Welcome!

November 14, 2011
Filed under: random junk — anthony @ 12:56 pm

Hello and welcome to the oldest, largest and frankly the best root beer reviewing site in the world! over 625 brands reviewed so far! i also throw in birch beer and sarsaparilla reviews occasionally while i am at it since to me, they are the same genre. once in a while i even detour into other branches of the root beer tree, such as spruce beer, dandelion & burdock and the like. a new review publishes every week on Monday with the random post or review of root beer related stuff every once in a while. feel free to submit your own ratings, check out the rankings from me and other visitors, see what sodas are available near you and more. make a float, tap a keg or mix some extract up and enjoy!

anthony (me) started reviewing root beer related drinks in '96 but has always loved the delicious joy of root beer and birch beer and just kept it going ever since. if you have any suggestions of features you'd like to see or sodas you want reviewed, let me know!

 
 

Chowning’s Tavern Root Beer

June 18, 2018
Filed under: root beers — anthony @ 5:00 am
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: VA

Obtained in: Delray, FL
Head: Medium Sweetener: sugar, honey
Calories: 170 Sodium: 35mg
Carbs: 42g Sugar: 42g
Caffeine: No

this may very well be the current version of Dominion Root Beer but i haven't purchased that one in quite a long time so i will just assume it is not. it is probably the same thing as Hard Times Root Beer as the ingredients are the same yet i was told this is a unique recipe for them so i will go with that. most likely they lied to me though. but hey, i need some more new sodas so i will just trust the colonial people. anyway, this soda is made for the restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg by Dominion. If you have never been to Colonial Williamsburg, it is pretty much the Disney World of colonial recreation places. it is a pretty large town with people performing all of the jobs and pretending to live life as it was in colonial times. granted i have not been there in a good 30 years or so myself, but it is rather fun. blacksmiths, farmers, coopers all operate alongside kids rolling hoops, ladies dipping candles and churning butter and other such things. i will have to bring my kids one day.
so the soda you ask? well, the label is fun and sort of old time, with a pen and ink illustration of a fellow trying to uncork a bottle of what i assume to be root beer. he seems to only have two fingers and some rocking fingerless gloves on as well as a fine hat and tunic of sorts. he is very engrossed in the task at hand. very nice.
oh, how does it taste? smooth, sweet and pretty solid. the honey is there and makes itself known but doesn't take over, which is a nice thing, although i do love honey so i don't mind when it is stronger. the balance between honey tasting and overly syrupy sweet though is a tough line to tread so it is best to just avoid such matters. there is a little bit of spice in the mix that adds to the yum and the vanilla keeps it creamy and makes it go down cleanly. it is a good root beer, verging on great, but it really does come across similar to many others, even besides the two mentioned above that probably are it.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar, honey, root beer extract #214, root beer extract #79-400, citric acid, sodium benzoate – a preservative, yucca, vanilla


Anthony's Rating: 87
User's Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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Sapp Organic Birch Tree Water Rosehip

June 11, 2018
Filed under: other reviews — anthony @ 5:00 am
Type: Other Comes In: 10oz glass bottle
Available: everywhere

Obtained in: Shoprite in Bound Brook, NJ
Head: None Sweetener: none
Calories: 10 Sodium: 0mg
Carbs: 3g Sugar: 3g
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.sapplife.co

i am quite hesitant to try this. the other two flavors were quite not tasty to say the least. of course this one could be delicious so i am keeping an open mind here. but then i think "anthony, if rose hip was a miraculous flavor enhancer, wouldn't it be in many drinks? wouldn't we see rosehip Pepsi or at least Fanta?" so my hopes are quite low here.
now i will try it. huh. maybe i am just more used to the taste of birch sap by now. this actually isn't too bad. huh. i would in fact drink this occasionally. so maybe rosehips are an amazing substance! improving vitamin c absorption (or something) and also making birch sap taste reasonably ok. i'm not saying this is super good or even nearly on the level of a good birch beer or root beer, but the intention is more to get manganese here i would say for whatever reason people try to get manganese in their system. i guess it is good for rehydration. i should have drank this after my 5:45 spin class instead of much later in the day when i am probably quite hydrated from the water i have been drinking. oh well, opportunity missed. but really this is decent tasting, better than coconut water, which it competes with i think, although much more expensive.
Ingredients:organic birch sap (96.5%), organic rosehip


Anthony's Rating: 40
User's Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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Ramblin Butterscotch Root Beer

June 4, 2018
Filed under: root beers — anthony @ 5:00 am
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: CA, GA, online

Obtained in: trade with Eric
Head: Huge Sweetener: sugar
Calories: 150 Sodium: 5mg
Carbs: 37g Sugar: 37g
Caffeine: No

so here we have the second offering in the newly added, expanded Ramblin line up! well, the second flavored one, as the original, regular root beer is the first really. there have been a few butterscotch root beers entering the market in recent years. and much like a box of chocolates if you don't look at the top, you never know what you are going to get. sometimes they are quite good, the added flavor works. but other times things are not right, it goes very wrong and tastes like an awful chemical spill in your mouth. i hope this one is in the former camp.
nope, it is not. sorry Ramblin, this is quite terrible. the butterscotch is just too strong and not the good, Werther's Originals kind of butterscotch, but instead the very cheap bright yellow candy butterscotches which have nothing from nature four times removed in them. it is barely a root beer, or at least i have a hard time finding that flavor in there. not that that is the worst thing but i do like the taste of root beer, if that is not apparent. the foam on this is quite huge, so that is something.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, potassium benzoate (as preservative), natural flavor, quillaia extract, and phosphoric acid


Anthony's Rating: 41
User's Rating: 0
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Ramblin Maple Root Beer

May 28, 2018
Filed under: root beers — anthony @ 5:00 am
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: CA, GA, online

Obtained in: trade with Eric
Head: Large Sweetener: sugar
Calories: 150 Sodium: 5mg
Carbs: 37g Sugar: 37g
Caffeine: No

two things i love in this world are maple syrup and root beer. there are lots of other things on that list, like my family, marshmallows (vegetarian of course), oreos, and the other usual things. i think maple is a far too underutilized sweetener, especially in the root beer world. there are a few sodas out there that use it, but none really claim to be a "Maple Root Beer!" although the others actually list maple syrup in the ingredients, this one i can only assume has maple as one of the 'natural flavors.' i must admit i am fully in favor of this reboot of the Ramblin' brand and even more so of this expansion of it into other flavors of root beer. i hope they continue with it and add even more beyond the two they have put out so far. perhaps a cherry root beer, the world is ready.
the maple taste here is quite front and center in the overall flavor profile. it works pretty well but not perfectly. the taste is a little sickly sweet and that is saying i lot as i like sweet things. the root beer flavor underneath it is decent, nothing too complex, but when they add that maple twist on top so no need to do much else tricky here. i don't know if i would buy this again. it is fine and i am very glad i tried it, but even among root beers with maple flavoring, this is not the top of the pops.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, potassium benzoate (as preservative), natural flavor, quillaia extract, and phosphoric acid


Anthony's Rating: 80
User's Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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