Dad’s

With its dark brown bottle, there was a time when Dad’s was about as far out as root beer got in my neck of the woods. Despite that, I was never a big fan. Now that I’m taking a more scientific approach, that fact has been proven.

It’s bland, sweetened with glucose-fructose, and kind of flat. While not a bad brew, there are plenty of others I’d take before this.

I do like the packaging though.

Packaging: A

Head: D

Carbonation: D

Taste: B

Final Grade: C

 

The Pop Shoppe

Good ol’ Pop Shoppe: Canadian institution, creators of my once-beloved Black Cherry pop, source of the infamous bread-tie-in-a-bottle (long story).

I actually had a hard time describing the taste of this one. It doesn’t have that classic root beer taste. So just what does it taste like? At first I was trying to go with something fancy-schmancy like ‘papaya’ but W. nailed it when she said ‘booze’. There’s a definite and unappealing hint of booziness in there.

I don’t know from types of carbonation, but it was making me burp like a mother. The head was good though. Overall a mediocre root beer in the glucose-fructose style.

P.S. Check out the Pee Wee Herman reference on the side!
 

Packaging: A- (it’s a classic, right?)
Head: A
Carbonation: B (too burpy)
Taste: C
Final Grade: B-

 

 

Blue Sky Creamy Root Beer

Living in hippie-land, I’m pretty familiar with Blue Sky. The funny thing about it is that while you can usually divide the mainstream root beers from the indies by their sweeteners (high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar, respectively) Blue Sky takes a middle road: it’s sweetened with plain old sugar. It’s similar to Stewarts in that it’s highly carbonated, not overly sweet, and with a strong peppermint note. It doesn’t rock my world, but it’s fair.

Packaging: C

Head: B+

Carbonation: A

Taste: B

Final Grade: B

Santa Cruz Organic

What’s wrong with the picture below? Is it supposed to look like this or did I just get a bad batch? It's almost clear, but a little bit brown, like the rusty water that comes out of an unused faucet. If you close your eyes and take a drink it kind of tastes like root beer but it’s also sweet (cane syrup), flat, and, let’s be blunt, the wrong colour. It gets points for being organic but that’s where the appeal ends. On top of everything it has an aspartame-esque aftertaste. Blecch. I was going to dump it out but W said that she’d drink it. She didn’t.

Packaging: D (comes in a can with a bad font)
Head: C
Carbonation: D
Taste: F
Final Grade: D

Real Brew

This was the big loser at the root beer tasting party. Most people felt that it tasted like raisins or prunes. But I’m trying to be objective here. It has nice colour, carbonation, and sweetness that comes from cane sugar. The flavour really is raisin-y. And medicine-y. Specifically, it tastes like Castoria, a delightful medicine I took as a child:

 Off topic, my parents also kept a bottle of this around:

But mine was a tiny glass bottle with camphor oil and lard in it. It must have worked cause I'm still here!

Packaging: B

Head: B

Carbonation: B

Taste: D

Final Grade: B-

Stewarts

Ah, Stewarts, my long time favorite. Winner, by a large margin, in a blind taste test at the legendary root beer party of 2008. How I love your carbonation and your strong peppermint flavour.

I'm sad to say that the Stewart’s bottle, which has always been brown with a high-quality painted label, now has a clear plastic sticker, meant to look like it was painted on. It’s not the same, my friends.

P.S. I had some 'help' with the photos which explains why they look a little shaky...

Packaging: B
Head: B
Carbonation: A
Taste: A
Final Grade: A-

Saranac

This is the last of the Ithaca root beers… *sniff*

Saranac is a very nice, very pleasant corn syrup root beer. It’s not as sweet as the mainstream ones though, which is a plus for me. Dark, not much head, good carbonation. It’s even a little salty, which gave it a good caramel flavour. I recommend it!

 

Packaging: B

Head: C

Carbonation: A

Taste: A

Final Grade: A-

 

Boylan

Here's another local brew, Boylan. It's a dark, syrupy root beer, with a little bit of head and decent carbonation.

It's sweet, but not nauseating, and the cane sugar gives it a fruity, cotton candy flavour.

I'm a fan of the painted label, too. 

Packaging: A

Head: C

Carbonation: C+

Taste: B

Final Grade: B

P.S. I think their motto should be: "The Land is Boylan". Who's with me?

 

 

Jones Root Beer

Jones’ Root Beer is one you’ll see around here. The Jones gimmick is that each bottle has a photo on the label sent in from a member of the public. You, yes you, could be on a Jones label some day! Anyhoo... this is my first review of a domestic brew.

Jones has a nice dark colour, but any head it had disappeared quickly. (If the photo is misleading it’s because the foam freezes against the side of my frosty Mug-mug.) The carbonation isn’t great, maybe even a little flat. The extreme sweetness is brought to you by cane sugar which, for me, is the biggest means of differentiating root beers. It’s like vertebrates and invertebrates in the animal kingdom; you’re either on one side or the other.

The nice thing about Jones is that it’s really spicy. That should be their selling point: “The Potpourri of Root Beers!” W. really liked it but I only give it a passing grade, C+.

Packaging: A-

Head: D

Carbonation: C

Taste: B

Final Grade: C+

Adirondack

Another one from my trip to Ithaca.


So this is a pretty straightforward root beer, sweetened with corn syrup like your classic Mug or A&W. Thankfully it wasn't as sweet as either of those.


The colour was nice and it had a wee bit o' head. Nothing to write home about but I wouldn't kick it out of my glass.


Packaging: B
Head: C
Carbonation: B
Taste: B
Final Grade: B

Sprecher's

According to the four-pack Sprecher's ("Speaker's") box that this root beer came in this brand won a prize somewhere in New York, which is appropriate as it is yet another one that I picked up in Ithaca, New York. I don't know what the award was, but the box is in the garbage now and I'm not digging around to check it out.

I had a good feeling about this one and I wasn't disappointed. It's nice and dark and the head... Exceptional. The real surprise was the sweetness. Like your run-of-the-mill root beers it has high fructose corn syrup, but, unlike them, it also has raw honey. This gave it a nice dusty sweetness that wasn't cloying.

For some reason it has some kind of creature (a griffin?) on the bottle.

Note: Sprecher's also makes the best cream soda that W.A. and I ever had.

Packaging: B
Head: A
Carbonation: B
Taste: A
Final Grade: A for Awesomeness

 

Bulldog

Here's the second of the five root beers I picked up in Ithaca. It has a nice brown colour, a little bit of head and a good amount of carbonation.

The problem with this one is that it doesn't taste like root beer, it tastes like ultra-sweet raspberry soda. If you like cane sugar cough syrup this one is for you.


Package: meh, it's OK. B
Head: C
Carbonation: B
Taste: D
Final Grade: C

Avery's

This is the first of five root beers I picked up while in Ithaca, New York. One I got from a P&C grocery store, the others came from the Finger Lakes Beverage Center, which I went to on the basis of GR's excellent recommendation.

First, I love the packaging on this bottle. It looks like something you'd take for a case of the croup.

Sadly, it's the best thing about it.

There were several warning signs: many of the differing Avery products were unlabeled, they were all filled to different levels, and, in the car after we bought our stuff, TR opened a bottle of something from Avery and tried unsuccessfully to down it.

When poured out, the dark brown brew had no head to speak of, was virtually flat, and thanks to who-knows-how-much cane sugar was so sweet that it made me nauseous. The flavour was raisin-y, which isn't uncommon in an old fashioned root beers, but was pretty unwelcome nonetheless. In the end I took a few sips and dumped it down the drain. :*(

Packaging: A
Head: F
Carbonation: F
Taste: F
Final Grade: E for Ewww.