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