Another recently resurrected brand bottled by Orca Beverages. I’m not sure (as of the time of this writing) if Orca is the one doing the resurrecting or if there’s just a mad rush to find a brand as part of the Great Root Beer Revival and these people are sending them all to Orca. As with the others (Red Arrow, Brownie Caramel Cream, Anchor Ginger, Hippo Size), this has a retro looking label with a prominent centered picture and then a few sentences written vertically off to the side that give some explanation about the brew. This particular iteration is supposedly named after a bull called Red Eye who was old and cranky. The only way to coax him out of his pen to do his daily “duties” was to pour his favorite root beer in a bowl for him first. I’m not sure then if his favorite root beer was this one, and if it was, how that all worked, maybe they took over another brand or it was homemade or something. I’m also not sure about what a bull had to do daily that required some coaxing. Last I checked a bull’s job, when not fighting colorfully dressed Spaniards and Lusitans, was breeding, so you’d think he wouldn’t need to be coaxed into it.
It has a full Body with a rich sassafras flavor with creamy wintergreen and the slightest hints of licorice. There are a lot of spices as well. It has a strong Bite with a lot of spice and sharp carbonation burn. Too much for me. The Head is tall but fizzes down very quickly so it looks good when you first pour it out, but not much left once you get to drinking it. The Aftertaste is minty with a tad bit of licorice that tastes like black jelly beans plus spices.
This really makes me think of an old fashioned soda fountain for some reason. There’s a lot going on here but it isn’t really my favorite. It’s more sharp and sassy than rich and creamy, but even then it’s got a darker flavor than I prefer. This still is a solid drinkable brew though. See how it rates against other root beers.
Red Arrow is an old brand of root beer that came from Michigan in the 1950s through 70s. According to the bottle “Folklore says that the brand was a tribute to the Red Arrow Brigade.” Now the Red Arrow Brigade was formed in 1967 from the deactivated 32nd Infantry Division. It was made of three battalions of light infantry as well as support and engineer units. The 32nd Infantry “Red Arrow” Division was formed from the Wisconsin and Michigan National Guards in 1916 to serve on the Mexican border. The Red Arrow Division was active through WWII and had many Metals of Honor and other awards. So most likely folklore (or at least the root beer bottle) meant that the brand was named after the Red Arrow Division and not the Brigade. Either way, the brand died out and for decades the only trace of it was old bottles and crown caps peddled by collectors. Then in March 28, 2011, it was resurrected, the recipe having fallen into the hands of a Redmond, WA man who decided it was something the world needed once again.
