Duffy's Rowdy Root Beer

It's been a long time since the last review . . . about 18 months in fact.  My love for root beer hasn't changed, but I just can't drink it like I used too.  I didn't even drink the full bottle of this brew - I split it with my lovely assistant.

On to the beer.  I picked this because it said it's a Colorado legend.  Plain and simple, legends are cool.  It was originally created when a man was canned by a large soft-drink company.  Out of spite, jealousy or maybe it was just because he loved soda, he created a line of his own soft-drinks.  Fast-forward a couple of decades and somehow this soda was lost and forgotten, which isn't that hard to believe (more on that later).  And what was once old and forgotten was found in a locked safe and brought back to life in 1995 (there are some who feel it should have remained dead and buried).

The low sugar content was another reason I decided to pick this up.  Many root beers can get close to 45g of sugar in a 12oz. bottle, but Duffy's tops out at a meager 25g - and pure cane sugar no less!  For this reason alone I'd probably drink this again . . . and it's pretty darn philonthrapic to support local businesses.

Other than the low sugar and the local part there's not much going for this root beer.  It's alright . . . it's not offensive . . . it's pretty smooth . . . but that's about it.  The most exciting part of the soda was that my assistant and I had a spirited argument over whether there was any mint flavor present.  Sadly, the web-site doesn't provide any further info. on the mint or any of the natural flavors.

In a sea of root beer choices, this one sits squarely in the middle of the pack and sadly this brew probably won't be added to the new curriculum for "Root Beer 101."

I give this root beer a      B -

Zevia Ginger Root Beer

I have been checking this root beer out for quite some time. It is practically in every grocery store I visit, but the price on this baby is out of this world. I think the cost is over $6 for a 4 pack or a 6 pack. While I guess that is only about $1 a can, I normally don't like to pay that much for a canned root beer, and especially a canned root beer that looks like it's going to taste gross. I was lucky to find an individual can at Whole Foods the other day - so one and done baby!

Enough about cost . . . what makes this brew so unique is that it is a diet soda without actually being diet. It has no artificial sweetners and yet has zero calories!! Zevia uses a combination of stevia and Erythritol to sweeten the beverage. The interesting part is that even though there are no artificial sweetners - it still tastes a little like a diet beverage. Don't ask me how they do it - it just does.
But with that being said - I would drink this on occassion instead of a regular diet root beer. Hey - it is all natural, no calories, no cancer causing diet ingredients (well . . . at this moment stevia has not been shown to cause cancer, but give it a few years and I'm sure it will be labeled as a carcinogen), and the taste is okay. This isn't going to win any awards, but I'm sure it will be followed by a host of organic, all-natural type people who love this ginger flavored brew.

As far as the professor goes . . .I'm still undecided - my first couple of sips weren't too goodbut by the middle of the can it got pretty good. But now as I'm finishing the last couple of sips I think it is giving me a headache.

I give this brew a C -

Hannaford Diet Root Beer

Get excited now folks - this is your opportunity to read about a store-brand diet root beer! I did this review alone, as I really don't like to expose the little professors to diet sodas. Although, for the most part this is all I drink - so my diet taste buds are actually quite refined.

When poured the brew it had a pretty impressive root beer color and a pretty impressive head. But when I sipped this beer it went downhill pretty quick. Smack, slam, wake-up - this is one of the nastiest diet flavors that has ever been attached to a root beer.

Pretty bad stuff - but sadly I will drink the rest of the 2 liter bottle. No reason to let a bottle of aspartame go to waste.

I give this brew a . . . F

IBC Root Beer

Back at it again after a long absence . . . I already have an aversion to IBC Root Beer, because it tries to pass itself off as a hand-crafted micro-brewed root beer but it is nothing more than a Barq's, A&W, or Mug in a bottle. But be that as it may, it is really not all that bad (cough, cough).

Let's start with the downside - It has high-fructose corn syrup and a lot of it - 43g. And it has a pretty standard taste - nothing is really gonna blow your socks off. Good, but not spectacular. My little professors thought differently though. Professors # 2 & 3 said this was the best root beer they ever had (although I think they say this every time they taste a brew). Professor # 2 also said that this root beer was quite frizzy - kinda like when your foot falls asleep frizzy! I'm assuming she means that this root beer had a good amount of carbonation in it :) The picture show Professor # 2 holding a bottle of IBC.

IBC had a real nice head and it had a nice licorice/anise smell to it. I thought it was quite creamy, but it also finished with a good bite. And the packaging is great - a very very cool bottle! All in all - I must admit - IBC is really not all that bad. It is fun to be reviewing some brews again

I give this brew a . . . C +

Polar Classics Premium Root Beer

On a recent trip to Virginia I stopped in a Jewish market and I asked for some kosher root beer - they sort of looked at me like I had two heads.

But at a regular supermarket I did find some kosher root beer - Polar classics Premium Root Beer. I won't say much about this root beer, but I really liked the look of the bottle and the packaging. The flavor profile of this brew is actually pretty simple, but really good. The pure cane sugar, licorice and/or anise really shines. That's about all I have to say about that . . .

I give this brew a B +

Doumar's Root Beer

Doumar's is located in Norfolk, VA and it's claim to fame is not the root beer, but rather it's ice cream cones. Abe Doumar was the first to create the cone itself - he first sold it at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Doumar's still makes their own cones today and they are still made on the same machine that Abe Doumar created! My whole family had ice cream cones and they tasted pretty fantastic.

I also tried their root beer which is a unique root beer although I don't think they make it at their store. They put too much ice in the cup, but the ice was chopped into small bits and my daughter (little professor # 2) loved the slushy root beer effect. The root beer was a little syrupy with heavy licorice and wintergreen flavors shining through. This root beer should probably not be rated too high, but because of the cool atmosphere and neat ice-cream cone experience, I have a lot of happy endorphins flowing through my brains so . . .

I give this root beer a B -

Diet Barq's

Printed in big bold letters is the phrase "artificially flavored". It almost seems like they are proud of it - whatever . . .

I tend to drink a lot more of diet soda than regular ones - so here it goes!

Every sip of this brew (I don't know if it should even be called a brew) gets worse and worse. This actually doesn't even taste like a root beer - it is sort of fruity with maybe a little bit of a cherry taste. The carbonation, smell, head, and color don't really even seem to matter - because it doesn't seem like a root beer to me.

As far as the "dietness" of the taste goes - I have had a lot worse. I don't sense a lot of the artificial sugar taste - although it does have a bite and I guess part of that could be related to the aspartame. Oh well . . .

I give this brew an F

Deerfield Trading Company

Old Fashioned Root Beer

Deerfield Trading Company Root Beer is packaged exclusively for Walgreens. But when I checked out walgreens.com, there was not mention of the root beer or the company. There were some other Deerfield products - but it was called "Deerfield Farms" and I suspect that it is a different company.

Anyway - it is pretty neat that Walgreens would have a gourmet root beer in addition to their generic brand. I was expecting a half decent brew - given that they would take the time and effort to make a root beer with no "high fructose corn syrup" and that they would bottle this instead of plopping it in a can or plastic bottle. Unfortunately, I was "big-time" disappointed!!

I've read some half-decent reviews of the brew on other web-sites, but I didn't find anything half-decent at all. This root beer had virtually no head with a light root beer color. The brew tasted very watery and it was extremely light on taste. One of my family members commented that it didn't really even taste like a root beer at all. There was a bite at the end of each swallow of beer, but it didn't make up for the overall lack of root beerness in this concoction.

I give this brew a F+

Natural Brew Draft Root Beer

When I began reviewing root beers about ten years ago this was one of the first root beers I reviewed. In Virginia this was so plentiful, but in the north this is the first I have seen.

I think that this is what an "all-natural" root beer should taste like. Too many root beers end up tasting the same, but this has a unique flavor that sets it apart. I know that some people think it is nasty, but I could drink a lot of this brew. It is a very creamy beer which stems from the bourbon vanilla extract - and to me the wintergreen and the birch oil really stand out - but not in offensive "in your face" kind of way. Other special ingredients include anise, sarsaparilla, and licorice root. It has a light root beer color, a small head, and a really (I mean really) light carbonation. It also keeps below the 40 g of sugar threshold (it weighs in at 39 g of sugar).

My youngest little professor said that she loves it and that it tastes super!! And I have to agree.

I give this brew a B

Keg Style Root Beer

This is the first review of 2010 and the first review in almost a year. My son and daughter (professors in training) got the itch to taste and review more root beers - so here we go!!

I will begin to comment on what my son said about this root beer. He commented how the root beer smell came out of his nose when he drank the brew. And he also began to dip his popcorn in the soda and thought that it tasted great.

I thought that this Keg Style Brew had a good bit of foam with a nice, rich, dark root beer color. It was a very sweet tasting root beer - actually too sweet for my taste (it has 46g of sugar per serving). This concoction is actually distributed by Walmart and being a "cheapo" brand it could be a lot worse. Don't expect a lot from this soda, but at the same time it is not all that bad. Unfortunately, I really don't have much else to say about this root beer.

My son wants to give this brew a C + But . . .

I give this brew a C

Henry Weinhards Root Beer

Talk about some serious and long-lasting head. The foam tastes really good as well. I remember having a root beer a while back that had great head, but it tasted sort of foul – not this brew!

I have been waiting to taste this brew for quite some time. I got this at Leo’s Diner in Cambridge, MA. Cool little spot with a few unique sodas that you really can’t get to easily on the East Coast.

The interesting ingredients in this root beer are vanilla extract, honey essence and acacia sassafras extract. I’d say all of these three flavorings are noticeable in the taste. The sassafras gives it the slightly bitter after-taste and it competes with the smoothness of the vanilla and honey. In fact, this after-taste can be a little too much at times.

I would love to know a little more about the honey though – just what is honey essence?? And what about the acacia?? I read up on acacia a little bit, but I won't try to explain it right now. If you are interested in knowing more about acacia then check out this web-site - http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Acacia .

To top it all off I really love the packaging of this root beer – very cool indeed. Overall though, this is a really smooth, creamy brew with a nice overall flavor. Not quite enough be an “A” brew, but still very solid.

I give this brew a B +

Lost Trail Root Beer Co.

Lost Trail gets the dubious distinction of being the first root beer reviewed. This is actually one root beer that I have never tried before. Got this at a really cool diner in Cambridge, MA that has a few different root beers that are not local. Can’t remember the name of the diner for this post, but it will come to me at some point.

I am really thirst right now, so I practically have this 12 oz. brew drunk in about 2 gulps – so I will try my best. The head was real small and the carbonation was real light. I’m not sure if it is supposed to be this way or if the bottle was old. I actually prefer a lighter carbonation anyway. A very, very creamy root beer indeed.

Overall, this is a real enjoyable brew. Not really anything spectacular, but definitely something that I would drink again. There is one distinct flavor that comes through – I think it might be licorice or anise. Other than this flavor it is certainly not a complex root beer.

It is made with real sugar which is always a plus and it only has 37 g of sugar for the whole bottle.

I do love the label and the root beer story from the journal of Joe Marshall back in 1848. I’ll give it a few extra points for that.

I give this brew a B