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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Weis Choice Birch Beer

January 20, 2005
Filed under: birch beers reviews — anthony @ 9:17 pm
Type: Red Birch Beer Comes In: 12 oz can
Available: MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV Obtained in: VA
Head: Small Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.weis.com

mmmm, a red birch beer! and actually it is good! not generic at all. in fact it tastes berry-ish. strawberry I would say. weird. but it does work, sort of. i hate strawberry soda so i am surprised that i like this at all. it is more in the aftertaste that the strawberry comes out and then just for a moment, very quick-like. besides that it is very sweet, has a slight wintergreen zing and tastes good. the sweetness level may in fact be too high though for me, which is quite an acheivement.
Anthony’s Rating: 72
Your Rating: 92
# of ratings:4

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Weis Choice White Birch Beer

January 16, 2005
Filed under: birch beers reviews — anthony @ 9:15 pm
Type: White Birch Beer Comes In: 12 oz can
Available: MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV Obtained in: VA
Head: Small Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup, sugar
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.weis.com

a couple of days after I reviewed the diet version of this above quite some time ago, i got a couple of emails from people asking why i reviewed just the diet when the regular, full of calories version is so good. i told them that that was what Dr Wayne had sent me and if they would be so kind as to send another variety i would be happy to pay for the costs and postage and all. no one ever replied. so i was happy when i recently saw a Weis Supermarket for myself and was able to get the full line of their sodas. this one is indeed quite tasty. i do enjoy the white birch beer quite a bit. i don’t know if it is because white birch beer is a unique flavor and you don’t find it that much but i just enjoy it more in general than other flavors, even if it is generic and store brand. but yeh, this has the wintergreen kick, is quite refreshing and crisp. good stuff.
Anthony’s Rating: 75
Your Rating: 85
# of ratings:21

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Best Yet Root Beer

January 16, 2005
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 9:12 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12 oz can
Available: NY Obtained in: Watertown, NY
Head: Medium Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup
Caffeine: No

ah yeh, more store brand root beer! hhhmm, actually it is different. very carbonated which seems to cover the actual taste. yet that actual taste seems to be very small. which i suppose, is better than it being a bad taste which is overwhelming. or a bad taste in general. i mean, this tastes fine, what there is of it to taste. i would have a hard time even knowing this was root beer if i did not read the can. i suppose that means it fails as a generic root beer and pretty much as a beverage on the whole, at least for me who does not like carbonated tasteless stuff. oh well.
Anthony’s Rating: 37
Your Rating: 39
# of ratings:3

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Mt Tom Beverage Co Rollie’s Root Beer

January 12, 2005
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 9:09 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: CT, MA Obtained in: in MA by Mikey BaggaDonuts
Head: Large Sweetener: cane sugar, honey, maple syrup
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.papercity.com/

i had been planning on trying to obtain some of this stuff next time i went up to Massachusetts, but then my friend Mile brought me a bottle of it. this is quite interesting i must say. spicy in the way a ginger beer is spicy. in fact i would probably guess it was a ginger beer if this were a blind taste test. which is not to say it is bad at all. just actually different than any other root beer i have had. and that is saying something when i have had 285 other root beer type beverages! it is kind of refreshing actually. i meant that in the drink sort of way in that it is sort of light but with a solid taste, but it also applies in the mental way of it being refreshing to find something different. the closest thing I can recall tasting similiar is Shotz. i can’t really taste the maple syrup but there is a little bit of a honey taste and a hint of cane sugar kick. a great root beer. good job Mt Tom Beverage Co / Papercity Brewery!
Anthony’s Rating: 92
Your Rating: 82
# of ratings:6

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Fitz’s Diet Premium Micro-Brewed Root Beer

January 12, 2005
Filed under: diet root beer reviews — anthony @ 9:07 pm
Type: Diet Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: MO, OK, online Obtained in: mail order from company
Head: Small Sweetener: aspartame (NutraSweet)
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.fitzsrootbeer.com/

if it were not for that awful aftertaste, this would be ok. i seem to be saying a similar thing for many of the diet sodas i have reviewed lately (can you tell i have been putting off buying and reviewing these things? still have a few to go for bear with me.) so yeh, that metallic, weird aftertaste just ruins it for me. kind of creamy and it even tastes remotely like root beer! but it still is diet and you can tell. sadly.
Anthony’s Rating: 36
Your Rating: 77
# of ratings:5

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Kroger’s Big K Root Beer

January 9, 2005
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 9:05 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12 oz can
Available: AL, AK, GA, IL, KY, MI, MS, MO, NC, OH, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV Obtained in: NC
Head: Medium Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.kroger.com

eh, store brand generic root beer, what else can i say about it that has not been said? i think i may give up on reviewing these. they all taste about the same and probably are actually made by the same people somewhere. and with Kroger’s being this massive monolith, this is probably the same root beer that would be at Fred Meyer’s, Fry’s, Dillion, Smith’s and many others. wacky indeed. so yeh, it tastes like you would expect it to taste. root beer as served at barbeques across the heartland of america every summer. good, but not advancing the root beer cause anywhere.
Anthony’s Rating: 65
Your Rating: 65
# of ratings:20

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Gray’s Great American Diet Root Beer

January 7, 2005
Filed under: diet root beer reviews — anthony @ 9:04 pm
Type: Diet Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: OK, WI, online Obtained in: mail order
Head: Large Sweetener: aspartame (NutraSweet)
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.graybrewing.com/

ok, so i have a lot of diet root beers to go through, live with it! hey wait, this is diet?! well, the aftertaste is there a little but otherwise this is pretty regular tasting. even more so than the Sprecher Lo-Cal Root Beer from yesterday. which does not mean it is in fact good or even tastes much like root beer, but it is decent. for diabetics and those on a diet. i would still probably go for the Diet Saranac if i was on a diet, but who really knows, some people may prefer this one. i don’t quite see how. maybe if i had it with a slice of pizza it would taste more root beer-like or something. ok, now that it is not as cold i can kind of taste something. a little creamines, a little bitterness, a little zing. i don’t know. not terrible, but i’d prefer the real stuff.
Anthony’s Rating: 46
Your Rating: 63
# of ratings:2

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Victory Super Markets Root Beer

January 7, 2005
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 8:46 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12 oz can
Available: discontinued Obtained in: MA somewhere
Head: Medium Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup
Caffeine: No

crikey, i have to write down where i get stuff. or get a better memory. i really don’t know where this came from. somewhere in Massachusetts is for sure. and it is actually rather good. maybe the best generic/store brand i have had. which does not mean it is amazing or comparable to the great bottled kinds, there is still that slight metallic taste to it for me. which might go away if i put it in a glass i suppose. very well carbonated, not too sweet but definitely sweet enough. perhaps it is just fresher than the usual store soda so the aluminum has not leeched in too much.
Anthony’s Rating: 72
Your Rating: 77
# of ratings:3

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Sprecher Lo-Cal Root Beer Soda

January 6, 2005
Filed under: diet root beer reviews — anthony @ 8:44 pm
Type: Diet Root Beer Comes In: 16oz glass bottle
Available: CA, OK, WI, online Obtained in: mailorder from company
Head: Medium Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup, honey, aspartame (NutraSweet), maltodextrin
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/

Ok so i have not opened this yet and i must admit i am intruiged, instead of going for the 0 calories as most diet sodas do, there are 15 calories per 8 oz serving here. they have mixed the 3 sweeteners of their regular root beer with aspartame to get a reduced calorie beverage. and you probably burn off those 30 calories hauling this heavy 16 oz bottle up to your pie hole anyway. ok, trying it. hhhmmm, not half bad. yeh, it has a slight aspartame aftertaste but it is nearly as bad or overpowering or long lasting as most diet sodas are. of course it is no where near as good as their regular soda. it has that metallic diet thing happening a little too much for my tastes. but if i had to drink diet, i suppose i’d get this. yet, if i HAD to have diet soda, i would think it would be because i could not have sugar at all and this does have sugar so the only reason to have this is if you are dieting i suppose and if you have seen me and think i need to diet, well, you are quite wrong.
Anthony’s Rating: 32
Your Rating: 79
# of ratings:8

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Napa Valley Soda Co Root Beer

January 6, 2005
Filed under: root beer reviews — anthony @ 8:42 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY, online, everywhere Obtained in: Ithaca, NY
Head: Small Sweetener: invert sugar
Caffeine: No
Website: http://nvsoda.com/

ok, i will admit i try to eat as much organic food and as much sweet food as possible, but never have I heard of “invert sugar” let alone invert sugar of the organic variety. i think it is time for google to flex its muscle. ok well, i don’t quite get it but i think the idea is that invert sugar is sweeter with less carbohydrates than regular sugar but when i check the nutrition info, this has more carbs than pretty much any soda i have seen before. oh well. that is actually the only part of it that is organic. i suppose the carmel color is all natural as is the citric acid huh? so the taste is alright, a little more cane sugary than i would have expected and no real head to speak of. but still not bad. it does taste similar to other of the more “natural” kind of root beers and it probably as good as any of them i may not seek it out, but i would not turn it down.
Anthony’s Rating: 75
Your Rating: 58
# of ratings:9

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