1919 Root Beer

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
# of ratings:6
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Upstream Brewing Co Bugeater Root Beer

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
User’s Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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Northwoods Skinny Bill’s Diet Root Beer

alright, a diet soda… i can do this. it might be good, right? Northwood’s other two drinks were quite tasty, so this could be awesome!

wow, this is sweet! i mean that in the “it is sugary sweet” way not in the “it is rad, awesome, sweet” sense. but for whatever reason it works and it pretty much blocks the artificial sweetener aftertaste. which makes no sense to me. the artificial sweetener is what causes the aftertaste, so why would adding more of it to make this sweeter decrease said aftertaste?

but i could mean it in the “rad, awesome, sweet” sense too actually. because it is a good diet drink! holy moly! i never thought it possible but this is good. better than a lot of sugared sodas. the best diet soda i have ever had. it must be something about the Wild Bill name since the only one close to this is the NJ Wild Bill’s. interesting…
i see these commercials for the new fangled diet colas and diet prune soda with the opposing delivery truck drivers or the easter bunny and Santa Claus and so on, all saying that their blech is as good as the non-diet version, but they really need to try this one. it tastes like root beer! a very very sweet one, but still… if you melted a root beer barrel candy or one of those candy stick things, it would taste a lot like this. which is good if you like sweet stuff. i am just astounded. it is not bad. weird. they say it is a “rare, smooth beverage” on this one too and this time they are right! very rare and quite smooth. whoa. job well done, Bill and family. you have taken the lead. anyone care to step up and challenge them?

Ingredients:carbonated water, natural & artificial flavor, phosphoric acid, sucralose, aceuflame potassium & sodium benzoate to preserve quality

Anthony’s Rating: 72
User’s Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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Northwoods Wild Bill’s Root Beer

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
User’s Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
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