This cola doesn’t have caffeine. Huh? I seriously don’t get it. I thought that was part of the point of cola, right? I guess not. Anyway, this soda lacks that certain uniqueness that cane sugar Coke has, or the excellent distinguished flavor of Pig Iron Cola. There’s simply nothing special about this, although it was slightly reminiscent of Julmust. I wouldn’t buy this again, sorry.
http://traderjoes.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 2
Photo Credit: JoeinSouthernCA (http://www.flickr.com/photos/joebehr/)
Yeah, I don’t know about this one, peoples. It was a “limited edition”, and perhaps for a reason. The caption on the bottle said that Jones “captured winter in a bottle”. That’s probably true if winter tastes like a sickly sweet overly creamy soda that barely tastes like the fruit it’s named after. My wife liked it and that’s never a good sign…
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 2
http://www.jonessoda.com/files/products-canned.php
http://www.jonessoda.com/files/products-glass.php
Contains: carbonated water, inverted cane sugar, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, phosporic acid, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (as preservatives).
Awesome. I love it when this happens. When cool people who love root beer send me free root beer. In this case, it was the good folks at Wild Bill’s. It’s even better when it turns out to be good stuff and I don’t have to slag it in the interest of honest reviewing!
I wasn’t familiar with Wild Bill’s before now, and they’ve got a pretty cool back story (I’ll let you read it yourself – link below). It seems to be not yet widely available, and the guy I spoke to, Donald, says they’re working hard on distribution.
On to the soda: At first sip, it was smooth with a slight carbonated crispness. It’s full of unique yet understated rooty flavors, and the ingredients list details such exotics at quillaia, acacia and yucca. While these are not that uncommon in a quality root beer, quality root beers seem harder to come by these days. In some ways it reminds me of Dad’s root beer. I mean the good original Dad’s, not the HFCS stuff. I handed it to my wife for a sip and she said: “it all tastes like root beer to me, but this one has a nice interesting flavor that isn’t overwhelmingly sweet”. Guys, you have no idea how big a compliment that is.
All in all, a surprising pleasure, and one I’ll be returning to. Donald provided me a sampler of other flavors they make, and I’m looking forward to seeing if the others are as good as the root beer!
*Soda was provided by manufacturer for promotional review
http://www.wildbillssoda.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 8.5
While this is better than their Sarsaparilla, which was pretty weak and flavorless, it’s not too far off. This isn’t a bad root beer, it smells nice, has a really nice head, but it’s just simply average. It’s fairly watered down tasting, and there’s not much of a mouthfeel. The bottle is really cool, though, and has a nice almost embossed-looking etch of a gunslinger that made me go “pew-pew” in my head while drinking it.
http://www.whiterockbeverages.com/SiouxCity.cfm
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 4.5
I get all excited when I find natural sodas. I expect that they are going to be fantastic and flavorful and all healthy and stuff. I think Einstein said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result (I’m paraphrasing). I must be totally insane by now, because none of these natural sodas are cutting it for me. This brew advertises itself as being “brewed in small batches with a complex flavor of bourbon vanilla extract, anise, sarsaparilla, licorice root, birch oil, wintergreen oil and other natural flavors“.
I think in this case they might have benefited from a slightly simpler recipe. All these flavors together are pretty ambitious, and it just came out tasting kind of hollow and metallic. I had two of these and poured the second one out, if that tells you anything.
http://www.natural-brew.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 2
Everyone loves this root beer. By default, that makes me want to not like it, just to be contrarian. However, in this case, I’ve failed myself. Bulldog Root Beer is right up there with the best. I was a bit skeptical at first that it was bottled by Orca Beverages, as they seem to be hit or miss for me with the brands they fulfill bottling for. The flavor of this root beer was full and long lasting with a nice balance of honey and vanilla. Cane sugar and maltodextrin gave the beverage just the right sweetness and full mouth feel without being thick and overly sweet. The carbonation was strong enough to notice, but not overwhelming and lasted throughout the bottle (although the bottle didn’t last long). Nicely done, Bulldog! You’ve won a fan!
www.bulldogrootbeer.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 9.5
I was surprised by this root beer. I got it as part of a a sampler pack of vintage sodas and quite frankly wasn’t expecting much. What I found was a pretty flavorful and robust root beer. I think this brew tastes a bit like old school A&W and has what I would describe as a “typical root beer taste”. By this, I mean that it’s a nice mix of sassafras, licorice and honey that will please most but carries a full flavor for a more *ahem* discerning palette. It was fairly sweet and carried a nice carbonation that wasn’t overwhelming. Definitely worth a try!
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 7.5
In yet another inspired “drink and review soda from my youth” posts, I bring you Nehi Orange. The key to these eloquent and insightful ramblings is that I find the original incarnations of the beverage; glass bottles, cane sugar, you know, just like my Grandmother, “Mawmaw” gave me on the rare occasion that she wasn’t sending me out to mile the cows or pick vegetables or get a “hickory” to receive a (probably) well-earned beating for for some act of insubordination. Where I come from, Nehi, Sundrop and Cheerwine were like the holy trinity of non-cola soft drinks, so it was always a pleasure to get one of these sickeningly sweet treats. My favorites were always grape and orange, but when I saw a display with peach also, I picked up all three. Nehi over the years has made a lot of flavors, many out of production now, but some still available through specialty stores like Galco’s (www.sodapopstop.com) and Old 52 General Store(www.old52.com).
On to the drink itself: Like most of these beverages, I have an idealistic memory of them, and the reality is usually pretty far from what I remember. Nehi Orange is sadly no exception. I could only describe it as “thin” tasting, with not much real orange flavor compensated by a lot of sweetness. However, it wasn’t a tongue coater like a lot of fruit flavored sodas with High Fructose Corn Syrup. I think in this category, I much prefer the excellent Thomas Kemper Orange Cream soda (http://monthlyrootbeer.com/2010/09/12/thomas-kemper-orange-cream/). For me, this drink carries a lot of memories, but I think I’ll keep them intact the way they are…
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 5
So the first time I tried svagdricka a few years ago, I was expecting a root beer like flavor and was shockingly disappointed. It tasted like total crap to me. Now, I went in prepared for something tasting more like beer and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it! Svagdricka is basically a primitive beer that is still enjoyed in Sweden. This particular recipe is from 1884, so the stuff has been around a while… It’s made basically the same way as beer, but with corn malt, hops and brewer’s yeast. However, the fermentation process doesn’t produce much alcohol as there isn’t as much sugar in the malted corn, apparently. Sugar is then added after brewing to create a beer/soft drink hybrid with anywhere between .5% and 1.5% alcohol by volume. To me, the beer it tastes closest to is a bock. There is an undertone of horehound root in there, however, and it took me a while to try to figure out what that taste was. Anyway, if you’re in Sweden, ask a local to help you find some, you can get it in any grocery store. This particular recipe is from 1884, so the stuff has been around a while…
www.kopparbergs.se
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 7
Not sure where they got this name from. Probably from the super carbonation this not so creamy root beer has. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer a crisp carbonation to more traditional, less carbonated draft styles. But, I sort of feel that if you call your root beer “creamy” and “draft style” on the bottle, it should probably be a little more like that, right? Anyway, I ramble. The flavor on this root beer wasn’t bad, and it was nicely sweetened with cane sugar. The whole thing just was kind of average, you know? It tasted a bit uninspired; not bad, but not great. Definitely would have again, but probably wouldn’t seek it out. I bought a sample pack with three of their other flavored beverages, so we’ll see if any of those are better.
Durango Soda Company
www.zuberfizz.com
Monthly Root Beer Rating: 6
This cola doesn’t have caffeine. Huh? I seriously don’t get it. I thought that was part of the point of cola, right? I guess not. Anyway, this soda lacks that certain uniqueness that cane sugar Coke has, or the excellent distinguished flavor of Pig Iron Cola. There’s simply nothing special about this, although it was slightly reminiscent of Julmust. I wouldn’t buy this again, sorry.
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