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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-Treat Sarsaparilla

hhhhmmm, this soda tastes totally different than it smells. weird. the scent is very herbal, “rooty” if you will excuse the pun. the taste though is rather sweet. it does have a slight kick but on the whole it is pretty root beer-ish. the weirdest part is that i really feel like i taste honey in here, which is not listed. i enjoy it yet i feel it tastes a little kooky. in a good way though really. yummy stuff here. especially for a canned soda.
Anthony’s Rating: 86
User’s Rating: 78
# of ratings:67
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AJ Stephans Olde Style Sarsaparilla

ya know, i have been to Boston a lot and i have never seen this soda. in fact, i have a whole bunch of friends who live there who i think would have at least told me about it had they seen it. so why it proclaims “Boston” on the label is a mystery to me. they claim “since 1926″ on it too so it cannot be that it is brand new or something. whatever. it is a darn fine soda. probably the best sarsaparilla i have ever had. it has a slight wintergreen hint to it along with a nice little herbal taste that does not at all overpower the real flavor. this company makes a root beer and a birch beer too so i will now have to find them. or send my friends on a mission.
Anthony’s Rating: 94
User’s Rating: 74
# of ratings:53
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AJ Stephans Pure Cane Sugar Sarsaparilla

ok, continuing the AJ Stephans experience… sadly i drank the “Olde Style Sarsaparilla” several months ago so i cannot compare back to back as i did with the root beers. oh well, i will trust it is different even if the ingredients are identical. it smells darn good i must say. i think it suffers from the same problem as the cane sugar root beer though as it is extremely carbonated. the cane sugar is more evident here though. it has a decidedly “rooty,” herbal taste. which is ok but not the best. and it is leaving a bad aftertaste now that i am about 75% done. decent but not really something i want all the time. mediocre at best even by the time i finish it.
Anthony’s Rating: 64
User’s Rating: 82
# of ratings:20
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Archer Farms Premium Sarsaparilla Soda

everytime i go to Target (which is really way too much i must admit) i browse their soda aisle as they seem to randomly have some good sodas, which are often on clearance. that is unfortunate in ways since it means they are not selling so they won’t be restocked, but it is good for me to get that brand for cheap. anyway, they now seem to have a line of premium sodas of their own devising which they have released under their Archer Farms imprint. the flavor is not so bad. a little bit sweet and a little bit watery somehow. it just does not impress me but it does not gross me out. it is a little tame for a sarsaparilla though, in my opinion, kind of a sweet, slightly root-ish flavor that might be good as something to not think about so much. maybe when you are reading or watching a movie or something and don’t want to be distracted by your beverage’s awesomeness. i would buy it again i am sure, just as something easily available and different.
Anthony’s Rating: 82
User’s Rating: 78
# of ratings:25
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Baron’s Boothill Sarsaparilla

a darn tasty brew here. a classic taste really but it has a bit of a sharp tinge to it that i really enjoy. i could drink a whole load of this but i am sure i will never get to since it is made so far away from me and mailordering it is crazy expensive. yes indeed. but if it is available near you, i’d get it a lot.
Ingredients:carbonated water, fructose, natural flavor, caramel color, citric acid and sodium benzoate

Anthony’s Rating: 88
User’s Rating: 79
# of ratings:55
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Benchmark Old-Time Sarsaparilla

another vanity labelled soda. strange how they all seem to be in New Hampshire. i suspect one of the other ones has just changed their name or something here, but i could be all wrong and this is yet another one. this is rather good too, which surprises me also. the flavor has suggestions of the usual “root beer” flavor yet deviates from that with some extra spice. i am trying to place the spice, perhaps a hint of clove with some cinnimon? the sweetness is a little too syrupy for me, but corn syrup seems to have that effect on things that are liquid.
Anthony’s Rating: 81
User’s Rating: 42
# of ratings:2
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Bickford’s Sarsaparilla

this is the next of the Australian sarsaparillas that i traded for! they all seem to have in common a somewhat different graphic design style than American sodas. they are more sophisticated and much more resemble alcohol bottles in style and font and so on. even the color palette and bottle shape suggest liquor versus soft drink. at least to me. i am sure it is something that advertising and graphic design professionals have been enforcing in a subtle way for my whole life and more. i like that all of the Australian sodas i have had have come in very distinct bottles, unusual shapes and embossed and weird sizes too. i imagine that adds a lot to the cost of the beverage.
so this company has been around since the 1870s although i am not sure if that is continuously or sporadically like some other companies that seem to be resurrected by the grandchildren or something of the founders. the website is no help. although it does tell me it is gluten free and safe for children as part of a balanced diet! handy!
so on first opening this i am struck by the licorice smell, wow! on first taste i am struck by, crap, i don’t even know! the only thing i can compare this to is a distant memory of Bundaberg root beer. VERY very herbal and hearty. yes “hearty” is the best way to describe this. it is a very complex flavor that really changes in the course of 30 seconds or so. ok, let me see… yes, there is a definitely licorice taste here, that may be the strongest thing, kind of bitter but not in a wholly bad way. i am also tasting hints of cinnamon perhaps. it is not a creamy, vanilla-ish soda by any means i honestly don’t think children would like this, even as part of a well balanced diet. if i get more i will test it on my daughter, but she is a root beer addict for some reason. although by the time this publishes i will have two daughters and the older one will hopefully expand her palette a little more. we shall see. anyway, i do like this. sometimes i get on a serious licorice kick myself and this would definitely satisfy that craving without the chewing but it is not a drink i think i would want to have often. but as an occasionally thing, i am all for it.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar, colour (150d), food acid (330), flavours, preservative (211)

Anthony’s Rating: 78
User’s Rating: 39
# of ratings:1
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Big Ben’s Sarsaparilla

so i finally broke down and figured i would probably not get to make a road trip to PA anytime soon in a quest for the rest of the Big Ben’s sodas i had not had. so i mail ordered them. they only mail order the 20 oz plastic bottles though which is a bit of a shame as the glass bottles they use are awesome, re-used and collected from old bottlers, some are 50+ years old! but i can understand not shipping those off as they need them back. of course i would rather not drink from plastic when possible though. strangely, this flavor is not one you can get in glass though so take that as you will. another thing annoying here is that the carbonation level of all of the bottles i have had so far is very very low. i want to hear that fizz, the gas escape, it makes me happy. i don’t get that here.
i find it strange that there is no flavoring listed in the ingredients. i am guessing the “natural and artificial color” should be “natural and artificial flavor” though. i suppose this is officially titled “Fast Draw Sarsaparilla” to try to draw in some of that cowboy allure. yet the “Fast Draw” part is in a very small font so i doubt it would have a lot of effect anyway. this tastes like a sarsaparilla to me. it is similar to root beer, but different, more herbal, verging on medicinal but in a good way. it just tastes more earthy and natural although i am sure it is not. some anise is detectable but not overpowering. the lack of carbonation does bother me a bit and the flavor is not amazing although it is good. i don’t regret getting it at all and will happily drink the others i got. the world needs more sarsaparillas and small soda bottlers so i am happy to support these guys and gals.
Ingredients:carbonated water, sugar and/or corn sweetener, natural and artificial color, caramel, citric acid, and preserved with sodium benzoate

Anthony’s Rating: 82
User’s Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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Briar’s Six Gun Sarsaparilla

i could barely finish this, it was so nasty. well, that is not necessarily true, it just has a huge bite / kick and a weird after taste, but once you got used to it, it was not really awful, just bad. i’ve had some good sarsaparillas in my day and this isn’t one of them. very disappointing after a great root beer and birch beer. furthers my theory that they don’t understand flavours…
Anthony’s Rating: 28
User’s Rating: 64
# of ratings:29
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Bundaberg Sarsaparilla

so this is the last of my Australian sarsaparilla trade, alas, quite a shame. i know there are more sarsaparillas in the land down under so if anyone ever wants to trade me some, i would happily do it.
i suspect this may actually be the same as their root beer, just packaged and labeled differently for the Australian market where sarsaparilla is much more popular and prevalent than root beer. although when i bought and reviewed the root beer, it was imported from Australia, unlike now where they make a root beer in a more traditionally American style bottle. the bottle thing is a shame as this is one of the coolest bottles and bottle caps i have ever encountered. it has a ring which you pull up to break the seal and then peel back to separate the top of the cap from the sides. weird and hard to explain but very different and interesting. the bottle itself is also very fun, short and stubby with embossing. great touches!
this is definitely not your father’s root beer like you would expect but it may in fact be like your grandfather’s. it is very herbal and strong, much like i imagine Charles Hires and native peoples originally made it.
if it is the same as the root beer i reviewed a decade ago, i have come to enjoy the taste more as i quite like this. it isn’t incredible but it is different and interesting while still being tasty. does this sort of invalidate my scale? perhaps a bit, older reviews and ratings may not correlate to my current feelings. tough bananas, brotha! (i hate tough bananas, when they are not ripe yet, such a tease. like you really want a banana but it is all hard and not even peeling right and you know you will get a bad tummy ache if you eat it so you don’t.)
the molasses is definitely up front here, along with the licorice. i don’t sense the ginger as much but the vanilla is in the background. plus the sarsaparilla is present through-out. it is definitely worth trying but probably not worth drinking every day.
Ingredients:carbonated water, cane sugar, sarsaparilla brew (water, sugar, molasses, ginger root, sarsaparilla root, licorice root, vanilla bean, yeast), colour (150d), acid (330), preservatives (202, 211), antioxidant (300) sarsaparilla flavor

Anthony’s Rating: 76
User’s Rating: 44
# of ratings:2
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