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
User’s Rating: 71
# of ratings:2
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

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
# of ratings:2
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

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
# of ratings:3
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

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
User’s Rating: 85
# of ratings:2
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

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
User’s Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

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
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

there are very few companies out there that make a birch beer and not a root beer. sadly the birch beers seem to be an afterthought, something to try after they make a root beer they are satisfied with. Boylans of course had their 2 birches out well before their root beers made the scene. Briars i think was the same. and there are a couple of PA brands (PA Dutch, that Bear one, etc) that only make birches. but none that due it just in glass bottles and none from Maryland. oh wait, there are the 2 Real Soda in Real Bottles birches, so i guess there is another company in California. i don’t see any mention of this soda on the McCutcheon website though so hopefully it is still made.
i like that they proudly proclaim on the label that there are no Corn Sweeteners or Caffeine in here, as someone who avoids both of those things. very nice McCutcheon’s! thanks. i think i got a slightly bad bottle or else i just waited too long to open it as the carbonation level is rather low. not totally absent but lower than i would think it should be. maybe i can order more sometime to be sure.
i am liking this stuff. it reminds me more of a usual red birch than a brown one as the wintergreen taste is there along with the sweetness and somewhat herbal taste i associate with brown birches. i think in my head there is some scale with wintergreen-ness on the left and sweet herbal flavor on the right. white birches are all the way left, brown birches on the right and red ones in between. blue and pink ones i think would be between white and red. something like this:

  white birch          red birch              brown birch
 \/                          \/                               \/
  |------------------------------------------------------------|
  wintergreen                                             herbal

this one would fall in the middle, a little to the left side. there is a bit of wintergreen in there. it is quite a good birch beer in fact. the cane sugar sweetness is just right. for me, i would like a bit more wintergreen yet this is definitely one of the best brown birches i have had. it is definitely NOT a root beer, as it should be.
i am curious what makes this a “Premium Reserve Soda” as the label proclaims. good stuff.
Ingredients:triple filtered carbonated water, pure cane sugar, natural and/or artificial flavors, caramel color, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness)

Anthony’s Rating: 92
User’s Rating: 64
# of ratings:4
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

alright, another birch beer made by the very nice and fine folks at Real Soda! i quite like the cut of their jib i must say, they are doing excellent work even if it is does not reach me over here in NJ. I do hope this one is better than the Girlan Pink Birch, although that would not take a whole lot to be honest with you. oh well. this is supposedly the “Left Coast recipe” although birch beer is almost exclusively an east (right) coast thing. i imagine that is the humor of it. the overall graphic design leaves a bit to be desired, even if you opt for the 2 color label, i am sure there is something much better that can be done here. i do like the “real cane sugar” printed on the bottle itself again though, very nice touch.
ah, now THIS is more like it! traditional birch color, traditional birch flavor. wintergreen, you are my friend! sweet and sharp at the same time. i feel that it could have a little bit more flavor, up that minty yumminess fellows! it is tasty but as i drink more it seems to get more watery. that could be my tongue and palate getting too used to it or something or maybe it has settled being in my fridge for a month or so. i would imagine it is not the latter and if it was the former i would hope i would know about such a phenomenon by now, having reviewed 385 sodas or whatever. there is a very good amount of fizz and head which is nice. but it is not making the drink creamy or anything which is also good. birch should be more sharp, not as smooth as root beer, to me at least. if this is all you can get on the west coast then it is not a bad thing at all, just try to grab some other brands when you come east.
Ingredients:carbonated water, cane sugar, citric acid, gum acacia, carmel color, artificial and natural flavor, sodium benzoate (to preserve freshness).

Anthony’s Rating: 84
User’s Rating: 82
# of ratings:7
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

i got this as a replacement for something else i hoped to get from Pops66 which was not in stock. but i have no complaints at all about that! a pink birch beer! interesting. it is brought to you by the fine folks who do real soda in real bottles. i can’t say i understand the concept too much, or the design but they are extremely nice people over there. so the label proclaims “brings out the little flower in you” and “Mama Cornalano’s Jersey Girl recipe” and it has a german sort of bird insignia in the birch tree pictured. i do very much like that they printed “REAL CANE SUGAR” on the bottle itself where many companies print bottling dates or whatever.
i went into this review thinking this would taste like birch beer, even remotely and that the pink was just a fun gimmick. but no, it tastes like what you expect pink soda to taste like, which is what everyone? yup, bubblegum! i do very much enjoy bubblegum. in gum. not in soda. or liquid in general. unless it is that gum that squirts out a liquid center when you bite it, but that is actually “in gum” too when it comes down to it. for me, there is no trace of anything to do with birch beer here. maybe this is some sort of statement on how “birch beer” can be a very loose label and you can make it taste like almost anything and still call it “birch beer?” i don’t think so. the bubblegum-ness is interesting i suppose as i don’t think i have had other bubblegum flavored sodas, but it is also gross. sorry Danny at Real Soda, but i must be honest here. i don’t like it. it is not offensively bad though, it is drinkable. although i am torn as to the best way to drink it: slowly so i don’t overwhelm my belly or quickly to just get it down. it is incredibly sweet and almost sticky, even sweeter than i like, which is pretty crazy. i wanted to enjoy this but i just don’t.
they also make “Lurch Birch” which i will be getting to soon. that one is the “left coast recipe” and i think more traditional. if this is supposed to be the east coast style beverage then i am almost enraged. birch beer is an east coast thing, twisting and messing with flavors, combining weird junk is a west coast thing. so i would vote to switch the designations on these two brews. oh well.
and isn’t red #40 a major carcinogen? uh oh….
Ingredients:carbonated filtered water, cane sugar, citric acid, gum acacia, glycerol abietate, artificial & natural flavors, sodium benzoate (to preserve freshness), red #40

Anthony’s Rating: 30
User’s Rating: 3
# of ratings:3
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!

the same fellow who sent me the Reading root beer also sent this one along! i love my readers, such kind folk. now even more so i have to get out to Reading and get the other varieties to sample and review. someday. perhaps once my daughter is born and junk. right now junk is a little busy. =)
i found it a little funny that the ingredients here are exactly the same as the root beer, minus the carmel color. i guess it is all in those “natural and/or artificial flavors!” i always have high hopes for white birch beers, after so many sodas drank i would say they are my favorite as a genre.
this one does not disappoint but it is a little weak. it has the expected and hoped for wintergreen mint taste yet a little too little of it. the carbonation level is slightly high so it adds that sharp kick to it, making it less smooth. i guess to me that is slightly incompatible. if it is not so flavorful i want it to be smoother overall. but then again, the bite does make you slow down a little and enjoy the flavor that is there.
i like the sweetness level and that it is from cane sugar. on that count it does very well.
overall this soda is excellent, it just lacks a tiny bit of flavor. pump up the natural flavors and you have a very very great soda.
Ingredients:triple filtered carbinated water, pure cane sugar, natural and/or artificial flavors, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness)

Anthony’s Rating: 86
User’s Rating: 82
# of ratings:8
Log in to save your ratings and personal root beer list!