Barq’s gets a new design

 Root Beer News  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

After nearly 20 years of the same design, Barq’s is going back to their roots in a graphic way. They’re redesigning their packaging to look more like the classic glass bottles (which I’ve already noted are pretty awesome). I must say that I’m impressed with the new theme, especially with the glass bottle six-pack. Now if they’d just make those six-packs available to more of the country, then there would be a huge reason to celebrate. See the press release below.

New Barq’s Package Design
Serves Up a Fresh Look with Bite

ATLANTA, Feb. 16, 2012 – Like any true classic, Barq’s keeps it fresh while staying true to its roots.

In its first redesign in more than 20 years, Barq’s root beer is unveiling a completely new look to pay homage to the brand’s Gulf Coast heritage and classically crisp, bold flavor. The new design will be featured on all of Barq’s packaging and is currently rolling-out nationwide.

While the cans will maintain their distinctive silver color, the new look features a diamond pattern reminiscent of the drink’s original 1898 12 oz. glass bottle packaging, which is still available in the Gulf Coast area. Additionally, the label helps celebrate the brand’s 114-year history by keeping the simple slogan “It’s Good. Since 1898.”

“When a beverage as beloved as Barq’s undergoes a significant packaging evolution, we have to remain true to the brand’s heritage and tradition while ensuring the brand is relevant to today’s consumers,” said Christina Manganaro, senior marketing activation manager, Coca-Cola North America. “We think the new design presents a cleaner, simpler look that captures the brand’s essence in a way that will ultimately resonate with both dedicated Barq’s fans and those who are new to the brand.”

Barq’s traces its heritage back to New Orleans, Louisiana and Biloxi, Mississippi where the beverage was founded and first produced by Biloxi Artesian Bottling Works. The brand was later purchased by The Coca-Cola Company in 1995. Since then, the sarsaparilla-based root beer has maintained its trademark bold flavor and caffeine kick reflecting the brand’s well-known tagline “Barq’s has Bite.”

Click to download hi-res images




Root Beer Root – A New Project and a New Domain

 Website Updates  2 Responses »
Feb 232012
 

I have recently embarked on a new gourmet root beer quest, to catalog every ingredient that has been placed in gourmet root beer. The ingredients will come directly from the bottles until I get to the bottom of every single last “natural flavor” and additive. I’ll be categorizing them as Roots, Other Flavorings, Spices, Sweeteners, or Additives. Since a large focus on this will be to root (pun intended) out the different roots and ingredients, I have registered rootbeerroot.com to specially link to the page. I hope someday that this will become the world’s most complete list of root beer ingredients. It’s in its infancy right now, but I’ll be updating it regularly with the rest of the site.




Joe’s Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Feb 222012
 

So awhile back I noticed that I had as many friends on Facebook as I had root beer reviews (not my site but my personal Facebook account). I therefore decided that I shall only have as many friends as root beers tried and if someone wanted to be my friend and I was maxed out, they would just have to find me a new root beer. I then posted that as my status. It got a few likes and one of my more awesome friends (also a stalwart zombie tag comrade and CFH) took it as a personal challenge to earn his already deserved many times over friend status by finding me a new root beer. Since he likes gourmet beer, he kept an eye out at all of specialty beer shops he went to until he declared he had a late Christmas present for me. I was overjoyed when I unwrapped Joe’s Root Beer, another small and obscure microbrewery root beer like Spring Lake Root Beer. This one, however, is all natural instead of having a cocktail of preservatives like the Spring Lake. The ingredients are few but with things like real honey and vanilla, it looked like it could be amazing.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the bottle was that there was kind of a skanky smell to it. Now I don’t judge on smell but it usually portends the flavor. Nevertheless, it has an extremely sweet and full Body with accents of said vanilla and honey. It is crisp and creamy in your mouth without a hint of skanky. Strange. The Bite is sufficient, though, nothing special. The Head is wonderfully tall but only medium frothy so it fizzes down quicker than I would like. The Aftertaste is delicious vanilla and honey.

So this is how root beer is supposed to be. Delicious, a good head, and with that honey and vanilla giving it an extra bit of goodness to push it over the edge of average into premium territory. I would say it’s almost the opposite of the Spring Lake Root Beer, which was a near perfect combination of just about everything, this is beauty in simplicity, like a masterpiece using only two colors. Now the only question I have for my friend, where did you get this again? See how it rates against other root beers.




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