Jolt Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Nov 042026
 

In September is circumnavigated the globe for work trips. DERMS Around the World I called it. Flew East through Amsterdam where I had a few hours to meet with my cousin, then on to Bangkok, then Melbourne, then Auckland, then back home. I Melbourne my secondary goal, after working, was to get this root beer. Do you remember Jolt Cola? It had an interesting run in the 80s and 90s before being discontinued in the 2000s. As a child of the 80s and 90s. I remember it well but never really had it. It was the “crazy” cola for people needed more caffeine than Mountain Dew, for some reason. Anyways, while it died off in the USA, it continued to be produced in Australia, under license. Where it still is to this day. In addition to the cola, they also make other flavors, (flavours?), including this root beer. This is not the same as the Jolt Energy Root Beer sold in cans in the US. The ingredients are different, the company is different, and this has full sugar, plus 80 mg of caffeine. It’s made in Adelaide but I was able to find a place near Melbourne, so on my off day I took a tram, train, and then bus to the USA Foods store that sold American products. They had lots of root beers actually, in addition to this one. I waited till I got back home and tried this in the morning so the caffeine jolt wouldn’t mess up my sleep.

The Body is sweet with a traditional root beer flavor with some wintergreen and aged sarsaparilla accented by a slight bitterness of the caffeine. There’s a nice spicy Bite that hits you immediately upon drinking. It finishes decently but not silky smooth. The Head is exceptional! Very tall and foamy. The Aftertaste is a bit of wintergreen and sarsaparilla ending with slight bitterness.

This is by far the best Australian root beer I’ve had so far. You can tell they’d actually drank root beer before. Now I must say, I don’t usually drink caffeine. If I do, it’s usually because of work travel and jet lag. In severe cases of international travel, I’ll have a Red Bull that I sip slowly over the course of a few hours. This root beer has the same caffeine as the normal sized Red Bulls, and reviewing a root beer generally takes about 5 minutes. I felt like I was having a heart attack about half an hour after drinking this. It wasn’t pleasant, so I’ll likely skip on this in the future, unless I find myself Down Under, in which case it’s a tastier alternative to slowly sip while fighting jet lag. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs

Deadworld Root Beer Creeper

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Oct 072026
 

It’s October so I have to do something Halloween themed, or try at least, and this year I have a nice zombie themed root beer! Now, if you remember (please tell me I have people who regularly still follow this blog), about 11 years ago I also had two root beers from Deadworld, a regular and a vanilla. And I loved them. Seals of Approval and everything. Sometime in those last 11 years, the Deadworld Zombie soda flavors has dropped from 12 to only 5. Additionally the mascots for the flavors have changed. Gone are Slow Decay and Twilight Shuffler as well as the vanilla root beer entirely. Now there is only Creeper. Sadly, there’s no backstory on the label as to who creeper is, maybe just a generic zombie. From a recipe standpoint, that is different too, with different ingredients and nutrition information. Sad to see two nice root beers gone but excited to try something new. As I poured this out I noticed that they’ve colored it not the standard brown, but it looks almost black, which is on point for the zombie theme, but a bit confusing for a root beer.

The Body has a strong caramel flavor. It’s sweet and rich and there’s vanilla over a classic core. Quite delicious. The Bite is a bit prickly with spices. The Head is abysmal, sadly. Gone in seconds, super short. The Aftertaste is caramel and vanilla.

Yum, it’s got a great flavor. I really love caramel in root beer and the “contains milk” allergen warning confirms what my tastebuds were screaming, they used the real deal. Sadly, that pathetic Head does it in. No matter how tasty, I can’t give the Seal without that lovely foam. I’m glad Deadworld Soda still makes a tasty root beer, but ultimately, I take this as a severe step back. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs

CMC Root Beer

 Root Beer Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 122026
 

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.

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