Back when I did my Duluth trip to hunt root beers, we made sure to stop at Tobies in Hinkley on the way back. Tobie’s is a bakery that makes famous caramel rolls. Stopping at Tobies is something of a tradition for all travelers to Duluth I’m told. So who am I to stop tradition. While there I found these root beer drops. Abdallah is a candy maker in Minnesota that’s been around since 1909, so though they aren’t made at Tobies, at least they’re a local brand that you can’t buy just anywhere. Their website calls these “Sanded Root Beer Drops” but that label clearly calls them “Old Fashioned” so I’m going with the label. These are only my second root beer drops, and I wonder if they are just like these other.
It has a nice classic root beer stand flavor that’s lighter and spicier than most hard candies I’ve tried. There’s less licorice and wintergreen. Dare I say it almost has a sharp sort of bite in there.
All in all it’s very well balanced and delicious. I like these and also that they’re a bit different that the other root beer flavored hard candies I’ve had recently. Definitely worth snagging if you see them.
Last week I was in Madison, Wisconsin doing what I do best, working and finding root beer in the evenings. Madison is kind of a disappointment in that regard, for while they have cheese aplenty, and many small craft breweries, the amount of root beer in said breweries is rather lacking. Which strikes me as odd since cities in Minnesota with half as many people will have multiple craft root beers on taps just waiting for me to try. But it took quite a bit of searching for me to find one. To be fair, a lot of places do have Sprecher and Baumeister on tap there, and fine brews they are, but still, they can do better. But anyways, Delta Beer Lab was started only in February of this year by a couple of brewery veterans who’d worked their way up. One of them even was head brewer at a place in Minneapolis. Perhaps that’s why he, unlike so many others in Madison, decided to do a root beer. The brewery itself is like a chemistry class/lab, which is fun, as you can get little beakers and flasks full of brew. They are also very socially progressive there, take that as you feel inclined, which includes refusing tips and just paying their employees a living wage with benefits. I loath paying tips (just tell me how much it really costs) so I can get behind that. But more importantly, can I get behind the root beer?
