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