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Hello and welcome to the oldest, largest and frankly the best root beer reviewing site in the world! over 550 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!

Best Health’s Root Beer

so my great friend Mike will occasionally text me asking if i have had a root beer he has found, sometimes even sending a photo too. most of the time i have had it and i appreciate the inquiry. but then one day he sent me a photo of this one and i was astounded as i had never even heard of it! he bought me one and i had to wait until we met up again as that is not often enough these days, a few times a year sadly. the next time i saw him we both forgot to make the transfer. but the time after THAT he had it all ready and out for me to have! woo hoo!
looking at the website for this, it is made by the people who make Iberia stuff, lots of latino food. they also make DG beverages who have a great ginger beer and Ting soda which is yummy. plus loads of other "ethnic" foods. so i am not sure what to make of this, a lot of their products are very generic it seems, but this appears to be less so. they claim it is "since 1937″ which could very well be, but seems a little shady. whatever, i will take them at their word and move on.
the overall style of the bottle is pretty good, but somehow generic to me. a clear glass 12 oz bottle with a label of three colors with claims of "authentic fountain style" and "made with 100% pure cane sugar" adorning it. plus a little picture of an old soda hop type guy with a clear drink on a tray, or perhaps an empty glass and straw, i cannot tell.
this has got to be the most vanilla smelling soda i have ever reviewed! wow! smells like a cream soda. for whatever reason, although i love vanilla things, i don't like cream soda. ergo i am really hoping this does not taste like a cream soda also. yeah, it doesn't exactly taste like a cream soda right off, but the end taste definitely fades into a cream soda aftertaste. at first i get the root beer type taste with a heavy serving of vanilla, but then it fades to just be vanilla and makes my belly hurt a bit. it is super sweet also. cane sugar being ingredient #2 might just do that though. =) i don't mind the sweetness, i do mind the insane vanilla flavor. that aspect drags this one down for me. other people, such as my wife, might totally love this drink. sadly she is not around right now to offer her opinion, but i know her root beer tastes pretty well by now so i can say she'd enjoy it much more than me. maybe you will too
Ingredients:triple filtered carbonated water, cane sugar, natural flavors, vanilla extract, caramel color, citric acid and sodium benzoate (to preserve freshness)

Anthony's Rating: 71
User's Rating: 0
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Homemade Soda Co Sassy Sarsaparilla

ok, well, this is a new concept for me. this company makes extracts, four (4!) different root beers, a birch beer and a sarsaparilla. i figured i could do what i have done in the past with soda syrups and just add it to seltzer in the recommended amount and have a drink. whoa, yuck! i had not realized that syrups and extracts are quite different in that extracts are not sweetened while a syrup is. that makes sense but it complicates things a bit more for my purposes. all i can really do is try to follow their directions anyway and see what results. yet, the instructions are for making a five gallon batch with yeast carbonation. i don't want to make that much, i just want a glass. and i don't want to yeast carbonate as it always taste bad. so i am just going to guess a bit with some simple syrup, seltzer and this extract. an inexact science but close enough. i think i will also try making it with my soda siphon as they also have directions for that method, even though it requires more planning.
so after all that, how is it? as i can kind of make it how i want it to taste, it is pretty decent. i made it pretty sweet but with a good amount of flavor. it is pretty strong and "rooty" if that helps describe it. very robust and hearty, it is not your average sarsaparilla. it delivers on that "sassy" promise. not like Sassy magazine either. well, maybe like mid 90s Sassy when it was pretty good and interesting, in between when it was lame. i have no idea if it is even still around. probably not. so yeah, the soda… you can taste the herbs and feel like this is more authentic to how sarsaparilla once tasted. which is not to say that it is amazing. it is fine and ok, but i don't love it and wouldn't make it all the time. or crave it at night or something. i will try it with the siphon and see how that turns out though, perhaps it will be tastier.
ok, i am back, some time later. i have made it with the siphon this time. i would say it is about the same. which actually surprises me, i thought it would be sweeter or stronger, but i suppose i got the amounts right last time. cool. but the rest of this batch of sodas i will just do in the siphon, it is pretty easy really and i have the process down well. it is a decent soda but not the best or the worst. good but not spectacular.
Anthony's Rating: 72
User's Rating: 0
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Yacht Club Diet Root Beer

well, another beautiful bottle here, this time it is a painting of Beavertail Point on the label. i suppose since the root beer and sarsaparilla were mediocre, if this one is really good it has a chance of being better than the sugar versions! we shall see. somehow i doubt it.
well, may as well get to it, right?
ok, not too awful…
worse than the regular though but not by a lot really..
not the worst diet soda i have had. but honestly i don't get it, do people who drink diet sodas honestly enjoy them? the flavor is just not good, even ignoring the metallic taste from the aspertame. so few diet sodas taste like their sugary counterparts. this one kind of does, bitter, not quite sweet enough, just not so great. and throw in the metal kick and it is not so yummy. but it is not awful. it is sort of a trade off here between the regular and the diet, with the regular you get some calories but it tastes a little better, with the diet you get scary artificial sweetener, no calories and a little worse taste. so take your pick really.
i just hope i can find the birch beer one day and that it is awesome.
Ingredients:carbonated natural artesian water, aspartame, natural and artificial root beer flavor, citric acid, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative)

Anthony's Rating: 58
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Rocky Mountain Soda Co Rocky Mountain Root Beer

now the root beer comes under scrutiny! i do hope it is better than the birch was. the name is a bit clunky. granted it does not actually appear that way, with all eight words, anywhere. it is more for my own reference and ease of showing its connection to the birch beer. i hope it tastes better than the birch did.
the label is quite cool once again. this time they have put a very detailed pen and ink drawing of what i would call a "mountain goat" or perhaps a "ram". i don't know if those are actually the same beast or not. i am sure their website would tell me exactly what it is but i will wallow in a lack of certainty/rest easy not really caring.
the taste? it is pretty high in the licorice flavoring, which is not a bad thing to me, but is to many people. you can taste the root beer flavor behind that so it is not overwhelmed by licorice on my tongue. again though, i enjoy licorice so others may not be able to see beyond that aspect of the flavor. it is a semi-hearty root beer, the root flavor being upfront although it is not bitter in any way. i am not sure if the beet sugar makes a real taste difference, the sweetness is good and tastes like sugar to me. they could up the sweetness a bit for my tastes but i am ok with where it is as secondary to the roots and other flavors.
Ingredients:carbonated colorado water, rocky mountain beet sugar, natural flavors, potassium sorbate as a preservative

Anthony's Rating: 81
User's Rating: 0
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