Nestled in the small city of Frederick, MD resides McCutcheon’s Apple Products, Inc. It was started in 1938 by old Mr. McCutcheon who, after working till ripe old age of 80, was “asked” to retire from his job at the local canning factory. Well, not to take that lying down, he went and bought himself a cider press and got to work with his son and daughter-in-law. Soon they were making apple butter and other jams and jellies. Today they are still going strong, with half of their 26 full time employees being proud McCutcheons. Somewhere in that history of growth to over 300 different jams, preserves, sauces, etc, they decided to add in a root beer. Because, root beer. They don’t make it there, but it is custom made to their specifications using pure cane sugar. They don’t ship their root beer, however. Something to do with it leaking in the summer. It took quite a bit of coaxing for me get them to ship me out two bottles so I could review it. They taped the tops of the capped bottles, then put that in a padded box, then put that box in a bigger padded box just in case. It worked out and no leaking nor spilling.
The Body is dark and rooty with some wintergreen and a tad bit of licorice coming though. The Bite is nice and spicy, yet it finishes smooth. The Head is super tall and lasts a long time. It makes medium sized bubbles rather than the tiny ones, which is fine. The Aftertaste is really good with some creamy vanilla and a dab of wintergreen.
This brew is a bit darker than I prefer, but still high quality, especially the smooth, creamy finish. It’s a shame that you can’t order it online. Maybe they’ll improve their capping technology in the future. Who knows. See how it rates against other root beers.
About a year or so after I found Frostie Root Beer I encountered Frostie Vanilla at a grocery store in Provo where I was studying. They’re still going for the whole Christmas theme though now the snowy field has been replaced with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the frosty mug o’ brew is now a tall root beer float, or something with a scoop of ice cream. It’s like they wanted it to be a root beer float soda, but wanted me to review it so they’re calling it a vanilla root beer instead. I can only say that that is a wise choice, because everyone knows that a soda that I won’t review based on the semantics of its name is clearly not worth drinking. 
Prepare yourself for the most Metal root beer I’ve ever encountered. With a name that you’d expect to see for the opening band at a Slayer concert, 