Henry Weinhards Root Beer
Talk about some serious and long-lasting head. The foam tastes really good as well. I remember having a root beer a while back that had great head, but it tasted sort of foul – not this brew!
I have been waiting to taste this brew for quite some time. I got this at Leo’s Diner in Cambridge, MA. Cool little spot with a few unique sodas that you normally can’t get to easily on the East Coast.
The interesting ingredients in this root beer are vanilla extract, honey essence and acacia sassafras extract. I’d say all of these three flavorings are noticeable in the taste. The sassafras gives it the slightly bitter after-taste and it competes with the smoothness of the vanilla and honey. In fact, this after-taste can be a little too much at times.
I would love to know a little more about the honey though – just what is honey essence?? And what about the acacia?? I read up on acacia a little bit, but I won’t try to explain it right now. If you are interested in knowing more about acacia then check out this Absolute Astronomy Acacia Link.
To top it all off I really love the packaging of this root beer – very cool indeed. Overall though, this is a really smooth, creamy brew with a nice overall flavor. Not quite enough be an “A” brew, but still very solid.
The Professor’s Grade: B +
Lost Trail Root Beer
Lost Trail gets the dubious distinction of being the first root beer reviewed since the long haitus. This is actually one root beer that I have never tried before. Got this at a really cool diner in Cambridge, MA that has a few different root beers that are not local. Can’t remember the name of the diner for this post, but it will come to me at some point.
I am really thirst right now and I practically have this 12 oz. brew drunk in about 2 gulps – so I will try my best. The head was real small and the carbonation was real light. I’m not sure if it is supposed to be this way or if the bottle was old. I actually prefer a lighter carbonation anyway. A very, very creamy root beer indeed.
Overall, this is a real enjoyable brew. Not really anything spectacular, but definitely something that I would drink again. There is one distinct flavor that comes through – I think it might be licorice or anise. Other than this flavor it is certainly not a complex root beer.
It is made with pure cane sugar which is always a plus and it only has 37 g of sugar for the whole bottle.
I do love the label and the root beer story from the journal of Joe Marshall back in 1848. I’ll give it a few extra points for that.
The Professor’s Grade: B
Super Chill Root Beer
Ok, I’m really desparate, and there is really no other way to explain the review of this muddy water. I’m not an elitest gourmet root beer snob, but this is still stooping to a new low.
Oh well . . . this is a bit too sweet even though the carbonation is pretty good. Although, truth be told I could carbonate water, muddy water and even toilet water pretty good as well. So I guess that’s not saying too much. The taste is not so great, but I feel super chill writing this super lame review.
The Professor’s Grade: F+
Blue Sky All Natural Root Beer
Have I ever said how much I like these root beer reviews? Even when I’m reviewing the bad brews, it’s still a lot of fun! Thankfully, this isn’t one of the bad brews. Granted, it’s not going to break into the ranks of the really good brews, but it’s not a bad all-natural root beer option.
Blue Sky Root Beer is a pretty light soda with an almost fruity, minty taste . . . but not in a bad way at all. The fizz was just right even for a canned soda. And it was pretty darned creamy to boot! Real cane sugar . . . all-natural . . . sunny blue skies . . . life is good.
I’m acutally not sure if this brew is good or if I’m just in a good mood. But either way . . .
The Professor’s Grade: C+
Bulldog Root Beer
Ahhhh . . . the feeling of complete satisfaction when you take a sip of a near perfect root beer. Let me say that again . . . ahhhhh. Plain and simple this is an excellent root beer, in fact this is probably the best root beer that I’ve tasted thus far. As far as creaminess goes, this is a far superior root beer to all the others. It is also the best blend of honey and vanilla that I have ever, I mean ever tasted.
Although most root beer reviews give this brew an excellent rating, I’ve seen a few whiners crying about the canine featured on the front of the bottle. It goes something like this, “the picture on the (sniff, sniff) of the bottle (cry, sniff) is not even a bulldog (all out wailing). First of all, Bulldog Root Beer not only wrote the book on root beers, but they wrote the manual on Bulldogs. If they say it’s a Bulldog, then it’s a stinkin Bulldog.
The Professor’s Grade: A +
Weis Choice Old Fashioned White Birch Beer
Old Fashioned normally means “it tastes like junk,” but in this case it’s actually not that bad. Now remember, it’s all about expectations, so this brew is not going to rank in the top brews, but for a store brand it’s pretty darned good . . . erhhh . . . average.
It’s real light, but not too zippy. It’s a very smooth and likeable birch beer. This is the kind of brew that you could drink 2-3 cans and not feel sick. It has a strong wintergreen flavor with not much else to it (that the plight of most birch beers). Not really extraordinary, but a nice change.
The Professor’s Grade: C –
Reading Draft Root Beer
As a Pennsylvania boy, I love trying these Pennsylvania Root Beers. Sadly this is not one of the top brews – not bad, but certainly not anything special. It has a simple, light flavor and a very frothy head. Maybe the one thing that sets this root beer apart is the deep dark color, in fact it’s the darkest root beer I’ve ever seen. There you go Reading Draft Root Beer, you’ve made it into the Root Beer 101 Textbook. Not for taste of course, but for color – that’s right – just squirt a bunch of caramel color into your brew and you make history!
And on a side not, I purchased this at Sturgis Pretzel Factory which my colleague and personal friend, Professor Pretzel invited me too. Unfortunately, the Sturgis Pretzel Factor was more cool than the root beer that I purchased there.
The Professor’s Grade: D +
Pirate’s Keg Root Beer
Aaargh . . . shiver me root beer . . . touch me root, feel me boot . . . yo ho ho and a bottle of root beer . . . okay, enough with the corny pirate sayings . . . for now anyway.
This is has a beautiful dark rich color with a light head. It has the perfect amount of fizz, but unfortunately the taste is far from perfect. This is basically an average root beer – bland, banal, blah, dull, humdrum, monotonous, tame, uninspiring, watery, weak, wishy-washy.
I did end up drifting off into a day-dream that had Johnny Depp, Pirates Keg Root Beer and a big chest of gold, but I was jolted back to life by the root beer dribble going down my chin.
If you can’t trust a pirate you can trust a pirate’s brew
The Professor’s Grade: D
Thomas Kemper Root Beer
I wish I liked it . . . I wish I liked it . . . hold on I’m going to click my heels three times . . . I wish I liked it. Ahhh, to no avail, I don’t like it. It’s not that this is a terrible brew, but it’s all about the expectations. First of all, the bottle is pretty darn cool. The name and the label are hip. The ingredients proclaim the heavenly sweeteners of honey and and pure cane sugar. But unfortunately, all of these promising elements don’t add up to a winner.
It is a really creamy beverage, but the flavors don’t really blend that well. It’s almost as if each flavor jumps out and bites your tongue. Now don’t get me wrong, if I had a 6 pack in the fridge I’d probably drink them, but I wouldn’t buy anymore on the internet.
The Professor’s Grade: D +
Root 66 Diet Root Beer
I was beginning to get a little worried about the health effects of diet sodas . . . you know the cancer, weight-gain, kidney problems, cell damage and of course the addictive nature of the drink. Thankfully, I had a “heart to heart” with my colleague, Professor Diet Coke and he assured me that all of these concerns are way overblown. I can now do this review with a clean conscience.
As far as diet root beers go, this is actually a pretty decent one. It has a good head, nice carbonation and is pretty creamy . . . just like the non-diet version. Most of the flavoring in this beverage remains pretty consistent with the original Root 66 Root Beer. Of course, it still has that diet after-taste, but it’s better than most. Ed and Mari (another root beer web-site) give much shorter and to the point review. They strongly disagreed with my assessment giving Root 66 Diet Root Beer a rating of “mega-barf.” Well Root 66, bring on the barf . . . bring on the barf.
The Professor’s Grade: D +
