a nice carbonation level that stayed through the whole bottle and didn’t diminish as is so common. There’s a lot of sugar in this root beer (49 grams), but it didn’t seem overwhelmingly sweet. Apparently, this recipe has been around since the 1920s, but the family recently built a business around it. It has also inspired a graphic novel, pretty cool, huh?
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 8.5
Dr. Brown’s
Well, I remembered this as being a premium root beer from when I was a kid, but I guess that shows you what kids know. I was pretty excited to drink this, as I hadn’t had one in a while, but I was quite disappointed. It just didn’t have very much flavor and tasted a bit like the aluminum can it was in. The whole drink was very thin, flavor-wise, but extremely carbonated with almost a fake sweetened taste. Sort of like Splenda or something like that, although it was actually sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup. Not a root beer I’ll be buying again. Sorry, Good Doctor…
This brand is now owned by Pepsi, and apparently it’s available in a 12 oz bottle, but around the south, I’ve only seen it in 12 oz cans. Dr. Brown’s does have a pretty interesting history worth checking out, though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Brown%27s
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 4
Stewart’s
Stewart’s is another historical favorite of mine. Although it doesn’t have the strongest flavor, it tastes like familiarity and childhood. This has always been my go-to root beer after IBC. Although they seem to have increased production and focused on a larger distribution. What I get my hands on is contract bottled and uses HFCS, disappointingly. I imagine those closer to the original location get a slightly different formula. Smooth and creamy, this root beer goes down easily, without a thick aftertaste. It is highly carbonated, and is one of the “burpiest” root beers around, which always makes for family fun 
.
http://www.stewartsdrivein.net/
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 8.5
Fentiman’s Dandelion and Burdock
Again, not a root beer, but a damn interesting drink. This has some similarities to root beer in that there is a strong aniseed presence. I’ve seen this and some of their other sodas around, but never tried them before. Somehow, I was expecting a bitter taste, but this was super sweet, and a complex mix of flavors that were really quite pleasant. Worth a try and I’ll definitely check out some of their other sodas.
www.fentimans.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 7
Blenheim Ginger Ale #3 & #5
Yeah, I know, not a root beer, but I stumbled across some of this and had to buy it because of the nostalgic factor. When I was a kid, every summer when we went to the beach, we would drive through Blenheim, South Carolina. We’d stop and get gas, and my dad would buy us a Blenheim Ginger Ale, ice cold in the bottle out of one of those waist high chest coolers. The company has 3 different formulas, but #3 and #5 (#9 is diet) are the ones worth checking out. #3 is distinguished by the red cap, and it’s formal name is “Old #3 Hot”. This is truly an understatement. The 12 oz bottle is almost difficult to consume, and has an almost overwhelming spicy hot ginger flavor that burns your tongue off! #5 is a little less intense, but still holds it’s own. If you ever see this stuff, it’s worth a try, and it will leave you wondering how Canada Dry and Seagrams can actually be called Ginger Ale…
http://www.blenheimgingerale.com/
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