Virgil's Zero Root Beer

That tag line for this root beer is "you'll swear it's made in heaven."  Unfortunatley, heaven doesn't make root beer like they used to.  To be frank, it barely had a root beer taste at all.  It was clouded (probably a result of being made in heaven) with a huge diet taste of stevia rebaudiana leaf extract and that dang GMO-free caramel color.  Truth be told, I'm not on the up and up on the GMO, and this root beer is not really worth the couple of extra minutes to research it.

I do love the fact that it has zero calories and it's using a sweetner that doesn't cause years of soft-drink induced cancer.  I actually like diet soda a bit too much and it would be nice to find a tasty alternative.  Virgil's Zero Root Beer is not that alternative . . .  although it is a really nice alternative for muddy water.

One other thing that I absolutely love about this root beer can be found right on their web-site.  It says, and I quote, "no sugar alcohols that upset your intestines."  Awesome . . . simply awesome.

Although I've never been a huge Virgil's fan to begin with, I think they have a much "higher standard" to live up to - this brew is a big disappointment.

I give this root beer a   F

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

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