It's been brought to my attention that I haven't "done" Barq's. Well, here it is. What does Barq's have going for it? Kinda spicy. Nice fizz. Everything else is meh. Too sweet, too bland, too pale, and no head to speak of. It's unmemorable, mainstream root beer.
What is interesting is its rather odd history; it wasn't even labeled as root beer at one point. Go look it up on that wikipedia thing everyone's talking about.
Packaging: C
Head: D
Carbonation: A
Taste: B
Final Grade:C+
This one wasn't bad but it wasn't good either, simply mediocre in most respects. It was a little fruity, and also over-sweet, but thankfully it was saved from being cloying by using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. It didn't have a lot of flavour, which is odd for a root beer.
You could do worse than Zuberfizz, but you could do a lot better.
Packaging: C
Head: D
Carbonation: C
Taste: C
Final Grade:C-
Also known as Genuine Hank's Gourmet Philadelphia Recipe Root Beer, this was pretty good. Thick, foamy head and a dark rich colour. It also has a nice carmel flavour and a certain je ne sais quois. I don't know what it was or I'd say so. I also liked that they listed some of the more exotic ingredients right on the label: quillaia, yucca or acacia - you'll find some or all of those in lots of root beer (mostly as foaming agents) but they're not actually detailed.
It was a little bit flat but otherwise a solid choice.
Packaging: B
Head: A
Carbonation: C
Taste: A
Final Grade: B+
Organic? Awesome.
Fair Trade? Wonderful.
This bucket of crap? Terrible.
To quote another taste-tester: "This is the worst root beer I've ever had in my life." I might not go that far, but I will say this: it was pretty bad. Flat, sweet, and with a flavour reminiscent of a mix of fruity tea and medicine (specifically, this stuff I used to have to take called Castoria) this root beer was so bad I had to crack open a different one to get the taste out of my mouth.
Also, the company name is stupid.
Packaging: C
Head: D
Carbonation: D
Taste: D
Final Grade:D+
