Another very early root beer from my collection. My friend Michael brought it back from Seattle for me when I was still in high school. This was also the first energy drink root beer that I ever had. And do they want you to know that this is an energy drink. They even yell it at you in all caps with an exclamation mark. They also point out that “it’s energy^2” which doesn’t make a lot of sense from a physics point of view. I mean what is a W^2h^2 anyway? It has some strange ingredients like Maté, Betel Nut, and Gotu Kola to name a few. For the longest time I thought it was X Root Beer Riot since there’s a big X on it. The actual name XTZ is only on the cap. I’m not sure why they call this a root beer riot, but bucking conventions like sensible naming seems to be what these guys are all about.
The Body is weak at best but the Head is good. The Bite if any can only be described as weird. The Aftertaste is a strange combination of ginseng and other herbal stuff that tastes like medicine.
This stuff is plain awful. It made me feel ill drinking it and was difficult to choke it all down (but I did, because I always do *shudder*). I finally understand the name. Giving this to the masses would incite a root beer riot as they would both be appalled by what had been foisted on them as root beer and they demanded something proper. The bottle is not even that pretty. See how it rates against other root beers.
I’d like to start by saying that this is not my root beer. True, I am Eric. Yes, I’m pretty famous and if I made a root beer it would no doubt reach new levels of root beer fame. But, this isn’t my root beer. This is made by some other Eric whose original drink seemed to be Eric’s Famous Cola, some energy drink cola thing. Keeping along those same lines he expanded to Eric’s Energy Company and made a root beer with lots of caffeine, guarana, kola nut, and other “quality” ingredients seldom found in root beer. And it’s microbrewed evidently. The label has a nice metallic shine but other than that and sharing a name with a famous root beer connoisseur, it actually is pretty frightening to me. Mostly because energy drink root beers are seldom pleasant. This one lives up to the expectations brilliantly.
