There are many oddities about this brew. The first is that the bottle, while looking the standard shape and size, is actually about a millimeter or two taller than other long neck bottles I have. Why? I don’t know. The second that jumps out is the fact that while the bottle is ever so slightly taller, it contains 1 milliliter less root beer than a standard 12 ounce bottle. They all say 355 ml yet this one is only 354. If that isn’t nickel and dimeing you out of root beer I don’t know what is, especially since they oversized the bottle to compensate. Then there’s the “Pinpoint Carbonation” and the “Home Brewed Style” but the most glaring of all is the name itself. Red Ribbon is for second place. It’s like they didn’t even want to try to be the best, or have at least conceded that they’re not. You never see that on a product, “Second best soda” or “First Loser Brew” but yet, Red Ribbon is right here.
This has a Body that’s a little weak. There’s some wintergreen and maybe a tad bit of licorice in there as well. It’s pretty generic and also fruity. I never like that sour fruity. There’s not a lot of Bite but it really isn’t smooth either. The Head is tall but fizzes down quickly. The Aftertaste is fruity with faint traces of vanilla that don’t really mix well together.
It’s fair to say that I was whelmed by this brew. I’ve got to give their marketing team props for calling this even Red Ribbon. No doubt that was at the extreme end of the stretched ethics that is a corporate marketing department. First Loser Brew would probably be more appropriate. See how it rates against other root beers.
Last week I was contacted by one of my Tesla Motors Club friends, Brianman. He had my hat which was left at a barbecue down in Loomis when we were reveling in the glory that was TMC Connect. So he had my Teslive hat, and he wanted to meet up and give it to me as well as go questing for brew because he had a Tesla and it is the 
Yet another resurrected brand by Orca Beverages. Though this one bucks the Orca standard format of label design, it’s originality points are vastly diminished by it’s name, which is on the lines of Dang! That’s Good and So Duh! They predictably couldn’t resist the “O-So Delicious” text on the bottle. This is but the third butterscotch brew I’ve encountered and the only vanilla butterscotch root beer. I wonder what it is with annoying names and butterscotch anyways? Is it the whole, “we’re such rebels, we won’t follow proper naming conventions or flavor conventions, just check out our amazing butterscotch?” However, like so many hipsters whose originality comes from bucking convention, they’ve become a convention in unto themselves and the only irony is now the lack thereof. At least this one, in true hipster fashion, can claim to have been doing butterscotch before butterscotch was mainstream, at least if their “since 1946” is to be believed.