Maui Brewing Co. Island Root Beer

this is one company that is very proud of their use of local Maui ingredients! wow. it is proclaimed all over the place. i suppose if i was a company on a small island i would want to promote my local use also. you have to generate extra sales somehow to the smaller, limited population i suppose. and civic pride and eating local are excellent ways to appeal to the populace. or at least some segment of that populace. hopefully the segment that has disposable income and drinks soda.
the problem though is that in the end you need a good product, and this one is not very good. it is bitter and kind of harsh on my taste buds, harshing my mellow all up. the honey which i was excited about is in the background, but too much so. it ends up being just an herbal mess up front. that seems to be a tricky thing to avoid in the more herbal brews. you want that unique, distinct, multi-layered taste but you need to have those layers work well together not just on their own. sometimes it works out great, sometimes not.
this one is deceptive as it fades to a honey flavor so after a minute i think “maybe that was not so bad, i like honey a lot…” but then i take another drink and i lose that thought. so it does have a good ending which counts for something. strangely i find no taste of vanilla in the herbal muddle even though that is proclaimed as one of the big things here.

Anthony’s Rating: 67
User’s Rating: 80
# of ratings:1
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Ingredients: purified water, maui natural white cane sugar, maui honey, natural root beer extract, maui vanilla bean