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

Well, it’s a classic, right?  Consistent, and pretty yummy, but not the first thing I would reach for anymore.  This root beer tastes like my youth, when my dad always had A&W and Hires around. I hadn’t had A&W since the last time I ate an A&W restaurant, where they serve it draft style.  I prefer it in a can, where the carbonation is a little stronger, and I like it ice cold.

It’s a good fallback, and always a pleasant drink, but my tastes have matured a bit…

Monthly Root Beer Rating: 6

www.rootbeer.com

This stuff is crap.  Just utter crap.

Monthly Root Beer Rating: 1

www.zevia.com

This soda is available exclusively at Target and is actually not bad.  It’s not agressive with flavor, but instead of blending roots, it relies exclusively on sarsaparilla root.  It’s smooth and lightly carbonated and goes down easy.  Made with cane sugar, and perhaps a little sweet for my tastes.  My 10 year old liked it!  Not something I’d have around the house all the time, but worth a taste every once in a while.

Monthly Root Beer Rating: 6

I’m a little excited about the recent “throwback” and “heritage” formulas of Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper. Pepsi has relaunched these for a limited time with cane sugar instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup. I haven’t tried them yet, as I really don’t drink that much soda, and 36 cans would probably go to waste (they are only sold in 12 packs). Anyone had these drinks yet?

http://www.pepsithrowbackhub.com/

http://www.bevreview.com/2010/01/13/heritage-dr-pepper/

There’s a lot of hype about Jones sodas, mainly because of their custom labels, and variety of flavors. Their root beer comes bottled and canned, and I had this can sitting around from a while ago.  Overall, I’m not very impressed with their root beer and I never have been.  It’s not very carbonated and simply doesn’t have much taste, natural or artificial.  I think I would have much preferred just having a water today.  Perhaps their other sodas are better, but this one is a dud.

Monthly Root Beer Rating: 3

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)

Nutritional Facts: Serving Size 1 can (355 mL, 12fl oz), 180 calories, 0g fat, 70mg sodium, 44g carbohydrate, 44g sugar, 0g protein.

In my opinion, IBC is the highest consistent quality mass produced root beer on the market.  While I’m not a fan of high fructose corn syrup, it seems that HFCS is the only sweetener used by soft drink makers when the bottling process is contracted out.  IBC is the one case where I will accept HFCS on a regular basis!  I much prefer IBC in the 12 oz. brown glass bottles they usually come in, but I stumbled across a case of 16 oz. cans for 23 cents each.  Needless to say, I think you know what happened.

Crisp and biting, IBC is pretty heavily carbonated and best consumed cold with bits of ice in it from being chilled to close to freezing.  This root beer has a strong up front sassafras flavor, with little detectable other root flavors.

Monthly Root Beer Rating: 9

http://www.ibcrootbeer.com/

Contains: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), artificial and natural flavors, food starch – modified, citric acid. No Caffeine

Nutritional Facts: Serving Size 1 bottle (12fl oz), 160 calories, 0g fat, 55mg sodium, 43g carbohydrate, 43g sugar, 0g protein.