A friend of mine on dailymile.com (Jeni H – http://www.dailymile.com/people/JeniH) sent me a 6-pack of this root beer, as she is very considerate and knows about this site and wanted to support my “habit”.  Thanks, Jeni!

This root beer has a pretty great back story, as Dorothy Molter apparently went into the North Woods of Minnesota and took up residence on the Isle of Pines in Knife Lake.  Here, she operated a “resort” (a few cabins) that she inherited from the previous caretaker and in the process of living there for half a century became a local legend.  She made and sold root beer to visitors and travelers, and was know far and wide as “The Root Beer Lady” with a catch phrase of “kwitchurbeliakin”.

Great story, and you can read more of it on the site below.  The actual root beer, although nicely packaged seems like a neutered homage to the kind of root beer a lady like Dorothy Molter must have made by herself with all natural ingredients.  Nicely carbonated, the rest of the ingredients include High Fructose Corn Syrup and a lot of synthetic ingredients that Dorothy herself didn’t have access to and probably never heard of.  It actually kind of tastes like a formulaic root beer syrup that has Acacia and Quillaia extract added to it.  Not unpleasant, just not great or distinguished at all.

Jeni says that she is sending another variety from Minnesota that she admits is better, and I’m looking to get a nice little Minnesota/Maine rivalry going on here.  Thanks again, Jeni!

www.rootbeerlady.com

Monthly Root Beer Rating: 6 (bonus points for back story)

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