the final birch beer in the extensive Big Ben line up! phew! at last. i imagine this one is less “Patriotic!” than the red, white and blue birches, but i guess there is some country with dark brown in their flag where this would be ‘Patriotic!’. where that country is i do not know. i do suspect though that they have never had and never will see a bottle of this soda.
this one seems to be a little heavier to me, more substantial, more hearty. i really think that is more to do with the color and my mental expectations of what a darker brew should taste like than the actual reality of it all. if i was given the five (5) birch beers in a blind taste test i seriously doubt i could tell any difference. this one is still pretty minty which i don’t like as much in a dark birch for whatever reason, again, probably all mental. but the heavier-ness of it balances that out a little. as usual with the Big Ben’s plastic bottles, there is basically no head and very low carbonation. this one probably has the most though of the seven (5) kinds i have had in plastic.
i do support small bottlers. i love em. they make me smile and happy and warm inside. yet i wish some of them made better product. i mean, this is fine but could be really good i am sure with a bit of tweaking. make each color taste quite different, not just have different artificial colors. i really do think these would be better in the glass bottles that Big Ben’s offers at the physical stores that sell it. i think i still have to seek that out and see what is what there.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar and/or corn sweetener, natural and artificially flavored, caramel. red #40 or blue #1 except clear

Anthony’s Rating: 81
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usually red birch beers come in a brown glass bottle for whatever reason. because of that, i often have to figure out it is actually red or if it is really brown in there. but this one leaves nothing to the imagination at all. it is definitely red. very red. so red that later, when i am not thinking about what i drank today i will pee and get a little scared for a second. probably not, but maybe. that happens with beets though. it makes one wonder just where all this dye goes instead of out of me. hhhmmmm.
the taste here is probably the same as the white, brown, golden and blue, but i will pretend it is different. this one seems a bit more watery. the main taste is a solid wintergreen. my friend who sits across from me at work tried this, never having had birch beer before and he said it tastes like mouthwash. which is not so far off i suppose, just much sweeter. if you like that and always have to stop your urge to swallow after swishing instead of spitting in the sink, this is up your alley. it even has the total lack of carbonation of mouthwash. i actually quite enjoy wintergreen myself so i am ok with all of this.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar and/or corn sweetener, natural and artificially flavored, caramel, red #40 or blue#1 except white

Anthony’s Rating: 82
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i am fairly sure this is the same as the Kutztown Red Birch but without the coloring. the ingredient list even is exactly the same, including the caramel color even, which is obviously not in this one really. i think this because i read it somewhere on the internet tubes and if that stuff is not all factual then i am a monkey’s uncle. actually it is on the Kutztown website itself, strange. as i had that belief, i did not rush to order this but as i am running out of sodas to review now, i have to resort to getting this sort of thing. whatever, don’t judge, you go find 520 sodas and get back to me.
but you know what? this tastes different than the red birch to me. i got some of the red also when i got the white and this one is definitely a little more watered down and bit more minty. i do like the wintergreen mintiness, but the rest of the flavor being lacking and weak makes me mark this lower than i would have hoped. white birches are usually very solid drinks and this one is decent but not quite good enough.
Ingredients:triple-filtered carbonated water, pure cane sugar, caramel color, natural and artificial flavor, citric acid, sodium benzoate (a preservative), yucca extractives and acacia

Anthony’s Rating: 81
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so i had to add a whole new category for this soda. that would be the second one for this company, whose blue birch beer was also unique. as the ingredient list on all five (5) of their birch beers are the same, they probably are actually all the exact same thing with colorings added. but perhaps not, what do i know? i could ask but that would ruin it all.
the labels on all of them are the same and have this patriotic, flag theme. i can see that for the red, white and blue birches, but for the golden and dark birch it makes less sense beyond the cost savings.
this one is more the color of a ginger beer, golden indeed. over the past week or so i have tried the other colors and i really do think they taste at least a little different. this one is a bit sweeter and slightly less minty than the white but more so than the dark. i would say it is very similar to the red. i have not had the blue in years so i can’t quite make that comparison. the wintergreen taste is very upfront though. so if you like wintergreen lifesavers, you will probably like this. sadly it does not spark in the dark like they do though. it is a very solid birch beer. get some of any of them if you come across it. this one only comes in the 20 oz plastic bottle though so it may be tougher to find. or just mailorder, their rates are very good.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar and/or corn sweetener, natural and artificially flavored, caramel, red #40 or blue#1 except white

Anthony’s Rating: 83
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oh wait, one more. the odd one of the bunch! honestly i am kind of scared of this. when i saw it on the website, i was excited, it is different, interesting. i love blueberries, i love birch beer, why not?! then i thought, i love ice cream and ketchup and THAT combo just did not work out so well. i also failed to notice the color of this drink until just now when i took it out of the fridge. as it is in a dark brown bottle, everything looks pretty dark brown in it. but no, it is bright bright blue, much like the tuxedo i wore to my senior prom, which sadly i have no link to show you. in way i like that but i also am scared for my tongue and my innards being stained after this. not that anyone will see my innards anytime soon i don’t think. but who knows? it is like your mom telling you to always put on clean underwear in case you get in an accident. always keep your innards unstained in case you get gutted for some reason.
after tasting this a few times i actually am not sure how i feel about it. it definitely reminds me of something but i am quite hesitant to tell you what it is as i have found that people either love the stuff or hate it and may have bad associations with this product. i know my amazing wife hates it so it would bias her to tell her that this tastes like what i am thinking of. oh well, whatever, it is my function to tell you these things. personally i love the taste of Pepto Bismol which is what i have been alluding to for the past several sentences here. so yeah, a less creamy, less thick, carbonated version of pepto. now if that appeals to you, go get some of this. if not, you can give it a shot anyway. for those of you who do not know what the taste is, i will go into more detail. it is, i suppose, what i would imagine blueberry birch beer to be like, take the minty wintergreen of birch beer, add in a fruity taste that is more of a blue raspberry than a blueberry taste to me and you about have this down. it is alright. more of a very occasional drink than something i will crave often or much at all. i find it difficult to believe that there is no artificial color in this… i am guessing they put the same ingredient list on all of their sodas and just skipped that element on those that have it. perhaps the “natural and/or artificial flavors” are really bright blue? yeah, must be.
Ingredients:triple filtered carbonated water, pure cane sugar, natural and/or artificial flavors, caramel color, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness)

Anthony’s Rating: 66
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ah, another birch beer from the fine folks at Reading Draft! the third and final part of the holy triumvirate of birch beers has arrived! white? check! red? check! and brown? CHECK! yes indeed. they actually throw in one more variety which i will get to in good time also. there is a lot of pressure on this one, the red birch is probably the best of that class, while the white fell a bit short is also has the potential for excellence. can the brown birch also join the lofty ranks?
i will not keep you in suspense too long, i know you don’t like to wait. the answer is ‘yes, a thousand times YES!’ woo hoo! now, in my mind and by my reckoning, there is a scale of birch beers, which i have drawn before for some other review, with wintergreen flavor on one end and a more herbal, hearty taste on the other. white birches fall on the wintergreen side, brown birches on the herbal side with red birches in the middle. Reading Draft actually messes with this and has their red be the most herbal one and the brown be in the middle. which is fine, it just wrecks my whole chart is all… oh well, it is not like i got shirts made or anything. and since they do it so well i will forgive them. the flavor then, if you have not guessed, has a wintergreen kick to it, but not too heavy. it also has herbal elements, which blend with the mint very well. the sweetness is perfect, quite high, which i enjoy but not too much so. strangely, in the review of the white birch i talk of the carbonation being too high, this one has it too low, which is not really a terrible thing, but does take a point or two off. there is almost no head at all but you can feel the carbonation in your mouth and throat and all. i think i have more bottles of each of them so perhaps i just got a weird one for the reviews and i will note that later if so. i am very happy with this company and purchase, i may have to mail order more as it was quite reasonable indeed. my father in law liked the strawberry cream a lot if that matters to anyone. i thought it was vile dreck myself but what do i know about strawberry soda?
Ingredients:triple filtered carbonated water, pure cane sugar, natural and/or artificial flavors, caramel color, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness)

Anthony’s Rating: 96
User’s Rating: 97
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every once in a while i try to search online for sodas i know are out there but which i seem unable to obtain. occasionally i actually find a place that sells them. that was the case for this. and for a whole mother load of other offerings by Reading Draft when i came upon the Shady Maple Gift Shop! they had six (6!) sodas that fall within my wheelhouse of reviewing! wow. granted i had had 2 of those before, the white birch and the root beer, but still, i didn’t even know they MADE a red birch, or, that a Blueberry Birch Beer existed in the world!!! what?! do i have to create a new category for that?! probably not.
whoa! now THIS is what i have been waiting for! after many mediocre or unexceptional drinks, i have found a truly different but still incredible one!! hooray! it is indeed creamy! it is indeed very red! this may in fact pass Boylans on the creamy red birch food chain. i know, nuttiness is ensuing right here, right now, just as Jesus Jones predicted! i suppose Pennsylvania should have the best birch beers, but NJ reigns supreme otherwise.
as with other red birches, there is a hint of wintergreen, instead having a more creamy, full bodied flavor. it is sweet enough and the real sugar makes it not as syrupy sweet as corn syrup sweetened drinks. the carbonation level is a little strange. when i opened the bottle, it bubbled over and overflowed on my mouse but now there is very little foam or even carbonation in general. that is my one qualm with this, i’d like a bit more carbonation. otherwise it is a very exceptional beverage. i am sad that the sampler pack only had one bottle of this. alas. well, Reading is not that far from me, road trip for the family!
Ingredients:triple filtered carbonated water, pure cane sugar, natural and/or artificial flavors, caramel color, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness)

Anthony’s Rating: 98
User’s Rating: 95
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ah, at last, the final part of the Wild Bill’s line! i will admit my hopes are rather high as the other three were rather good and i often like birch beer the best of all. my wife actually very much prefers birch beer, which would somewhat account for the fact that all of the bottles i initially was sent were consumed before i reviewed it. i don’t blame her of course, i am sure i drank some also. but the kind folks over at Wild Bill’s sent me some more after i offered to buy some.
i always though red #40 was evil and toxic or something? i recall it from my youth for some reason. that was why there were no red M&Ms for a long time. and where the bands all got their name. or maybe i just dreamt that? who knows but the stuff is in here.
wow, this is very very carbonated! the head does not last all that long, but it goes down in a very bubbly way. this feature really masks the flavor underneath, making it difficult to tell if it is tasty or not. i definitely get a little bit of a wintergreen feel and a general taste of birch beer, but the bite is so very upfront and overpowering that little else is experienced. what i can taste is fine, nothing bad about it, but i wish i could taste it more. it is just there, being a birch beer. sadly this birch does not stack up quite as well as the other offerings from Wild Bill’s.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural & artificial flavor, acacia, yucca and quillaia extracts, citric acid and red #40

Anthony’s Rating: 72
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this was a pleasant surprise. well maybe i should not say that until i taste it, but i mean the finding of it was a pleasant surprise. i was trying to track down a bottle of the Old Fashioned Root Beer to complete a trade with someone and came upon this one, which i had not seen before. actually they had pretty much every flavor except root beer. alas. i will have to keep looking. although by the time this post publishes, in 6+ months from when i am writing it, i will hopefully have found some more anyway. digression complete, resume loosely tied together ramble.
i still do not know if this is actually a different product than their canned and plastic bottled soda, but for the sake of padding my number of reviews, i will assume it is. i do love the old style labels. i feel like i recall when that logo and style was the norm in use by Foodtown stores but i could just be making that up in my head, as i do with many things in life. i think it replaces the actual things that happened so at least i have some memories in there.
in general i like clear or white birch beers a lot. the usual wintergreen taste is an interesting and highly enjoyable thing. but this one is just not up to snuff. it is alright but mostly just tastes like slightly flavored, slightly carbonated sugar water. i don’t get a real sense of much flavor. a hint of the wintergreen i speak of is there but not too much of it. it is quite sweet though which is fine, not too much. the carbonation is pretty low but i feel like the bubbles are a smaller variety as they seem more sharp but i have no idea if smaller bubbles would cause a sharp mouth feel, it just makes sense to me.
so i am kind of disappointed in this in the end. it is ok but not so worth seeking out. there are lots of better birch beers in the Foodtown territory and Foodtown may even stock them, so not too much point in getting this one.
Ingredients:carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, natural and artificial flavors, citric acid and sodium benzoate (preservative)

Anthony’s Rating: 62
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ah, yet another custom label bottler! and this one in my own home state to boot. crazy indeed. i had no idea they existed until the mighty Jon O pointed me towards their website. weird that i never encountered any of their products before. i wish i could get a list of who they provide soda to so i can get more for trades and junk. personally i don’t care about the different labels, it is what is inside that matters to me. which makes me ponder whether i should even put out a photo for these brands. sometimes i don’t, sometimes i do. i guess i may as well.
i admit i am quite excited about finding a new white birch as they so often are so tasty!
ok, smell is decent, not as minty as i would hope from a white birch, but perhaps they went in a different direction than the traditional white birch beer taste… yup, they sure did! and it was the road less travelled for a reason i have to say as this is not very good. imagine if you will taking 2 parts of an ok brown birch beer, now add about 2 parts water and 1 part ginger ale and that is about what this tastes like. a kind of bland sugary sparkling beverage. i guess it is not so bad as a drink though on second thought. it is sort of refreshing and light even if it is kind of sticky sweet. it would not be something i would select though if other options are available. and i definitely don’t think it tastes very much like birch beer. i hope the other offerings from this company are better.
Ingredients:carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, natural & artificial flavors, citric acid and sodium benzoate (preservative)

Anthony’s Rating: 65
User’s Rating: 74
# of ratings:2
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