Bottled Root Beers – Page 79 – Eric's Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Napa Valley Soda Company Rutherford Root Beer

Dec 032014

A bottle of Rutherford Root Beer Nestled in the quiet, green Napa Valley was the Napa Valley Soda Company. They looked at all of their peaceful serenity and bounteous vineyards and thought to themselves that they should harness the power of the valley and make a root beer, and other sodas. They named them after their favorite places in the valley. Calistoga Cola, Oakville Grape, St. Helena Citrus, and Rutherford Root Beer, amongst others. According to them, “Napa Valley has long been synonymous with quality, good taste, and natural beauty. Napa Valley Soda Company has captured this essence in a … natural soda” I found this on a journey to Sacramento. The label features an areal view map of the valley with the cities and geological features after which their sodas are named marked for all to see. Hot air balloons and an airplane survey the tranquility.

The Body is weak, watery, fruity, and tastes kind of like a cola or maybe medicine. There only a very little Head. The Bite, however, is good. The Aftertaste is fruity and medicine like that left a bad taste in my mouth long after I was finished drinking it.

Yuk! This stuff is absolutely horrible. If what they claimed about Napa Valley is true, I don’t know how this root beer slipped by them. Maybe the “essence” captured is like the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones which destroys everything if you remove it from its dwelling place. Whatever the case this is one of the worst brews I’ve ever had. See how it rates against other root beers.

McCutcheon’s Root Beer

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Nov 262014

McCutcheon's Root Beer Bottle 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.

Frostie Vanilla Root Beer

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Nov 192014

Frostie Vanilla Root Beer Bottle 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.

This has a sweet, creamy Body with lots of luscious vanilla. The Bite is on the weak side but not too bad. The Head is adequate, though it could be frothier. The Aftertaste is a wonderful vanilla flavor that lasts a long time.

Wow, delicious. This is really got a nice vanilla flavor while still being a root beer. It basically tastes like a normal Frostie root beer with the strange unnatural flavor replaced with vanilla. A wise and excellent improvement I say. Clearly, some great sage was present at the birth of this brew, guiding them so they’d make me happy. See how it rates against other root beers.

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