Ozark Mountain Root Beer – Branson Missouri
Existential Root Beer Question – Why does some Root Beer foam taste good and other Root Beer foam taste junky? Ahhh . . . the world may never know. Surprisingly, this is one of the good root beer foam brews. But as you already know, I’m not big on root beer foam and I would never base a grade on foam.
This Root Beer achieves the difficult balance of a creamy first taste with a nice bite that comes a little later. The after-taste feels sharp on the tongue and pleasing to the palette. The sharp after-taste is an exceedingly simple sarsaparilla flavor. And yet in it’s simplicity, it’s achieved what most other Root Beers fail to achieve – a unique and pleasing root beer flavor.
My wife noted that it tasted a little too sweet, but being that this whole bottle only has 30g of sugar, I remarked that the sweetness comes from the fact that this is sweetened with pure cane sugar instead of the processed high fructose stuff that many brews have.
Don’t ask me why the Ozark Mountain Root Beer is draped across the milk bottle . . . I don’t make the bottles pose, I just take the photo.
The Professor’s Grade: B +
Bundaberg Root Beer
From time to time I’ll look at the root beer reviews of others and unequivocally Bundaberg Australian Root Beer was given bad reviews – by those to remain unnamed. So, I went into this review with a little bit of a jaded tongue . . . but shame, shame shame on the professor. I can just hear myself saying to myself, ,”You didn’t get tenure as a Root Beer Professor by letting the opinions of others influence your own root beer opinions!”
Based on my first paragraph, you’ve probably guessed it already, but I was pleasantly surprised by this Australian brew. At first I thought this was a bit syrupy, and in fact I still think it’s a bit syrupy. And in retrospect, this is more of a natural syrup, it’s flavored with molasses . . . which makes it more palatable of course. And I also noted that the after-taste was a bit medicinal which was mixed with decidedly yeasty overtones. But it was actually the medicinal flavor and the yeast that began to get me a little nostalgic.
Last semester I taught “Root Beer History 101,” and I distinctly remember lecturing my students on how Root Beer began as a medicine and how it originally got it’s carbonation with yeast.
Then it hit me – Bundaberg Root Beer is a throwback to yesteryear. And I found out that the ingredients in this brew confirm that same fact – molasses, ginger root, sarsaparilla root , licorice root and vanilla bean are undoubtedly hearty ingredients that may have been used way back when.
It’s a little troubling that it took an Australian company to make a root beer like the good ole American Root Beer entrepreneurs used to make . . . but they did it, and they did it well.
Would I want to drink this root beer all the time? No, but then again I rarely drink a root beer more than once no matter how good the brew is.
The Professor’s Grade: B
