I’d known about this for a long time, but I never seem to head down to Portland ever. I tried calling them once, but they didn’t want to ship anything up to me. One day I was emailing with a nice chap named Aaron who wanted to know about good draft brews in between Seattle and Portland, as he journeys between the two frequently. I told him all of the one’s I know and then asked if he could pick me up some of this. He delivered it to The Root Beer Store in Puyallup and then I had to wait for the owner to bring it to their Redmond store so I could pick it up during lunch and then bike with it back to Bothell. Evidently the bottles traveled some 1,400 miles before they even ended up in Puyallup. I think it’s the most complicated trade I’ve ever hashed out. Now for the elephant in the room, the label, or rather, the lack thereof. I don’t know why they don’t label it. I asked them as much when I called. They were adamant that they wouldn’t, no matter how I pleaded with them. It must be a Portlandian thing or something like that. I can’t see how this benefits them at all, but people from that area are largely inscrutable. My usual requirement for a bottled root beer is that it has to have a label. I’ll make an exception this once and only once. The non-labeled root beer is Oregon City Soda Company. As for ingredients and nutritional info, who knows … Now that I think about it I’m not actually sure that’s legal.
The Body is not overly sweet or strong. There’s a slight hint of vanilla and some nice cinnamon but nothing really stands out other than that. The Bite is good and spicy from the cinnamon and the fizz. The Head is decent but fizzes down a little too quick. The Aftertaste is cinnamon and a very light vanilla.
I like this but it isn’t exceptional. Really the only thing this has going for it, besides nothing bad, is the cinnamon. I almost want to take away points for not putting a label on it, but I won’t . This is worth getting if you happen upon it, but I wouldn’t go seeking it out. See how it rates against other root beers.
