Weeping Radish Root Beer

i had wanted to get some of this for quite a while, one day i was clicking on my own links and wanted list and so on and noticed that they offered mail order. i immediately placed that order! even if it turned out to cost around $3 a bottle. oh well. their bottle is actually a 1 Pint, 0.9 Fl Oz size. which i would think would translate to some exact size as that seems silly to me. but perhaps it is more common in the beer world where Weeping Radish are more present. i am too lazy to add a new size catagory to my database so i will just list it as 1 pint. hope that is ok with you all. if not, oh well, tough cheeses.
now this here is a 100% natural soda so i have to keep it refrigerated as there are no preservatives. i don’t think any of the other all natural sodas can make that claim. or would want to as it very much would limit their distribution i would imagine. it also fills up my root beer fridge with this giant bottles. alas.
wow, this is a really good soda! perhaps since it is from root beer extract it is exactly what a root beer should taste like, to me. i think i would like it to be a little bit sweeter but it is still very solid and one of the best i have ever had. there is a very strong licorice taste here so if that is not up your alley, steer clear. that gives it a hearty kick and sets your mouth a-buzzin’. i am not sure how i feel about the fact that they use extract. i suppose it depends where that comes from. if they make it themselves then i am very much for it. but if they buy some commercial product which anyone can get, then i am somewhat opposed as i could just do that myself. i will go with the assumption that they make it and treat that ingredient as the mysterious “natural flavors” which appears on pretty much all sodas now in existence.
this would make an interesting float i would say. the sharp taste would work well with the creamy sweet ice cream. i may have to try that soon.

Anthony’s Rating: 97
Your Rating: 68
# of ratings:4

plan thwarted..

so the 400th review is the next one to post. i had big plans to finally, at long last get some 1919 Root Beer that everyone and their redheaded half step sister’s aunt’s cousin keeps writing in to tell me about. but i just never ordered it. and now the time when it should have posted is passed and the normally scheduled reviews will post. which is fine i suppose but i missed an update there. nonetheless, one of my favorite new sodas will have its review appear tomorrow. perhaps it is even better than 1919? i don’t know, i still have not had the stuff. i will order it eventually though. maybe in time to be review number 500! although finding 100 more sodas could be a huge challenge. we shall see. at least i know i will. you on the other hand may never visit here again. i hope you do. ok, please do.
and recycle your empties.

Fletcher Street Brewing Co RipSaw Diet Root Beer

i find it quite strange that: first, this is a diet soda that has a non diet sweetener and second, there is no nutrition info on it. i thought that was not legal. even more than that i would guess that people who drink diet sodas probably care about how many calories their drink has and probably assume that a “diet” drink has none. yet this must have some with the maltodextrin and all.
granted there are a couple of diet sodas that have a combo of sweeteners, some of which are not non-caloric. i know Sprecher does a Lo-Cal soda that does this. they did it much better too. this is just gross. there is nothing here to tell me it is root beer. i taste metal and that is about all. except for that whole tongue-getting-stuck thing, this is probably what the kid in “A Christmas Story” who licked the flag pole tasted once he was removed and junk. i had hoped i would enjoy this more. yet i did not. they seem like a cool company and their root beer was decent enough. if you want a diet drink though, you should steer clear of this one, in my opinion. feel free to express your own feelings in the comments, i could be all wrong. i do hate diet sodas in general so perhaps someone who enjoys such things thinks this is the bee’s proverbial knees.

Anthony’s Rating: 18
Your Rating: 36
# of ratings:5

My Private Label White Birch Beer

ah, yet another custom label bottler! and this one in my own home state to boot. crazy indeed. i had no idea they existed until the mighty Jon O pointed me towards their website. weird that i never encountered any of their products before. i wish i could get a list of who they provide soda to so i can get more for trades and junk. personally i don’t care about the different labels, it is what is inside that matters to me. which makes me ponder whether i should even put out a photo for these brands. sometimes i don’t, sometimes i do. i guess i may as well.
i admit i am quite excited about finding a new white birch as they so often are so tasty!
ok, smell is decent, not as minty as i would hope from a white birch, but perhaps they went in a different direction than the traditional white birch beer taste… yup, they sure did! and it was the road less travelled for a reason i have to say as this is not very good. imagine if you will taking 2 parts of an ok brown birch beer, now add about 2 parts water and 1 part ginger ale and that is about what this tastes like. a kind of bland sugary sparkling beverage. i guess it is not so bad as a drink though on second thought. it is sort of refreshing and light even if it is kind of sticky sweet. it would not be something i would select though if other options are available. and i definitely don’t think it tastes very much like birch beer. i hope the other offerings from this company are better.

Anthony’s Rating: 65
Your Rating: 74
# of ratings:2

Boylan’s Diet Root Beer

i am wary of this stuff. on the one hand, it is Boylan’s, who have made some amazing sodas. but on the other hand, it is diet. back on that first hand the bottle says “Best Body” on it for no reason. on that second hand again, Boylan’s has made some not so great sodas too.
i notice too that Boylan’s seems to have become Boylan Bottleworks now, the possessive “’s” is gone from the label entirely. and they love citric acid so much they listed it twice in the ingredients. curious…
alright, let us see…. smells ok… taste is not awful, OH no wait, it is! yup, it hits you later of course. gross diet soda taste that waits in a tree and springs on you when you let your guard down and forever wrecks your taste buds. or at least for a half hour. i just don’t get it, if the diet sweeteners are so chemically similar to sugar, why do they taste so vile? granted they are sweet but in a different way. and why oh why do i always get a stomach ache from them?
i am sorry to say that this does not really even taste like root beer much at all. very faintly, yes. like if you maybe let a few drops of root beer dry on a piece of aluminum foil and then chewed on it, you get that metallic taste with a hint of root beer.
wow, i can’t even finish this at all. or even make it past the neck level. excuse me i have to go cleanse my palette. and find some Natural Boylan’s Root Beer to remember what they do right.

Anthony’s Rating: 18
Your Rating: 43
# of ratings:5

The Pop Shoppe Root Beer

so now that i am reviewing sodas in advance in order to space them out at semi-decent intervals and not have a glut of them, then nothing, i feel kind of bad about the sodas which people have sent me. see i got this soda in the summer of 2008, it is now early November when i am reviewing it but the review won’t appear until March, 2009. i very much appreciate and rely on people sending me sodas available near them which i cannot get. i know if it were me sending a soda to somebody else i would want it to be reviewed very quickly more as a sign of appreciation and not possibly allowing it to go bad.
i had never heard of this soda before i was emailed about it so i was excited to get some. i feel there must be a whole load of root beers in Snow Mexico which i am unaware of. now that i know “soda racinette” is french for “root beer” that will help. thus far though it has not helped me track down any more brands or anything sadly.
i like the style of the bottle, it is very different from most brands. i would think it was a cola if i just saw it on a shelf. i suppose to me red and white are cola colors. but it is very 50s soda fountain looking to me. coolio. there also is a quote on the side of the bottle in small letters which was once uttered by the mighty PW Herman, “I know you are, but what am I?” truer words have never been spoken.
so this is probably the most carbonated beverage i have ever had. the head on it is enormous and does not go away easily. yet it is not very creamy. in my mind, creaminess and foam quantity are directly related but in actuality they have no correlation at all. the flavor here is much more herbal than i expected. it is not ridiculously so, like a Journey soda or something but it for sure has a real tree-like essence to it. as i said before it is not too creamy, more sharp which is mellowed by the sugar sweetening that is in the background. it is different for sure but not the branch of root beer that i like the most.

Anthony’s Rating: 75
Your Rating: 76
# of ratings:4

Mug Brand Diet Root Beer

yes, i know, i have been doing this site for over 12 years now and just NOW i am getting to review Mug Diet Root Beer! indeed. weird. there are actually a decent amount of pretty readily available sodas i have never gotten to. most of them are diet so you may understand my apprehension, but a few are not. alas. i am trying to catch up now. although i am sure i will run out of sodas in not too much longer so maybe i should wait more or something. we will just have to see.
now i don’t know when the bulldog appeared on the Mug labels but it is a little weird since there is a Bulldog Root Beer also. and i see no real connection between root beer and dogs of any sort, let alone bulldogs. although there is that Snoopy fellow who quite enjoys root beer and he is a dog.
as with most diet drinks, this stuff starts off ok but then takes a bit to be gross. although this one does seem to delay the gross longer than most, so that is something for it. the initial taste is root beer-esque and of course it becomes metallic in about 20 seconds instead of the usual 10 or so. and… wait for it… yup, there is the tummy ache of Nutrasweet! wonderful. thanks Mug. you could so worse with a diet soda as far as a mainstream brand, this may be your best choice.

Anthony’s Rating: 31
Your Rating: 42
# of ratings:14