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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!

NM Sarsaparilla Billy the Kid Sarsaparilla

now when you go to the website for this company you will see they seem to have three (3) sarsaparillas, this one, a Jesse James and a Hatfield & McCoy one. for my purposes I am assuming they are all the same, just different labels. if anyone can tell me differently I'd be super excited.
whatever the case may be, i like that they set out to make a great sarsaparilla first and foremost, before they expanded to other flavors. i highly doubt the fellow on the label has the slightest connection to the infamous Billy the Kid, in part because it is a very recent photo and in part because they also use him for their 'Hillbilly the Kid' soda flavors like grape and orange and so on.
when i popped open the top, this let out an excellent cloud of soda smoke and carbonation. yet the drink itself is virtual devoid of any carbonation at all. the flavor is very solid, if generic, although i don't mean generic like A&W or other mass market root beers. more i mean generic as in many very good microbrew root beers taste exactly like this. i suspect this may just be relabeled or at least run on the same line as at least one other soda I have reviewed. to be honest i do really like it. there is a great deep herbal, rooty taste along with a very solid level of sweetness from the cane sugar.
Ingredients:filtered carbonated water, cane sugar, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, benzoate of soda (preservative), citric acid

Anthony's Rating: 92
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NM Sarsaparilla Pat Garrett Diet Sarsaparilla

I do believe, without checking, which would be easy enough to do of course, that the least represented variety of soda that I review is the diet sarsaparilla. i mean, there are many less sarsaparillas than either root beers or birch beers so of course there are less diets as well. ok, maybe diet spruce beers would be even less represented as I have never encountered one of those but spruce beer in general is an extreme rarity anyway so i don't count them. this company is quite admirable, they began as just a sarsaparilla making company and expanded from there. may as well start with a good thing, right? I am not sure why i started with their diet version instead of the regular, but so be it. it was cold. there is a tagline in the label of "a taste of New Mexico's past" which i will just take as sarsaparilla being that taste, not diet, especially with Nutrasweet. =)
so with many diet sodas, i take a swig, think "hhhm not half day!" then about 20 seconds later, the aftertaste hits and it is gross and vile. but the aftertaste on this one is not as bad. i mean, it is not good, but it is tolerable. the soda itself is decent too. not great, but it would do. reasonably creamy and smooth with some sarsaparilla notes in there although i'd prefer it to be more flavorful than it is even. i think sarsaparillas should be pretty "rooty" and strong tasting. i hope their non diet version is at least. this also has a very long lasting and quite large foamy head if you care for whatever reason for such aesthetic things. i do congratulate them on making one of the best diet sodas i have had. i'm not giving up sugar for this mind you, but if i was diabetic i would definitely partake in this drink when i craved such things.
Ingredients:filtered carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, potassium benzoate (preservative), natural & artificial flavors, citric acid

Anthony's Rating: 51
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Bandit Beverage Root Beer

the track master general Sagi found this gem and was kind enough to share with me! i had never heard of this brand before so it is quite exciting to test it out. i see they also now have a sarsaparilla so i will be placing an order of my own soon i do believe. they seem like a nice bunch of people despite the 'Bandit' moniker. but perhaps they are just crafty bandits and that is all part of the banditry. i didn't realize 'banditry' was an actual word until now! exciting although i thought i made it up which would be a bit more exciting.
upon opening this bottle up, i get a great wafting smell of licorice, which is probably quite indicative of what is in store for me shortly. i enjoy the licorice flavor so i am not let down yet. looking at the ingredients it has cane molasses, that is a new one for me! interesting. my first swig is yummy, yes indeed, lots of licorice taste here. it overpowers the root beer flavor behind it. later drinks just intensify the licorice taste and mouth feel, i am starting to get that sort of cottony cheek/mouth sensation that happens to me (is it just me?) when i eat a bunch of licorice. about half way through it may just be too much, wow, this is really a licorice soda much more than a root beer. but if it says 'root beer' on the label, i must deem it so. plus would people really buy a licorice soda? someone should try that and find out. not me of course, i think it risky but perhaps the Rocket Fizz people should get on that, unless they have already. anyway, if taken slowly this soda is ok, just ok. even spacing out my drinks about 5-10 minutes apart it is overwhelming. this is from a guy who really does like licorice a lot as well.
Ingredients:carbonated water, cane sugar, cane molasses, natural & artificial flavors, caramel color, citric acid and sodium benzoate (preservative)

Anthony's Rating: 68
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Potosi Brewery Root Beer

I fully am in favor of anyone who makes a new root beer. especially one where all proceeds go to charity. i hope those people making that root beer put some effort into it though of course. the label here makes me think they did not do so very well. not that it is awful, it is just very generic and mailed in seeming. it is brown and orange, wood grain looking. I am rather confused by the blurb on the side of the label as well, something about Potosi being where root beer is crafted and that craft being in a museum. i think i know what they are saying but i could be all wrong, mainly as i don't think there is a root beer brewing section in this museum let alone the whole thing being dedicated to the craft of root beer brewing.

along those same lines, often when a brewery makes a root beer, it isn't anything special. they just use generic stuff, often root beer extract to have something for kids and designated drivers or whatever. i am a bit undecided here if they used extract or not. i will assume not as they claim it is crafted a whole lot, but it definitely tastes a lot like a good extract. that isn't so bad though. it is creamy, smooth and highly sweet. in fact i do not recall a soda with this high sugar count or calorie content. i am sure there are some, but wow, that's a lot! yes, it is kind of generic, but high end, craft root beer generic, not grocery store generic. i'd have it again if that was what i craved and i could easily get it.
Ingredients:carbonated water, pure cane sugar, honey, caramel color, natural and artificial flavors, phosphoric and citric acid, sodium benzoate (to preserve freshness)

Anthony's Rating: 86
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