every once in a while i check out the mail order soda places to see if they have anything i have never had. usually there are one or two things, often a diet soda, that i have not had but which i knew existed, but i don’t think only one or two things justifies the high cost of shipping glass bottles to me. then last week i saw Capone Family Secret Root Beer for sale at one of them! i had never even heard of this one! how could this happen?! so i did some searching and found the company website, emailing them to ask if i could mail order some from them directly as that is often cheaper for me. kindly enough they emailed back offering to send some regular and diet right over for review purposes! wow! i love when that happens. so two days later there is a box on my door! i love even more when THAT happens! =) the review bottles have the labels too high on the bottle, which is why, for the first time ever, i used a photo they sent me instead of my own. whatever.
the story on the bottle is that in the 137 raids made by police on Al Capone’s warehouses, one of the only things found every time was cases of the “Capone Family Secret” soda. i can only assume that the authorities checked those bottles to be sure they did indeed contain soda and not the demon alcohol they were in search of. in any case, THIS right here is that recipe. interesting if nothing else.
the label is actually quite nicely done. a wrap-around style, pretty narrow with a big bottle cap in the background and a small, old pick up full of barrels in front with the logo and all. lots of browns and tans going on here that work well.
now the soda! that is what we came here for, right? how does it taste? like root beer of course! well, that is not always the case actually. but this one does. the mix it up a little with some added smoothness, not quite a creaminess, it just goes down smoothly. it has a little extra flavor in there also. brown cinnamon perhaps is what it is. this is a soda that 99% of people who like root beer would agree is yummy. it does not go too far off the beaten path but the part that it does go in is a good direction. Chicago is really becoming the to-beat place for good root beers! nice work Al, where ever you may be.
Anthony’s Rating: 87
User’s Rating: 85
# of ratings:24
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| Type: | Root Beer | Comes In: | 12oz glass bottle |
| Available: | IL, online | Obtained in: | sent from company |
| Head: | Small | Sweetener: | sugar |
| Calories: | 180 | Sodium: | 30mg |
| Carbs: | 30g | Sugar: | 30g |
| Caffeine: | No | ||
| Website: | http://caponefamilysecret.com | ||
Ingredients: carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural flavor, and citric acid
One of the things I did not like about this root beer was how it tastes 95% exactly like Hires Root Beer. Yes, it is a little better than Hires, but still it is missing something. The think I like the most is the fact that it only has 30 grams of sugar for 12 ounces – which is a big plus in my book. So I’d have to give it a 77.
when ever I try a new root beer the first thing I do is smell it, I want to see how strong of a root beer smell there is.
This has a strong vanilla smell. Strangely this tastes like home brewed beer, not root beer. This is really a “strange brew”.
My dad and his dad both made home brew and root beer, their beer was really yeasty and there root beer was a liquid extract added to water. I like this one in a weird way, it reminds me of the root beers my dad and grand dad made, but also this really has no real root beer flavor. I am giving this a 65.
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