welcome to anthony's root beer barrel! here anthony reviews root beers, birch beers & sarsaparillas, randomly rambles about the topic and probably some more stuff. so check it all out, feel free to comment on reviews or rate brews yourself.

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Squamscot Old Fashioned Beverages Root Beer

October 31, 2002
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 7:34 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: NH, online Obtained in: from the Root Beer Store
Head: Tiny Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.nhsoda.com/

still another purchase from the rootbeerstore.com! and more proof that you can’t find everything, yet again. i really like this packaging even if it is very generic. i think that is what i like, the versitility of it, just being able to stamp the type of soda on it, very old fashioned, old school if you will. and the bottle cap with the soda type and ingredients, you just don’t see that anymore at all. sadly the soda is not quite as good as i had hoped. i hoped for distinctive, i got innocuous. not awful, just not tasty so much. kind of heavy and a rather syrupy. a lack of much carbonation. sure, it is better than many sodas, but it is way too much like a big label root beer in my mind.
Anthony’s Rating: 72
Your Rating: 69
# of ratings:10

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Capt’n Eli’s Root Beer

October 31, 2002
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 5:17 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: CA, ME, OK, online Obtained in: mailorder from company
Head: Medium Sweetener: cane sugar
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.captneli.com/index.php

another purchase from this fine web store! just goes to show you that you can scour a city or whatever pretty well and miss a ton of sodas as i have been to portland a couple times in the past year or so and came up totally empty. oh well. so this is a solid soda, probably one of the better ones i have had in a while. a complex flavor, which i’d expect as it contains “wintergreen oil, anise, vanilla, spices, herbs” and more. i can taste the wintergreen but not so much the anise. i suppose very subtly. yeh, definitely, it is coming out more as i drink. in theory i don’t like anise much, but when it is not strong and overpowering as here or in a couple other brews i enjoy it. this is a unique beverage in a sea of many many sodas that taste too similar.
Anthony’s Rating: 94
Your Rating: 81
# of ratings:106

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Weber’s Root Beer

October 11, 2002
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 6:19 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: On Tap
Available: NJ, OK Obtained in: Weber’s Drive-In, Pennsauken, NJ
Head: Tiny Sweetener: unknown
Caffeine: No

so i was driving down the road looking for a Muffler Man (another hobby
of mine) when i came upon this rad looking old school restaurant, “Weber’s Root Beer” it proclaimed! so i quickly turned around and pulled in.
a young lass rollerskated up to my car and i asked if there were any transportable root beer containers. she said the gallon one, so i
paid my $8 or whatever and got it. stupidly i let it sit in my fridge for a couple weeks as it now has a sort of sediment on the bottom
and no fizz. i figured it was sealed better. in any case, it is a pretty good soda. not exceptional as i was hoping. a little watered down
perhaps. sweet, a touch of creaminess. also a touch of root beer going bad though. =( sad i have to dump so much out.
but i will be going back to this place when i can, just to try it fresh. i should have gotten a mug of it there but i was not
really thinking. i had just done a tough duathlon so i was a bit tired, hopefully you can forgive me.
Anthony’s Rating: 73
Your Rating: 81
# of ratings:16

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Maine Root. Handcrafted Rootbeer

October 11, 2002
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 2:44 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OK, RI, SC, TX, VT, VA, WV, WI, online, UK Obtained in: mail from the Rootbeer Store
Head: Huge Sweetener: cane sugar
Caffeine: No
Website: http://maineroot.com/

ah, a website that only sells root beer and birch beer! wow! i finally placed an order and this is the first of the reviews from it. which is kind of amusing since i was in Portland, ME just 2 months ago and did not see any root beers anywhere. guess you just have to know where to look… so this is a very simple root beer, 3 ingredients (purified water, all natural cane sugar and spice). although that “spices” thing could be anything and it could be 94734 different spices. the taste is indeed spicey but i cannot place what the spices are… something a little bitter. this definitely has the biggest, most long lasting head of any root beer i have ever had. yet it is not creamy as all. i suppose those are not necessarily characteristics that go together, but i associate them with each other. the taste here is not terribly strong, but it is “natural” and you can taste the cane sugar. i am liking it but it is not for everyone and for some reason i feel like it is a “refined” taste that needs to be sipped and savored and appreciated. i don’t think i have felt that about root beer before. weird. anyhow. Maine does good.
Anthony’s Rating: 85
Your Rating: 84
# of ratings:105

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