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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.

AJ Stephans Pure Cane Sugar Root Beer

ok, so someone wrote to me and told me where in Boston to get the other AJ Stephens sodas, so my good friend Michael went there one day and got a whole slew of em for me! this is a pretty tasty soda but the carbonation is overpowering. my mouth tingles so much that i am barely able to taste the flavor of the soda. it has a slight bite of bitterness and you can faintly detect the cane sugar taste. i am enjoying it but it is not the best thing out there. perhaps the non-cane sugar one is better. i will soon see…
Ingredients:pure carbonated water, cane sugar, flavor, caramel color, sodium benzoate as a preservative

Anthony’s Rating: 85
User’s Rating: 80
# of ratings:25
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Albertson’s A+ Root Beer Old Fashioned Soda

maybe it is because i have had this for a while, but this is pretty bad. very little carbonation (which i’d expect for a soda sitting for a couple months). but the taste is very bland and dull. a little too generic i suppose. drinkable though, it is not all herb-y and grody or anything. for a store brand that costs like $.50 for the bottle, it is ok. i will have to try it again when i can drink it fresh.
Ingredients:carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, caramel color, potassium benzoate (a preservative), natural and artificial flavor, citric acid

Anthony’s Rating: 46
User’s Rating: 48
# of ratings:49
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Alco Select Brown Barrel Original Root Beer

i suspect that this is the same thing as the other “Select” root beers i have reviewed (safeway, stop n shop)but i could be wrong. that top logo thing seems the same, just with the particular store chain in its place. indeed. i quite like their packaging, the light and dark brown stripes and the always classic barrel motiff, very nice! the taste is alright, about the same as most store brands, sweet at first and then you get that sort of burnt/slightly bitter taste at the end as it goes down. could be the aluminum can breaking down or something i suppose. nothing special at all but for 6/$1 or whatever, you can’t expect a lot i don’t think. i just wish they knew if it had corn syrup or sugar or both. i would guess mostly high fructose corn syrup in here though, it has that taste.
Anthony’s Rating: 60
User’s Rating: 51
# of ratings:4
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Alder Brau Root Beer

one of the coolest bottles i have seen. very simple, yellow ink silk screened onto the brown bottle. and a really good root beer! kinda light and just refeshing. but sort of a spicey taste happening in the aftertaste. a very unique and good drink here folks. it seems like it is clear but i am too lazy to go to the kitchen and get a glass to pour some in to find out. i am jealous of the good stuff in WI these days! many thanks to Stuart for sending me such great sodas!
Anthony’s Rating: 92
User’s Rating: 74
# of ratings:30
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America’s Choice Root Beer

this smells like root beer but tastes like fizzy sugar water with a slight root beer tinge to it. i dunno. it is kinda ok but i wouldn’t guess it was root beer i do not think if just given a swallow of it. so in that regard it kinda fails at the goal of being root beer. which is not to say that all root beers must taste like the traditional flavor, but it should at least taste pretty good and bear some slight resemblance to that original taste. some sodas do it well, this one does not so much.
Ingredients:carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, caramel color, sodium benzoate (a preservative), citric acid, natural and artificial flavor and caffeine

Anthony’s Rating: 41
User’s Rating: 45
# of ratings:85
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American Fare Root Beer

this is kinda bad. loads of carbonation, very little flavor. i suppose that is what i’d expect for soda i got for 25 cents in a machine, but still, i hoped for more. i don’t think i can even finish this, it is so bad and not worthy of drinking or even being called by the mighty name “root beer.” i really should use the money back guarentee on this one but i’d spend more on gas on the trip than i would get back. that is how they get ya i guess.
Anthony’s Rating: 26
User’s Rating: 52
# of ratings:13
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Americana Microcrafted Cream Style Root Beer

they only brew 600 gallons at a time, they say. which seems like a lot. but hey, i am no brewer so i dunno how big a batch of regular soda would be. also contains a bunch of wacky things like Extracts of Vanilla, Licorice, Sassafras Root Bark (does a root have a bark?!), and Aracia Extract. the licorice is very subtle, but there if you really pay attention i suppose. overall the root beer is pretty good though. one of those “sippin root beers” really, where the flavor does not hit you until you put the bottle down. creamy. pretty smooth. i approve. carry on.
Ingredients:carbonated water, cane sugar, caramel color, extracts of vanilla, licorice, sassafras root bark, citric acid, natural flavors, acacia extract, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness)

Anthony’s Rating: 85
User’s Rating: 79
# of ratings:43
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Appalachian Brewing Co Rootbeer

a very kind fellow sent this to me after seeing i had not reviewed it. actually i did not even know they bottled it, so it was a very thrilling day when the offer was made. and even better when it actually arrived in one piece on my doorstep.
i don’t quite get why a small brewery would not have settled on a sweetener so they have to put “corn syrup AND/OR sugar” or whatever. is it one or the other or both? i know there are a good amount of people who avoid corn syrup, so it would behoove them to not have that stuff in there.
but besides that, this is one excellent brew! the flavor is a refreshing herbal mix that i just can’t drink down quickly. i must take small tastes and try to figure out just what i am having. well, i don’t have to do that, i could just drink it and know it is great each time i take a swallow. yet i want to savor it. i cannot really make out the honey though i must admit. the sweetness level is a bit lower than the sodas i usually like a lot which surprises me. it is still sweet but rather subdued in that aspect. that herbal flavor mentioned above is unusual. other sodas seem to try to achieve this taste but most do not do so as well as this one. i will definitely have to go out to PA to get more of this stuff sometime!

UPDATE: they DON’T use corn syrup in any form anymore!! hooray!! the labels have been updated and all is well in the world. or at least better than it was. carry on. good work ABC!
good work Appalachian Brewing Co!
Ingredients:filtered and carbonated brewery water, high fructose corn syrup and/or pure granulated sugar, honey, natural and artificial flavorings, citric acid and sodium benzoate (a preservative)

Anthony’s Rating: 97
User’s Rating: 93
# of ratings:36
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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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Avery’s Root Beer

i found out about this company probably a year or two ago. as i drive through Connecticut a couple times a year i figured i would make a side trip at some point and go to their bottling works. but i have not yet done so. thus when this root beer was offered up as part of my big trade with Jon, i picked it. nonetheless i will still go up with to get the rest of their soda line as they have a birch beer and sarsaparilla as well as a diet root and diet birch. so for four new sodas to try, it is definitely worthwhile!
i like the style of this brand too, very old-timey and cool. all of the labels are the same and flavors are distinguished by the bottle caps which also have the ingredient list.
the beverage as a whole though is good. but it does not do a ton for me. yeah, it is tasty and superior to your big market, mass produced soda, but it does not really set itself apart. this could be one of about 10 sodas in a blind taste test. that is not really a bad thing mind you, yet i am trying to distinguish sodas from each other a bit more. there is a very distinct lack of any head or foam although the carbonation level is good. the sweetness level is good, not overly done. flavor-wise, like i have been saying, it is good but i can’t get any more descriptive than shrugging and saying “yup, it is a very yummy root beer.” i would definitely get more as i do like it. i think this review came off as bad but there is no reason not to drink this instead of 95% of the root beers out there.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar or corn syrup sweetener, caramel color, artificial and natural flavors, citric acid, gum acacia, preserved with sodium benzoate

Anthony’s Rating: 90
User’s Rating: 88
# of ratings:6
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