Polly’s Pop has its roots back in the 1920’s when a man named Louis, for some reason known as “Polly”, and a woman named Dorothea started the Independence Bottling Company in Independence, Missouri, which made Polly’s Pop. In 1972, however, it closed its doors. Then, in 2015, a lawyer by the name of McClain, who enjoyed Polly’s Pop as a child, resurrected the brand. He brought back bottling a year later. They use a 66 year old bottling machine to keep it as close to the original in every way possible. Because it’s called Polly’s Pop, they of course have a parrot on the label. Polly want a cracker? No he want’s a pop as evidenced by the bottle clutched in his zygodactyl foot (which has been one of my favorite words since elementary school). As with many in the craft root beer revival, this brand uses only pure cane sugar. Now the real question is was it worth bringing back.
The Body is rich and a little creamy. There’s a nice caramel flavor that stands out in a rather standard creamy root beer flavor. It’s very sweet and kind of heavy and syrupy as well. The Bite is on the small side and there’s a lot of spices to it. The Head is medium height but fizzes away too quickly. The Aftertaste is a mild and sticky vanilla.
This is pretty good, but not quite top notch. There’s not anything wrong with it at all, it’s just not amazing, and I like my brews amazing. See how it rates against other root beers.
