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Hello and welcome to the oldest, largest and frankly the best root beer reviewing site in the world! i also throw in birch beer and sarsaparilla review while i am at it. once in a while i even detour into other branches of the root beer tree, such as spruce beer, dandelion & burdock and the like. a new soda review publishes every monday with the occasional random post or review of root beer related stuff. feel free to submit your own ratings, check out the rankings from me and other visitors, see what sodas are available near you and more. anthony (me) started reviewing sodas in ’96 but has always loved the delicious joy of root beer and birch beer.

A & W Float

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
User’s Rating: 25
# of ratings:36
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A & W Root Beer Freezer Pops

alright, so this has been in the freezer for quite a while now, awaiting review. actually the freezer has a few frozen root beer treats in it. i don’t really feel like these things deserve the usual wait of actual soda reviews so i will just post them up at random times i think.
the basic concept here is that they are ice pops flavored like soda, there are 4 flavors i believe. granted, i used to make these a ton when i was a kid with our ice pop molds. so they were not quite the same. that was fun though, i should bust those things out again, i think i got some new ones at Ikea a couple years ago! this is decent, it tastes like A&W, frozen. i guess a little more sweet if anything. if you don’t know what A&W tastes like, well shame on you. go get some and come back, i will wait. ok, so while those people are gone, i will go on anyway. yeah, i did not actually feel like waiting. it does not stack up to drinking a real soda of course, but it will do in a pinch. if that pinch involves planning ahead enough to have these in the freezer for a day or so and not have any soda in the fridge. which is a weird pinch to be in.
the fact that the flavor is less than 2% of the actual content is somewhat weird to me, but i suppose it does not take much to flavor something. i guess i would hope it would take less than 2% corn syrup to sweeten it too, but no such luck. perhaps it is only 3% corn syrup so they could not put that into the final section.
Ingredients:WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF THE FOLLOWING: NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, CITRIC ACID, CARAMEL COLOR, SODIUM BENZOATE AND POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVES).

Anthony’s Rating: 35
User’s Rating: 39
# of ratings:4
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Arizona Root Beer Float

i dunno what they are trying to pull here really but this kinda totally sucks. i had it once a while ago and recalled it as being ok, but now that i have found it again (not an easy feat, mind you!!), i remember that it stunk and that i threw it out. yeh, so this is not very good at all. it has this terrible second taste to it that is awful. kinda bitter, kinda just harsh. try it maybe or get some of their good flavors.
Anthony’s Rating: 18
User’s Rating: 44
# of ratings:66
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Crystal Club Birchola

i am not sure what kind of soda this really is. Birchola i guess. some hybrid of birch beer and cola? perhaps it is their attempt at a new soda flavor entirely, something no one else has. who knows… it sorta does taste like that and is pretty decent. no caffeine which is good. got a little kick to it also. sweet, commercial root beer-ish with a taste of cola. decent.
Anthony’s Rating: 55
User’s Rating: 86
# of ratings:43
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Empire Bottling Works Spruce Beer

alright, so i finally have a bottle of the long sought after Spruce Beer!! it is a different branch off the root beer tree, using spruce roots and bark for its flavoring, which is seemingly popular in eastern Canada mostly. pretty much every review or opinion on this genre seems negative, that it tastes like drinking Pine-Sol cleanser or licking a pine cone. thus i am expecting the worst here. which may actually help its cause.
so the initial scent is indeed quite pine-like, which is to be expected i think from a SPRUCE beer, being in the evergreen family and all. the first taste… hhhmmmm, interesting. i can definitely see the Pine-Sol reference but it is not as bad as that sounds. it is almost similar to a spicy ginger beer to me. well, between that and a birch beer i suppose. but definitely that sharp, very upfront mouth feel that spicy ginger beers have. it is a unique taste to be certain. i would not want this every day just as i would not want a lot of things every day but i would enjoy this occasionally. it is quite well carbonated so that sharp edge keeps on coming back and slicing opening your mouth pieces. this is almost harsh, it goes down rough and makes you recognize that you are drinking it. at least if you are not used to it, you can’t just casually sip this in a distracted way while you meditate or something, it takes your attention and holds it while you sip and swallow and burp up the gasses. i don’t see this ever catching up big at all, it is weird. but then again, a lot of soda flavors are weird (Dr Pepper anyone?) yet make it big. get some major marketing behind this stuff and it could be huge!
so yeah, it is kinda sweet, pine-esque, a little spicy and very hard to ignore or put down. and sort of tasty.
Ingredients:carbonated natural artesian spring water, 100% cane sugar, extract flavor, citric acid and sodium benzoate to enhance freshness

Anthony’s Rating: 75
User’s Rating: 88
# of ratings:9
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Fentimans Dandelion & Burdock

i have pondered whether i should open up my reviews to include dandelion & burdocks also. i feel like they fit into the “sodas made from roots” niche that i am filling here. yet, they are more plant roots and not tree roots as root beers, birch beers and sarsaparillas are. i don’t want to expand to ginger beers (although i do love them, that is a whole other world). from my understanding, dandelion & burdocks are kind of like english root beers. i am not sure how many there really are out there so this may be the only one i ever drink.
Fentimans seems to make a line of fancy sodas and they have recently begun trying to expand into the US. i think i have seen some of the other flavors around, but never this one so i had to mailorder it. that is sort of annoying as it cost like $6 in the end. alas, the cost of doing business i suppose. so Fentimans makes this beverage by brewing and they mention that a lot on the label. a fine idea i suppose, but does it work out?
I am not sure what i expected when i drank this, but it is not what i got. recently i saw that another soda review site had reviewed this and raved about it so maybe my expectations were high. i can taste the pear juice a little bit, the ginger & anise not at all and i am assuming the dandelion and/or burdock stuff tastes like bubblegum as that is overwhelmingly what this tastes like. i like bubblegum i must admit but i am not loving this so much. it is interesting and a novelty but i would never buy it again. i can’t say i have had many other sodas like this. Girlan Pink Birch actually was similar but Fentimans is not as syrupy and pulls it off better. it is tastier than must diet drinks, which is not saying a lot really. oh well.
Ingredients:water, carbonated water, sugar, pear juice concentrate, glucose syrup, ginger, dandelion & burdock flavor, dandelion strong infusion, burdock strong infusion, aniseed flavor

Anthony’s Rating: 42
User’s Rating: 79
# of ratings:13
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Fizzies Root Beer Drink Tablets

my friend Rob Base got some of these for me several years ago for my birthday or some such holiday. i tried em at the time and was amused by them but did not think to review them. then i just never saw them in stores myself when i did decide i should do so, they are a form of a root beer beverage after all. finally i was ordering some soda from popsoda.com for my dad and dad-in-law and noticed they sold them so i threw in a box for myself. in the intervening decade or so, they had redesigned the packaging, as is to be expected in that time. i think before it was not even in a box.
the concept is kinda of interesting. it is a tablet, you get eight in a box, which, must like Alka Seltzer, when plop plopped in water causes it to fizz fizz. strangely though it does not fizz nearly as much as Alka Seltzer or Airborne even. once it is all dissolved, there is no carbonation remaining. by the time i had entered all of the ingredients (did you check that crazy list out?! scary!!) it had fully dissolved and just sat there in my carefully measured 6 oz of water.
it tastes like a watery, ok diet root beer. i wish they had made this fully sugared but i suppose sugar takes up more room than weird sweet non caloric chemicals so that may not have worked in a dissolving tablet. sugar also is harder to dissolve in cold water. so it tastes funny, gives you that aftertaste. i shall use less water next time, maybe that will resolve the watery issue. it should. it does vaguely taste like root beer and is not awful besides the artificial sweetener thing happening.
i suppose if you are backpacking or going to jail or doing something else where you absolutely have to have something that tastes sort of like root beer but you have very limited space or need to smuggle it in or whatever, this may be for you. or it may entertain small children who don’t care too much how stuff taste as long as it is presented in an entertaining fashion or environment (ie Chucky Cheese).
Ingredients:citric acid, sorbitol, sodium bicarbonate, natural and artificial flavors, potassium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, sodium benzoate, polythylene glycol, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, FD&C yellow #5 lake, FD&C yello #6 lake, FD&C red #40 lake, FD&C Blue #1 lake, docusate sodium

Anthony’s Rating: 35
User’s Rating: 5
# of ratings:1
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Ironbeer

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
User’s Rating: 77
# of ratings:14
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Jeff’s Amazing New York Root Beer Float Egg Cream

i guess i should qualify this before i really start by saying that i don’t like egg creams much. although this is one of the better ones i have had. they just make me feel sort of nauseous, the tastes and textures and feel of it is all wrong and mixed up. if you like egg creams i think you may enjoy this. very creamy and i guess it tastes somewhat like a root beer float. who knows… it does have real milk and cream in it so you’d think it should have an expiration date, but no. must be like that cheese you can get in those twin packs with the summer sausage on the counter of 7-11s across the land. magic dairy products.
Ingredients:carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, milk, cream, vegetable gum stabilizers, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preserves freshness), Red No. 40

Anthony’s Rating: 20
User’s Rating: 43
# of ratings:19
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Reading Draft Blueberry Birch Beer

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
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