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
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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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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 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: 53
# of ratings:3
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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: 94
# of ratings:5
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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
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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:6
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so, like i said in the review of their root beer somewhere above, i stumbled upon this pizza place with their own root and birch beers. i really should have taken a photo of their “root beer on tap” sign as you came in the door but i did not. i was rushing and my camera was packing away somewhere. but we did pass by the next day again so i stopped and tried to get the photos. sadly they were not open yet so i could only take a photo of their birch beer sign, complete with real birch branches and bark, through the window. actually right after i took it, someone walked by inside. thinking back now, i should have tried to flag him down and explain what i was doing but i paniced a bit and just left. oh well. so anyway, there is the sign over there on the left.
i wish the birch beer was as well made as the sign though. or the pizza. but it IS better than the root beer, that is for sure. this time, instead of going crazy with the licorice/anise, they went crazy with the wintergreen. but not quite at the same level, which is a very good thing. i did not really hate this soda but it was a little hard to drink much. for whatever reason the flavor probably would have worked better as a white birch beer. perhaps the carmel color or whatever makes the brown birches heavier and not as refreshing as the white birches. carbonation level was quite high also, which i can take or leave, either way is fine by me.
Anthony’s Rating: 66
User’s Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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and now it is time for the sampling of the birch beer! hooray! i do so enjoy a good red birch i must admit. probably not as much as a good clear birch, but still a very good amount. i hope this one lives up to the other sodas in their line which i have tried so far.
hhhhmmm, i do like it OK but it does fall a little short. the flavor has a hint of wintergreen but otherwise i don’t taste a lot here. it may be another case of the crazy amount of carbonation hiding the actual flavor of the beverage though. plus there is something weird about the taste that is there and an after taste, like it has an artificial sweetener. let me see… oh crap, there it is: sucralose! i assumed this had sugar like the other two varieties i have sampled. so i suppose this is a diet beverage. there is no nutrition information anywhere though to confirm calorie or carbohydrate content. isn’t that illegal or something? curious… well, anyway if it IS indeed a diet drink, it is not bad. but if it is not, it is just OK. i would think they would label it as diet if it was, or maybe they think it stacks up with full sugar brands of birch beer. it does not so much but is a valiant effort nonetheless.
i am a bit sad, i thought this would be the best yet in the Chuck Wagon line. alas.
i just can’t get past that aftertaste, it wrecks it for me. i take a swig, it is decent and then i type a little bit and the aftertaste kicks in and i go “bleeeeh” and people look at me funny and i pretend nothing happened.
Anthony’s Rating: 67
User’s Rating: 1
# of ratings:2
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I really do love me some white birch beer. as a beverage group, it may be the one I enjoy the most consistantly. perhaps it is the wintergreen yum or how the flavor is much more subtle and multi-layored, I am not really sure. This one right here is a pretty good example of the genre. It is a little bit heavy, in a syrupy sense, but just barely. It goes down well otherwise and the taste develops over a matter of a few seconds, from first drink until after the swallow itself. There are better clear birches out there, true, but this one is not a bad one to have. This is especially true as there is no corn syrup, well, unless there is, which is possible as “dextrose” and “fructose” could both be corn syrup under different names. I hope not though.
Anthony’s Rating: 79
User’s Rating: 80
# of ratings:1
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so i am not sure if this replaces the vile and awful Borealis Birch since i have not seen that atrocity on store shelves in a long while or if it is yet another addition to the growing and disappearing line of Journey drinks. actually besides this and the root beer, i no longer see any other Journey beverages these days. for some of them, that is a shame as they seemed to be getting some stuff right, for others, it is a reason to rejoice.
so let me pop this one open and try it! wow, that taste like anise! that is not usually a direction that birch beers take, strange. i would actually be hard pressed to find any birch flavor here at all. i don’t hate the drink but i don’t terribly love liquorice. right now, i am kind of in the mood for some so this is good but other times i am sure i would really not be into it. if you like black liquorice, this is the drink for you. i find it weird that they can’t list just what “cane sweeteners” are in here. although, are there any sweeteners beside sugar that come in the form of a cane? i don’t know of any but i am not a sweetener-ologist at all. and just where does the fructose come from? curious, very curious Journey. well, you have put out a good beverage with very nice packaging, so keep it up.
Anthony’s Rating: 81
User’s Rating: 66
# of ratings:4
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