i found out about this root beer from an article on a Hamptons news blog. it was just a short piece about how yummy it is, especially with some local ice cream, but also how pricey it is. i figured i would take a shot and email the owners, see if i could order some. very kindly, they replied quickly and said they would send me a couple bottles for review. awesome!
apparently they do make this in very small batches and hand number each bottle, i have bottles 299 and 300. i am going to guess they also hand label and hand wax the top also. the wax is a very cool touch, of course reminiscent of Maker’s Mark whiskey which i of course have never tried. the wax does make it kind of hard to get the top off, requiring an extra step of either peeling or cutting off the wax or just cutting through it which is what i did so as to preserve the look for my bottle collection that currently resides in plastic tubs in my attic but will one day be glorious and out in the open.
i suppose this qualifies as a dog themed root beer, of which there are several, as Miss Lady seems to be a dog from the excellent portrait on the front label.
i am not sure how big this bottle is. i will have to test and see once i finish it i guess. it is about wine bottle size though i think, however big those are.
the taste here is very complex and multi-level as you may imagine from the multifarious ingredients in this brew. the initial taste is very bitter and not so good, but that slowly mellows back into the anise and licorice flavor which then pass and the sarsaparilla and molasses take over for the very faint end note. so it goes “ick! yum! hhmmm… ok, yum!” so i like it overall and at the end of each swallow, but it starts bad each time. i suppose most of the bitterness is similar to the bitterness of eating good licorice. when i think about it that way and with the knowledge that it will get better shortly i enjoy it more. it is really very heavily licorice flavored. which i am ok with but i would have hoped the molasses and brown sugar would come through more as i like those flavors a lot also. i do like it mainly but it is not something i would want often. it is different for sure, so if you want to see what can be done with root beer, give it a swallow, you might love the licorice right out of it (and into your tummy!).
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| Type: | Root Beer | Comes In: | 22oz glass bottle |
| Available: | NY | Obtained in: | sent by company |
| Head: | Large | Sweetener: | sugar, honey, brown sugar |
| Caffeine: | No |
Ingredients: water, sarsaparilla root, honey, anise seed, licorice root, organic sugar, dark brown sugar, molasses
Interesting. I’ve never been a fan of strong licorice/anise flavor in my root beer, but this one is quite different from those standard licorice brews. I also noticed a typo in the ingredients list for ‘dark brown sugar’
it is definitely different from anything else i have tried, but the dominant flavor, in my tongue’s mind, is licorice. there is a lot else going on besides that but the licorice controls it all, keeping the rest in the background. fixed the ingredient typo. thanks!