Forest Park Root Beer

also a vanity soda, but quite a good one. creamy, sweet and a bit of an anise taste. mostly though it is just a solid root beer. a good flavor that would go well with ice cream or pizza or almost anything else i’d imagine. alright, so i guess it is hard to right about the good sodas also. it is just good, there is not a whole lot else to expound upon… look for it with a different label in your neck of the woods.

Anthony’s Rating: 88
Your Rating: 83
# of ratings:37

Forest Park Birch Beer

i am assuming this is another vanity labeled product, much like Private Label or Clearwater. this one though seems to be made with better ingredients including real cane sugar, anise, clove, sweet birch, wintergreen & vanilla. you can taste them all too which makes for a quite tasty brew. the wintergreen is not overwhelming either, none of it is really, just adding a little piece to the overall taste. the anise / wintergreen combination is an interesting one that works alright but might be pushing it a bit. interesting and pretty tasty, but not exactly what my taste buds prefer most of all. although a birch beer that is creamy is interesting. yummy.

Anthony’s Rating: 86
Your Rating: 84
# of ratings:81

Villa (UK) 330 Sarsaparilla

ok, so $am emailed me a bit ago and told me of a new drink he had found, offering to send me a sample. i, of course, wanted some, so it came over the pond, many thanks to Sam once again! well, let me try it first… ok, well, now i see a trend as this tastes similar to the Free Natural root beer. that is, it is fruity, rather bubble gum-like, although this is not nearly as bad as either of the Free Natural brews, this is still quite bad. and why ruin the fine sugar taste with both saccharin AND aspertame?! that makes no sense, if it is a diet drink, put no sugar, if it is not a diet drink don’t put artificial sweeteners. or maybe i just don’t get English regulations or something. could be some plan to not let the population get as fat as some Americans. but it adds the awful aftertaste of those artificial sweeteners without really taking away much as far as calories go. anyway, avoid this one too, especially is you want something that taste remotely like sarsaparilla.
Anthony’s Rating: 13
Your Rating: 34
# of ratings:6

Sparky’s Fresh Draft Root Beer

woo hoo, is this good! the honey is at just the right levels and it has a very slight birchy / wintergreen taste. perhaps that is one of the “botanical extracts” or something. not to say it tastes like a birch beer at all since this is a root beer taste. there are some other spices present that give it a bit of an edge, a kick, a bite if you will, i would guess anise is present. one of the best root beers i have ever had. they take the traditional “root beer taste” and add exactly what is needed to improve on it.
so it seems like the Knox family (who brew this stuff) sent out samples to a few other root beer reviewing sites, so i was reading what they thought of it just now. of course people disagree (Spike!) but i am right on this one, trust me.

Anthony’s Rating: 95
Your Rating: 86
# of ratings:429

Walgreens Root Beer

this is a decent soda. a bit stronger of a taste than your usual generic rootbeer, it is almost herbal. although that could just be that it is going bad for being a couple months old. i will get another bottle and find out later today. for some reason, i delay drinking the generic, store brands longer than the glass bottled, micro brews. probably since this kind of thing is cheaper and there is a Walgreens everywhere so i can get another bottle very easily. so yeh, decent soda, a real lack of carbonation though. a bit too syrupy sweet too. ok, so i got a new bottle, it is about the same with a bit more carbonation.

Anthony’s Rating: 36
Your Rating: 45
# of ratings:26

Top Pop Root Beer

it is root beer, how different could it be? ok, enough trying to be funny anthony. my point really is that this is generic in price and taste. tastes like you’d expect, much like A&W, or any store brand really. not a bad thing, just not the best thing. people say it is hardest to write about the good things, but i think the bad and good are about as easy to write about. the mediocre things are the really tough ones.
Anthony’s Rating: 63
Your Rating: 83
# of ratings:4

Trader Joe’s Organic Root Beer

a gift this time from my friend Mike M, also a Boston Root Beer Crew representative. he laughed as he pulled this out of the fridge for me. i mean, why make a bottle this weird looking and still have it be such a doppy size?! 1 Liter, who cares about that?! oh well, anyway… the bottle shape makes it easy to hold i guess although it comes out of the bottle strangely. honestly i don’t taste a lot here. faintly i can taste the anise and wintergreen but the cane sugar, or sweetener, i don’t really taste distinctly. it has a bit of a “rootbeer” taste with a slight little sharp tinge but not too much. decent soda but nothing special.
Anthony’s Rating: 44
Your Rating: 58
# of ratings:14