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-