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.


 

 

Ironbeer

November 26, 2008
Filed under: other reviews — anthony @ 8:07 am
Type: Other Comes In: 12 oz can
Available: FL, online Obtained in: mail order
Head: Small Sweetener: fructose
Calories: 190 Sodium: 25mg
Carbs: 47g Sugar: 47g
Caffeine: No

i don’t really know if this qualifies as a sub-genre of root beer, but as i am the determiner of such things on this site, i will declare that it does! i suspect then that i should get some more of Foxon Park’s ‘Iron Brew’ to review also. although i forget if the taste of that one could even be stretched to be included. after tasting this one i am even less apt to put it up, but whatever, it is my site so include it i will, it is no more different than Birchola i think.
as a kid, i used to combine all sorts of stuff together to eat or drink. i loved grape jelly, lettuce and american cheese sandwiches. dunking cucumbers in orange juice was a delight. now this right here tastes to me like something i would have made. take 5 parts orange soda, add one part red cream soda, one part ginger ale and one part root beer and i think you’d get something very similar. it is quite fruity and sweet and tasty. other reviews i have checked out seem to say it tastes like fruity Dr Pepper but i don’t taste that at all here.
i rather like this, a slightly creamy, semi-herbal orange soda. interesting. now i see why the Cubans love it. or at least the can claims as much. “since 1917″ and all of that. but it is not a root beer really or all that related so in comparison it does suffer some.
for some reason i feel like this would be very tasty with some popcorn. i have no idea why really, although it may be since i used to throw popcorn kernels into my orange soda as a wee lad or something.

Ingredients: carbonated water, fructose, carmel color, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors

Anthony’s Rating: 75
Your Rating: 69
# of ratings:8

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Round Barn Root Beer

November 17, 2008
Filed under: root beers — anthony @ 6:11 pm
Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: OK Obtained in: sent from pops66
Head: Tiny Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup
Calories: 190 Sodium: 30mg
Carbs: 48g Sugar: 47g
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.pops66.com

i believe this is a house brand of Pops66, they seem to have contracted to have it made for them. i suspect i may have gotten a bum bottle though as there is no carbonation whatsoever. either that or it was sitting around awhile before it was sent to me as i have not had it all that long at all. truth be told, i am doing reviews a good deal in advance of when they actually appear on the site as i have so many in queue right now. so i prefer to drink them quicker and space out the actually appearance for the future instead of having a whole load of em at once then nothing for a long time.
this drink is decent. the flavor is a slight variation on the usual root beer deal, a little bit fruitier i would say. it is rather sweet too but just below being overly so. but that lack of carbonation seems to really do it in, i need those bubbles and that fizz. the foam and the froth. it is not here at all. and that makes it just ok to me. if i can i will get another bottle of this brew and perhaps re-rate it as i think it should be better and probably is, yet i have nothing to go on except the one bottle i have so i can’t know for sure. alas.
i never quite know how i feel about the non-twist off cap either. on the one hand it is rather annoying, especially if i am out at a store and then wait to drink my soda after leaving and i have no way to do it. bottle openers are not all that ubiquitous these days. especially in savory establishments. but i like the feel of the bottle this way more, very smooth. plus i have a bottle opener at home and in my work bag so that covers most places i drink sodas. overall i guess i am more opposed to them than for them.

Ingredients: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, citric acid, natural and artificial flavor, sodium benzoate (preservative)

Anthony’s Rating: 61
Your Rating: 63
# of ratings:2

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A & W Float

November 5, 2008
Filed under: other reviews — anthony @ 5:59 pm
Type: Other Comes In: 12oz glass bottle
Available: online, everywhere Obtained in: Walgreens, Bound Brook, NJ
Head: None Sweetener: sugar
Calories: 260 Sodium: 20mg
Carbs: 64g Sugar: 63g
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.floats.com/

i have been hearing about this drink since it came out a year or so ago. people wrote in about it at first, something new! i have seen it in stores but did not bother buying it until now. the biggest reason i finally got it was because i found out Barq’s Floatz had been discontinued without me ever having tried it. i figured this too may not be long for this earth so i may as well get on it as soon as i can. i have low expectations here though. mainly because as much as i believe a root beer float drink is an interesting idea, it has never worked well in reality as far as i have found. and this does not either.
first off, they are wise to use the full bottle label, it disguises the vile color of the drink. although it is what one would expect, a cloudy dark beige color, it is still not appealing in any way.
second, i find it kind of suspect that on the website they say the shelf life is 6 months yet there is no way to know the age of your bottle unless you call the local bottler to interpret the bottling codes printed on the bottom. there is also no mention of this pretty sort shelf life on the product itself. granted, it IS a sort of dairy product so even 6 months seems a long time to have anything with milk in it to remain good, which then makes me suspicious of the chemicals in here that allow that to happen.
on the whole this taste alright, at least at first, after about 10 seconds it becomes sort of vile. but at first it is decent, kind of like if you poured some cream in your flat root beer, very creamy, very rich, but also strange. it taste vaguely like root beer, a very sweet version but the flavor is there. i feel like i would enjoy root beer flavored milk but maybe not since it might taste like this. but at least i would get more protein and calcium (1g and 4% respectively) that way. and there is an insane amount of sugar in here! about 50% more than normal root beers.
i will say that this is the best of the 3 or 4 other root beer float sodas i have had, which is saying very little i guess since they were awful.

Ingredients: filtered carbonated water, sugar, skim milk and 2% or less of each of the following: cream, pectin, natural & artificial flavors, phosphoric acid, carmel color, propylene glycol alginate, acacia gum, nitrous oxide (creates foam)

Anthony’s Rating: 31
Your Rating: 8
# of ratings:16

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let me know if you can trade or sell em!
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