Nov 022011
 

I always appreciate puns. I do. I was the ‘pun’isher at my high school. So it was a great delight to see Gale’s root beer have a little girl (obviously Gale) bending against a blowing wind (gale). There is also a little dog (once again) and the phrase “Oh Rootie” From the story on the bottle Rootie is the name of the dog. Though I am loathe to read ingredients before I try my first bottle, I couldn’t help but notice that it said “Cinnamon Ginger Vanilla Flavored” Now this really got my hopes up for a gingery Myers Avenue Red type thing.

The Body came in a little weak on the initial contact and then ‘Ack!’ Attack of the ginger and cinnamon. It is actually hard to taste anything due to the immense ginger, cinnamon Bite. So much ginger and cinnamon, it bites like a feeding frenzy of great white sharks. It’s the first time my tongue was burning from the spices (at least for a root beer). Way too much! The Head is pretty tall but quickly fizzes down. The last centimeter of it does make a decent last stand. The Aftertaste is ginger, cinnamon and vanilla that is pretty good, but my tongue was still smarting from the Bite.

“Oh Rootie” did you knock all of Gale’s cinnamon and ginger powder into the root beer? How could you? Or maybe she was going for a gale force blast of cinnamon and ginger burn. I don’t know. But basically, if you want a root beer with the most epic Bite, here it is. Other than that, I can’t find much reason to drink this again. See how it rates against other root beers.




Oct 202011
 

I remember as a child watching the movie “Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town” with the main bad guy being the Burgermeister Meisterburger. From that I thought it would be fun to add the suffix meister to different foods and refer to certain people as that. The Pizzameister, the Steakmeister, etc. By my teenage years Pauly Shore had come along to make just about everyone a <noun/adjective>-meister, and I naturally went along with the trend. Then over 10 years later, here comes the Baumeister (said in my best Pauly Shore impersonation) with some sweet new root beer for me to try. I don’t actually know what a bau is and though Wikipedia gives many different possibilities, it turns out that none of them are much associated with root beer. Seems that the soda company was started in 1907 and the Baumeister named the soda after himself. Maybe he was a relative of the Burgermeister or at least from the same area. Anyways, on to the root beer.

The Body is sweet and a little creamy. It is also a little watery at first. There is a noticeable cinnamon flavor that comes in after the initial contact. This makes for a pretty sharp Bite combined with the carbonation. The Head is kind of weak and fizzes down quickly, but the last half a centimeter lingers around for quite some time. I prefer better, but this isn’t too bad. The Aftertaste is vanilla and cinnamon, kind of like a Myers but not quite as much. The cinnamon flavor sticks around for awhile and masks out the wateriness after about half a bottle, so it’s pretty darn good after the first half. I think, however, to get a Seal of Approval, it should be pretty darn good for the whole bottle, not just the second half.

So the Baumeister makes a pretty decent brew, definitely worth trying now and again and I’m sure that it could pair really well with certain food combinations. But, I don’t think its good enough on its own. See how it rates against other root beers.