i am conflicted about this drink. you see, it is made by Pepsico, makers of such things as Pepsi Cola, Diet Pepsi Cola, Pepsi Lime Cola, Crystal Pepsi Cola, Pepsi Jazz Strawberries & Cream and Caffeine Free Mountain Dew! they also make Mug Root Beer. but they saw these small, independent, local bottlers making a shred of money making small batches in glass bottles and wanted in. so they invented the ‘Stubborn Soda’ line. there is not really any mention of it being owned by Pepsi anywhere though so it is sort of covert. so sure I want more glass bottle sodas, more root beers, but i feel like this will make that less likely to happen. i would think enough people would buy this, thinking it is supporting a small company, instead of an actual soda from a small company that it will put a maker or three in the red. plus they also got in trouble recently for using beet sugar instead of the proclaimed fair trade cane sugar. i’m not sure how that happens but perhaps when you are a huge corporation all of that stuff looks the same.
for some reason they decided to make this one of those semi-diet sodas, using Stevia along with cane sugar to keep the calories at 100. it is not that i am opposed to the premise of that, who needs more calories really? but it seems to never work out well.
um, yeah, doesn’t quite work here either. it tastes sort of fruity and weird, an off taste from the stevia. now if you love stevia, this may be the drink for you. i think it is ok, probably the best of the no/lo call sweeteners but i still wouldn’t chose it over actual sugar or other highly caloric choices. it is a root beer, sure, it has that flavor profile under the fruitiness, yet it is too dominated by the bad stuff. maybe that is not the worst thing, but it could lead people to dismiss glass bottle root beers as not actually that good after they sample this stuff. oh well.
Anthony’s Rating: 62
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| Type: | Root Beer | Comes In: | 12oz glass bottle |
| Available: | online, everywhere | Obtained in: | Target somewhere |
| Head: | Small | Sweetener: | cane sugar, stevia |
| Calories: | 100 | Sodium: | 85mg |
| Carbs: | 27g | Sugar: | 25g |
| Caffeine: | No | ||
| Website: | http://www.stubbornsoda.com/ | ||
Ingredients: carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, natural flavor, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness), phosphoric acid, purified stevia leaf extract, citric acid, calcium disodium edta (to protect flavor)
Oh, good grief. Yet another attempt by amah-state Pepsi to watch out for our best interests. They pull stuff like this all the time, which is why I’ve pretty much abandoned Pepsi sodas.
I had the displeasure of trying this off the cutting room floor. A vendor of mine brought it in as part of the test market supply before it hit the stores. I almost spit it out at first swig. I was somehow able to let it settle, then I pushed through and took a second. Even worse after the Stevia took hold. IF the Stevia were replaced, it would still taste horrible. I couldn’t believe this hit the stores a few weeks later. I’m guessing they put so much effort into the launch that they had to get it out there, but you know they realized it was garbage because there was ZERO effort and money towards advertising. I haven’t Stubborn on the shelves in months. Guess someone at Pepsi spontaneously grew taste buds. Love your descriptive review on this one!
I love Stubborn root beer…I can actually drink this while pregnant. Coke products and their corporation are far worse.
My whole family loves Stubborn Classic Root Beer! I don’t know who wouldn’t perfect vanilla taste?
My favorite local deli has this product in the usual bulk multi-spout dispensing machines. (Do those have a name?) I wasn’t aware that it was an artificially-sweetened root beer; I certainly don’t sense the aftertaste I usually associate with artificial sweeteners. The root beer is OK at best – a little too sweet and it could use some more “rootiness” if that makes sense. I wonder whether this is different than the bottled product.