Jon is probably the only person i know who has more root beers than me. we have made a couple of trades in the past but as time goes on, it gets harder for each of us to find more sodas that the other has not had. if something new comes out, often we both get it. but we worked out another trade here and that is a good thing. a very good thing! Nine new sodas for me! hoorah!

this one is tricky. it comes in a Sprecher bottle, is made by Sprecher, but sold by Cherry Republic. i supposed i should probably file it under “Cherry Republic” instead of “Sprecher” but i decided not to.
i was pretty excited for this. afterall, besides root beer and the like, cherry soda is probably my favorite soda. i have considered starting a sister site to review cherry sodas even. i think ginger brews would be interesting too actually but they don’t vary quite as much as root beers or cherry sodas. anyway… so cherry and root beer together? hhhmmm, that could work. but does it? before i answer that, i will digress.
the label has a drawing of a bear picking cherries from the roots of a cherry tree. that is kind of clever and cute. more so since their normal cherry soda has the same bear picking cherries from the top of a cherry tree. they also make a cherry cola but that does not seem to have a witty illustration on its label. alas. the rest of the label has a background to make it look like wood. fine, whatever.
ok, so the taste? eh, it is ok. not really root beer tasting which is a bit surprising, being made by Sprecher and all. although there are no ingredients that would indicate it should have any root beer taste anyway. the cherry taste is definitely there, but not overpowering. it is a sweet, dark cherry taste with a little tart edge to it. hefty, not light and refreshing or anything. as a drink it is just ok. as a root beer, it disappoints. there is a little something beyond the cherry taste, a hint of something more, which could be the root beer aspect. it isn’t bad, it just isn’t awesome which i think it could have been.
Ingredients:carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, cherry juice concentrate, natural and artificial cherry flavor, citric acid, and sodium benzoate (preservative)

Anthony’s Rating: 76
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this one was pointed out to me by the mighty Jon, otherwise i may never have found it. so thanks once again to him for that. granted, i then traded him a bottle from the six(6)-pack i ordered so he got some for his collection anyhow.

the soda is named after a tiger at Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary which aims to be 100% green. sounds good. i am not sure i see a connection between soda and tigers, but animals seem to inspire a lot of root beers so whatever, a tiger works as well as a whale does, maybe more so.

they use no preservatives, which seems to be more common lately. i don’t know if there is a backlash against preservatives, but i can get behind that. i just have to remember to drink this stuff soon.

you can also earn prizes for collecting bottle caps! now that i really like. as someone who got a load of Bazooka Joe stuff with the comic inserts in the 80s as well as countless breakfast cereal promotions, i wondered why that sort of thing faded out so much. perhaps the shipping costs got prohibitive.

the taste of this one is good. there is a little bit of a brown cinnamon hint i feel like, but beyond that it is pretty much as expected. very large head which does not, thankfully, translate into an overcarbonated drink. not too creamy, but that is fine, some ice cream can add that aspect to it if needed. i prefer that sometimes really. it is smooth though. sweet too, the cane sugar works well on this one. it is good. if you live around there, get some, collect and save the bottle caps, get some tickets or t shirts or whatever. and visit the tigers, they sound like fun.
Ingredients:filtered carbonated water, cane sugar, natural flavors and citric acid

Anthony’s Rating: 84
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ah, review number 500! whoa! fifteen (15) years plus since i started this site and added it to the many pages i was doing at the time. at the time i don’t think i expected this would be the one that would last. although, logically my zine was bound to die out eventually even if i never sold out myself. as was my record label. and “anthony’s most annoying of the web” seemed unnecessary after a bit, so many sites were annoying.

this is a soda i have been hearing about for years and years. it is a draft only soda that is carried at many restaurants and other eateries in the midwest. that is a very unique thing. i can’t say i know of any others in fact. some breweries sell kegs in addition to their bottled offering or else just offer the soda on draft at their locations, but 1919 is not unique to one chain or place. but i live no where near Minnesota or any of the places they served 1919 so it was just on my “wishlist” for a long time. one day though i got an email from a reader telling me that 1919 was selling pony kegs for home consumption! i immediately emailed them and got pricing info. being as it is a 5 liter can/keg, it is quite heavy so it is also costly to buy and even more so to ship. thus i put off the purchase. paying more than $20 for a single new soda is a bit much, even if it is a LOT of that single soda. then i realized review #500 was coming so i emailed them again more recently as i couldn’t find my old email and i figured costs probably changed in the intervening 5 or 7 or whatever years. i explained why i was ordering too, so they might be as excited as me. they responded by offering to send me a pony keg for reviewing! for free! whoa!! and they know how to ship this stuff. sent out on a Monday so it would not sit anywhere too long, packed with inches of foam and disposable ice packs all around it since it has no preservatives, it arrived very safe and sound and went right in my fridge
sweet to perfection. creaminess is just right. endnote of herbs which fades to a smooth vanilla mouth feel and a very happy anthony. this is for sure worth the wait and fully deserving of being review number 500! posting on my birthday too, nice! funny, i did not plan it that way at all. anyway… i envy the people who can get this easily at their local eatery or even bar. i might go to a bar if i could have a flagon of this fine beverage. what else to say about this? the head is marvelous, long lasting and majestic.
i wrote a lot more a couple months ago when i reviewed this but for some reason it got lost so i will try to update more soon.
Anthony’s Rating: 98
User’s Rating: 83
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woo hoo! ok, i admit, i am fully aware that there are actually hundreds of root beers out there i will never have. the reason being that they are only available on tap and occasionally in a take home growler at a single brewery location somewhere in the US where i will probably not get to. i do my best to get to such locations but it is quite difficult, especially right now with two tiny people to watch over. that sort of limits the 12 hours of driving a day road trips which i quite enjoy. perhaps one day again we can do such things. by then though, many of these breweries may be gone, sadly enough.

once in a while though, someone emails me and offers to send me a growler from their local brewery or whatever. i don’t think anyone has actually come through on this offer though. until NOW! James emailed me, saying he was going to be traveling and if i knew of any sodas i wanted in the areas he would be going. i mentioned a couple and he said he’d be going to this brewery and would be happy to get me a growler. and he did! he also packed it insanely well and mail it off quickly which is key since growlers go bad pretty quickly.

but how is the soda after all of this? well, the taste here is actually pretty darn bad. you get a sense of licorice but not a lot and it is accompanied by a more bitter herbal taste. i like herbal tasting things sometimes, often even. but not this one. to me, soda though should not be all bitter, it should be at least somewhat on the “sweet” side of the spectrum. this here drink is not though. it is just harsh and kind of acidic. a shame really as it took a lot of time and energy to get to me. but i have to call it as i see it. or taste it as this case may be. it is also ironic that i am drinking this Bugeater root beer right after the giant recall of Similac baby formula because of beetle parts in it.
Anthony’s Rating: 32
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the flagship offering from this company! the flavor Wild Bill himself perfected over 20 years of trial and error! or at least what he thought of as perfect. so does it stack up? is it as good as the natural version? or is it even better with the preservatives and non-cane sugar? on a side note, i am surprised that the natural one has cane sugar and the beet sugar while this just has the beet sugar. the only real difference seems to be the preservatives in this one. but hey, this way i will leave a prettier corpse for whoever wants to view such things. at least until it is lit aflame and sent off to sea in a viking craft.

so anyway, this is indeed very very good. better that the Natural Bill’s? i don’t know, i don’t think it is quite as good for some reason. that reason being that after about a minute i get this weird taste in my mouth. before that it is delightful. it is quite sweet but with a light, rooty taste to it. yeah, it is a pretty light flavor, not too intense and shocking, just calm and tasty and mouth pleasing. this is one soda i am happy i had to buy a case of.
Ingredients:carbonated water, michigan beet sugar, natural & artificial flavor, phosphoric acid & sodium benzoate to preserve quality

Anthony’s Rating: 91
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yeah, this gets kind of complex here. this Michigan based company makes three (3) root beers, this natural one, one with artificial stuff in it and a diet. but don’t confuse it with the NJ based Wild Bill’s and any of their offerings as they are totally unrelated. i also am unsure how to title this drink. the website calls it “Natural Bill’s Root Beer” but the bottle itself has it as “Wild Bill’s Natural Root Beer.” not that it matters much in the end, but theses are the sorts of things that plague my brain when i do this website stuff. i just know i will get some emails telling me about the other named beverage, whichever way i go with it.
i think i found this one by looking at every brand in the root-beer.org brand list and trying to see which were current brands i may have missed. it was quite a time consuming task but that i found any new sodas to get makes it worthwhile to me.
so the organic dehydrated cane juice really gives this a maple syrup-ish flavor, kind of a deep caramel taste that i really enjoy. it is not upfront but it develops in time and lingers, causing your tongue to miss it when it is gone. along with that is a vanilla, creamy side that adds to the magic. this really is very good, probably the best “natural” soda i have ever had. which i think is saying something as i have had a good amount of sodas. i think some people will find this too sweet and i can see that, but it is really a good sweetness in my mind. the label proclaims it is the result of 20 years of trying to make the smoothest, richest root beer. it definitely is up there in both categories i would say. i am surprised, for how sweet and rich it is, that the sugar content is not that high really. well done, Northwoods, i hope the other sodas are as good as this! we will find out soon enough. this one went first since it seemed to have no preservatives. i better go home and drink the rest soon!
Ingredients:carbonated water, organic dehydrated cane juice, natural flavor, and phosphoric acid

Anthony’s Rating: 95
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this is not to be confused with the Vine Park River City Root Beer i reviewed some time back. this one is made by Blue Dog Beverages and is totally different. i actually thought they were the same for a bit and always skipped over it when i would do mail order. but then i checked it out and they are quite separate, just with the same name.
overall i like the packaging and graphic design here. there is an old tyme drawing of a scene with a river boat and a house and some kids rolling a hoop with a stick on the riverbank, or maybe that is a rope from the boat and my sense of perspective is off… i like the hoop rolling possibility better myself. they also have some messages about how the sky used to be bluer and clouds whiter and the river breeze kept you cooler, which could be statement about global warming i suppose. probably though they are trying to evoke a feeling of nostalgia and when junk was better and innocence was not lost and all of that. people eat that nonsense up. or, in this case, hopefully drink it up.
this soda pop is quite good i will say. it has a solid sweetness, not too much, just hits it right. the carbonation is also excellently balanced. the taste is very good too, but a little too normal if i can have a slight complaint. it is creamy and quite smooth and tastes as you envision as good root beer as tasting like. it satisfies that craving in me. i could have this with some pizza or whatever and be very happy but it is not one i would sit and savor and sip. everything has a place and this is a solid, yummy soda for drinking for sure.
Ingredients:carbonated water, cane sugar, caramel color, natural flavor, quillaia extract, phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate (preservative), potassium sorbate

Anthony’s Rating: 91
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weird story first.. i somehow came upon this soda, i think from people emailing me, and ordered some. it came and i put a couple bottles in my fridge and took my photos and so on. soon it was the only soda left in there for review. this had not happened in a long time, to just have 1 soda left was crazy! scary in a way too. even though i am about 16 months ahead in my reviews, what would i do if i couldn’t find any new sodas?! i was saying this to some friends and one said she had gotten me a soda when she went to visit her parents in North Carolina but it burst on the plane on the way home. she could not think of the name and i got excited that it was indeed something new! then she recalled it was Uncle Scott’s! so that was the weird part of the story, just getting this and then almost getting it again like a week after. not SO weird, but still somewhat. ok, maybe it was just me…
this soda is complex, let me say that right off. heck, it has wood extract in it! the initial taste is actually harsh, a little bitter, rough. that i did not like. but it slowly fades and the other flavors come through and it is tastier. you get the cinnamon, you get the anise & licorice, you get the vanilla and you get a bit of the caramel. there really are categories of root beer in my head at least. you have your chugging root beers, they go in smooth from the start, with a constant taste. you grab them on a hot day, they refresh and remind me of summer and sprinklers and junk. then you have your sipping root beers, like this one, that has a more complex thing going on, flavors develop and change. you have it while watching tv, relaxing, slowly taking it in. i like both kinds of soda, they are each good for different times. i wish this one did not start with a bad flavor, the end result is quite tasty but to get there you have to get through that harsh initial kick. perhaps that is planned, so that the later flavor tastes even better since you just had that bitter kick on your tongue. i don’t know if they can get that to change, or if they want to, but i would like it more that way.
Ingredients:filtered carbonated water, certified organic sugar, vanilla, cinnamon oil, natural caramel, wood extract, licorice root oil, anise oil, and natural gum arabic

Anthony’s Rating: 81
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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.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural flavor, and citric acid

Anthony’s Rating: 87
User’s Rating: 98
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i do so love getting emails about sodas i have never had. particularly when they are accompanied by an offer to trade me for it! although trading with other countries gets quite pricey with postage as glass bottles of soda are quite heavy. oh well, just make sure you click those ad links kids so i generate enough income to pay for this stuff!
the fellow i traded with to get this was an ex-pat American missing the root beer that only the good ole USA makes. he told a tale of his wife finding this stuff newly at the supermarket and excitedly trying it only to be let down. thus already my hopes are not high. not to mention that my previous tastes of English root beer have been honestly mostly awful.
the design of this reminds me a lot of the Australian sarsaparillas i recently reviewed, very high end looking. they seem to try to appeal more to an adult audience and are more like whiskey bottle design than most soda designs. they are quite unclear on just WHO is celebrating this soda but it makes it sound more olde tyme this way i suppose. it is described as “sparkling sarsaparilla flavoured soft drink with sugar” on the read label which makes it fit even more in with the Aussie sarsaparillas.
i am actually surprised by the flavor (oops, flavour) of this. it is not bad. i think it is one of those things that could go either way though. kind of like that girl you thought was REALLY pretty but who had a sister who looked a lot like her but oh so slightly different so she was REALLY not pretty. at all. i think they found a good balance here in this drink of that medicinal, very herbal tasting thing which a lot of sodas try for but very much fail at. other people may pull a ‘strike that, reverse it’ sort of thing and agree with the opposite. it is definitely something i think would appeal to someone seeking a less traditional root beer taste. i wish i could better pinpoint the flavors in here. what i think of as sarsaparilla, a kind of lightly bitter, earthy taste, is prominent. i seem to get a little bit of an anise touch in there too. other herbs are behind it and mixed in but i can’t place them so well. the carbonation level is pretty low here, as is the sweetness. overall i like it. i would get it occasionally i think if it were available closer to me.
Ingredients:sparkling spring water, sugar, malt extract, citric acid, natural flavors including natural sarsaparilla flavor

Anthony’s Rating: 86
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