Eric's Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Okay, it’s a can of root beer. Let’s get that out of the way right now. You know there’s a very special reason that I’d put a can of root beer on my site. I didn’t just throw my whole bit away this month, never to return. You see, I have a VERY good friend that I met back in 2010 at the North American Power Symposium (NAPS) where my very first research paper was published. His name is Martin, he’s from Germany, and he also researches power systems, like myself. So we met at conferences while we were in grad school and then at conferences after grad school and we keep meeting at conferences because we keep improving how the electric grid works. So anyways, on our first meeting, in Calgary, I told him about root beer and he had never had it before so I made sure that on our adventures we hit up an A&W where he was able to have his first frosty mug of root beer. He quite liked it and root beer drinking also became part of our meet ups, including some of the draft root beer reviews posted in the past.

So anyways, this spring, we were at yet another conference, he was chairing a panel and I was giving a presentation (if you are a transmission grid operator, you do need a DERMS). When he introduced me, he also brought up that I have a root beer website more than 25 years old and that he found a root beer made in Germany. He pulled out the pictured can and presented it to me as a gift for being on his panel and said he couldn’t wait to see what I thought about it. So while I would almost never drink canned root beer, for friendship’s sake, I shall give my opinion. And Yes, I did crack it open and poured it into a chilled mug (though not my A&W mug). First I should confirm CMC Root Beer is made by C.M.C. The Food Company. A German food manufacturer that specializes in foreign flavors like root beer, cream soda, boxed mac and cheese, and marshmallow creme. Brining the taste of American Supermarkets to Germany. It is a shame they don’t bottle.

It really didn’t have a Head that lasted in any way. The flavor is gross. It’s just medicinal and off-putting. It isn’t really sweet either. Harsh and not creamy nor smooth. My son said it tastes like mouthwash, that you should spit out. Yet, I did it the justice of actually swallowing, despite my mouth’s protestations. There is a generic root beer-ish flavor underneath there, so technically one could call it a root beer.

I don’t like it one bit. Martin himself had his doubts about the quality. It does say “LECKER” (Tasty) on the can, and if it’s really tasty, he mused would you need to write it on the can? You wouldn’t, and this isn’t. But I do appreciate, at least, C.M.C. is trying to do. Spread the joy of root beer around the world. But please, make it better, and bottle it, and then I hope to give it a proper review. As it stands, being in a can, no kegs can be awarded.