Bandit Beverages is a soda pop company in Northern Utah. They are focused on old fashioned soda flavors, especially IronPort. IronPort is a soda you can find in Utah, but mostly in soda fountains. They claim to be the only ones who sell bottled IronPort but I swear I’ve seen it bottled somewhere else. And yet, as I search the web (at the time of this writing) I can only find it at Bandit. But I don’t review IronPort so I don’t care that much. I do care about root beer, and no purveyor of old fashioned sodas would be complete if they didn’t have root beer, which Bandit does. They have six other flavors as well. I don’t know why they like bandits so much, but they do. Their tag lines are “Live your life on the run.” and “Drink like a bandit” They even say their website is run by “Bandit Beverage Bandits”. The label with the bull head silhouette makes me think they are going for old-timey Western six-shooter type bandits, which fits their flavor themes well.
The Body is rich and dark and spicy with vanilla and molasses flavors. There’s a lot of wintergreen as well but it’s a little bitter. The Bite is solid and spicy. Just like I like it. The Head is medium tall with average staying power. The Aftertaste is vanilla and wintergreen which is a little bitter.
Well, they nailed the classic old fashioned flavor alright. It reminds you of those old root beer barrel candies. I even gave a bottle to my parents and they thought the same. Overall it’ pretty good, yet a little too dark and bitter for my tastes. Would make a mean float, that’s for sure. See how it rates against other root beers.
