I found this in Seattle shortly after I began my eternal quest to review every gourmet root beer in the world. It was the first spring actually. I’d gone with some friends to a Mariners game and across the street from Safeco Field I found three different varieties in a mini-mart. Since the security was much less stringent, I actually took them into the game with me since I didn’t want to go back to the car. This brew is microcrafted, which I’ve never seen before. I’ve seen plenty of hand crafted and microbrewed, but never microcrafted. The label on this has got a lot going on, but it’s all very patriotic. It is Americana after all, so there’s got to be a bald eagle and The Liberty Bell. Then add some old fashioned squiggly lines that I’m sure have some sort of formal name but I don’t care to check and voilá, a truly American label, nay, an Americana label.
At first this was ok but the licorice in the Aftertaste became overpowering so I could barely choke it down. If you are someone who likes licorice in your root beer I am sure you will love this. I, however, despise it. The Body isn’t that good and the Head is lacking. Bite is too much with the licorice.
As you can tell, I don’t really like a strong licorice flavor in my root beer, and this is the antithesis of that. With a very strong licorice Aftertaste building, it soon masked everything else until it was just a black licorice stick, liquified and attacking me. Quite a shame, if it were better I’d drink it on President’s Day or Constitution Day or something like that but since it’s nasty, I’ll just drink something else. See how it rates against other root beers.
