from what i can tell in my googling of this brand, they were around from the late 40s until the 60s in the Colorado area. their soda was caffeinated although this one is not. there was never any relation to “Red Eye” soda which was out of Maryland in the 70s. i suppose this was recently brought back to life by Orca Beverages. Orca seems to be doing this sort of thing a lot, as well as bottling unique recipes for specific stores or restaurants or whatever. when i tried to inquiry about sodas i may not know about so i can pursue them, the company was quite unhelpful and seemed surprised i had tracked down some of them. no matter, confidentiality or something i suppose rules although if anything it would help all parties involved, Orca, the store and me. whatever.
so there is a blurb on the label about this being named after a bull who was only calm if you gave him root beer. that is unique. i have seen many dog theme sodas, a couple cat ones, a killer whale one and some other beasts i am sure, but never a bull as far as i can recall. the label otherwise is fine. it has a bull head and decent design and font choices. does not stand out too much but enough.
the taste is pretty smooth. it is a bit sweeter then your average root beer with a definite cane sugar feel. i think when the sweetener is more prominent i can tell which they used. if it fades in, then no i cannot tell really. the flavor begins as pretty smooth as i said but fades to a rougher carbonation tickles, which is a little bizarre to me. i don’t recall it ever working like that before. it is usually the opposite in fact. hhhmmm, interesting. it is reasonably creamy at first in that smoothness. i like it, it is a fine beverage which does not get into that higher level but is a good choice
Anthony’s Rating: 83
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User’s Rating: 74
# of ratings:4
| Type: | Root Beer | Comes In: | 12oz glass bottle |
| Available: | CA, WA | Obtained in: | trade with Eric |
| Head: | Medium | Sweetener: | cane sugar |
| Calories: | 170 | Sodium: | 45mg |
| Carbs: | 42g | Sugar: | 42g |
| Caffeine: | No | ||
| Website: | http://orcabeverages.com | ||
Ingredients: carbonated water, cane sugar, natural & artificial flavors, phosphoric acid, caramel color, sodium benzoate (a preservative)
As I drink my first bottle of Old Red Eye I am thinking that I am drinking a bottle of RC Cola that I might have picked up from the A&P during my childhood. It has SUCH a strong cola taste to me–not root beery at all!
A pleasant drinking experience with no negative or detractive qualities, but definitely downgraded because of its lack of root beer taste. I’ll rate this one a 72.
This root beer does have a creamyness to it and is smooth, but it does not, at least to me taste like root beer, it has some strange, very faint sour taste, not exactly like lemon, but close. I gave this a 65
This root beer was just alright. I probably would not buy it again anytime soon, as there are other butterscotch root beers that pull it off way better. This one just faintly tasted of root beer….probably a little more butterscotch flavoring in this one….but not really creamy. I will take Dangs! version of this any day. I give this one a 72.
Oops… my review above was meant for O-So good root beer. As for Red Eye, it was actually really really good. I kind of forgot exactly what it tasted like, but what I do remember is that it may break the top 10 for me. It had a solid flavor with the right blend of spices. I believe I could buy a pallet of this stuff. I think I gave it a 92…..but I’ll have to try it again to make sure.