Oct 282011
 

Another root beer with an exclamatory phrase as the title. While So Duh! Rockin’ Root Beer was at least a play on words and an insinuation of the obvious, as is clearly seen on this bottle the “Dang!” is the centerpiece. Though “dang” can easily be a good interjection, it can also be used quite negatively. The fact that the “That’s Good” is in such small font makes it all the easier to misread the title of this root beer and think that they are aiming more towards the Rat Bastard Root Beer types. And anyways, what’s with this exclamatory naming trend anyhow? What’s next, a Holy Crap! Root Beer? What about a WTF Root Beer? This could easily be taken to the extreme. Why not just name it after the company founder, or place, or your favorite beetle (probably dung beetle would not be a good idea either), or your favorite type of dog (which plenty seem to do)? Well whatever, so how does it stack up?

Dang! It is sealed tighter than most twist caps. That doesn’t really impact its rating at all but I was just throwing it out there. It has a full Body with the standard root beer flavors. There is something slightly out of place with the flavor though, maybe a little too much licorice root or something. It is also a tad creamy. Dang! The Bite is pretty sharp on carbonation and very light on spices, rather the reverse of how it should be. Dang it! It even gave me the hiccups. The Head is pretty weak and fizzes away in seconds. Dang! I like a good Head. The Aftertaste is pretty empty and is just a sugar flavor with the tiniest bit of vanilla that quickly evanesces, dang. There is nothing really special about this brew at all and the Head and the Aftertaste are gravely lacking.

So I find that when drinking this root beer I say “Dang!” a lot. Though much to my chagrin it wasn’t saying “Dang! That’s good,” or anything else that is overly positive. It is drinkable though so I’ll give them that. See how it rates against other root beers.




Oct 122011
 

So Duh! Rockin' Root Beer BottleA lovely pun though I didn’t get it myself until I was telling my sister about it over the phone. What struck me about this was just how unimpressive the bottle and label look. I mean, a Valley Girl on a root beer bottle? I suppose it is more original than a dog. Even before I looked up the company, I just knew it was from California. So with low expectations and quotes from the movie “Clueless” going through my head, I cracked this one open to give it a try.

When I poured it into the mug and the Head built I said to myself, “Ah, now that’s a proper root beer head.” It is tall and frothy. It lazily built to the top of my 20 ounce mug and just sat there enjoying its freedom from the bottle. On the first drink I was delighted with the Body, the fairy tale marriage of cane sugar and honey, and it didn’t stop there. The sassafras and other root beer flavors were creamily mixed with natural vanilla. It could use a little more sassafras though. The Bite is fantastic too with spices aplenty in the right proportions and a little prickly from the carbonation while still keeping it smooth going down. The Aftertaste is sweet honey with vanilla and spices coming out as it drifts away leaving the tongue begging for more.

The final keg assignment was a tough call. I really like this. I think it is one of the best sodas I have ever drank. I drank a bottle of Henry’s and a bottle of Bulldog in between bottles 1 and 2 to make sure I really liked this one as much as I did. Giving it a 5 was something I wanted to do even though it has a light bodied sassafras flavor instead of a full. I see this as a delicious honey root beer (my favorite type), much like the original Tommyknocker was an amazing maple root beer.  But ultimately, I felt I just couldn’t do it. See how it rates against other root beers.