A & P Premium Draft Root Beer

to celebrate their 150th anniversary, this east coast grocery chain released this soda. kind of like Foodtown did a couple years ago although i am not sure Foodtown had any such motivation for their glass bottled soda line. one of my co-workers told me about it and i soon after rushed over to the closest A&P to get myself a 4 pack.
i am surprised this has a non-twist off cap. it is pretty rare actually that sodas do the bottle opener needed thing, especially in this day and age of people not really having them as handy and available. luckily i do for just such an occasion, but the common everyday soda drinker may not and i suspect that A&P does not have one mounted on their wall for customer use.
also surprising is the use of 2 different forms of potassium as preservatives. this stuff will probably survive as long as twinkies and cockroaches! wacky. i guess it will preserve my organs and junk if i drink enough. that would be strange so i will not do it.
this has to be one of the sodas i have had this the most carbonation and foam. perhaps that non-twist cap really does seal in the freshness better! it has actually overflowed with foam twice now. the second time i tried to stop it with my hand by cutting off the air supply but that just made it spray all over my phone next to it. i should clean that off soon or i will have a sticky phone forever. although soda is still slowly dripping out of one of the seam areas, several minutes later. weird.
i like their labels and design work pretty good too. at least the front label. an old photo of an A&P store with the soda info over it. they even sprung for a neck label too! after trying to do neck labels for my wedding root beer, i realize how hard it is to get them to go on with no bubbles. this bottles fails that area worse than my efforts did. no matter though.
this soda is mysterious. at first it was very sharp and stinging, but as i get closer to the bottom it is more smooth and almost creamy. perhaps that is a function of the carbonation being let out and the true taste coming through. interesting… in the beginning of the bottle i was pretty disappointed in it, but now i like it pretty well. it is still too generic and not a whole lot better than many bottled root beers, but it is better than other store brands canned offerings. the taste now is mellow, smooth, rather sweet and pretty normal. so a solidly good normal root beer is what we have here. i think it is worth the price, check it out if you are in A&P territory.

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Ingredients: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, natural and artificial flavor, potassium benzoate (a preservative), citric acid, potassium sorbate (a preservative)