May 042016
 

Bottle of Milligan's Island Awesome Root Beer This was the 10th root beer that I ever reviewed. After I had had my wonderful Hank’s experience I still had that $15 in my pocket earmarked for exotic root beers. So I hit the 1998 internet again in hopes to find a root beer that I could mail order with such limited funds. Since this was in the days before Google, I’m not sure how exactly I stumbled upon this, but it looked awesome and they’d sell me a 4-pack that was only about $15 with shipping (all the way from Connecticut). I’m glad I chose it since it’s now discontinued. This has a rather confusing label. The whole tropical island seems rather out of place for Connecticut and the whole “Fooling the Public since 1492” also befuddles me. The only thing I know of that happened in 1492 was Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas and I fail to see any connection to him in this root beer. Oh well, I’m fooled I suppose.

This was good. It had a wonderful Body. The Bite was good. The Aftertaste was pleasurable but the Head was awful. It would was not only small, but it would go flat in about a minute.

What a shame about the Head. That alone was enough to stop it from getting the Seal of Approval. It was the first root beer of many to suffer that fate. I even got an email from the company several years later apologizing for the poor Head and saying that normally it isn’t like that. I told them that I’d be glad to review it again if they sent me some more, but the root beer never came. And now the company is gone. I feel somewhat responsible for their demise. It’s a shame because it was pretty good. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs




  5 Responses to “Milligan’s Island Awesome Root Beer”

  1. It was quite a surprise to see mention of Milligan’s Island in 2016. This was an exceptionally good root beer, and I had been hoping to stumble upon another source for years and years. ‘Tis a pity that the company – that I suspect was little more than the proverbial guy in his garage – has gone defunct.

    • Yeah, I’ve been digging through all of my old, pre-blog reviews and writing up posts on them for completeness. I drank this 18 years ago, but it was yummy. It’s a shame about the Head, though.

  2. So I found a few bottles of the stuff in my grandma’s cabinet hidden behind a bunch of cans. What happened to the brand? I can’t find any info online about it. I know it’s been discontinued, but I’m curious as to when that happened.

  3. My friend just sent me the link to this review. I have been holding onto what I had thought was the last bottle in existence, but now I’m thinking there may be more out there somewhere just sitting on a shelf. I would like to try and get the original recipe from my family and see how easy/difficult it would be to start this back up. I was too young at the time to realize how relatively well-liked it had been.

    • Aidan, what a fabulous idea! The world always needs more gourmet root beer. Best of luck on your endeavors and let me know if I can be of any assistance.

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