I’m bugged when people write root beer as rootbeer. I don’t like it. These people have clearly done it on their bottle, and so that’s what their soda is named. So that’s what I have to put. I wish they hadn’t. Okay, I’m done. Funny story about this root beer. It’s made in Silverdale and sold in that area including the Port Orchard farmers market. So why didn’t I find it when I went to both of those places on my quest for the Silver City Root Beer? I’m not sure. I didn’t spend much time at the farmer’s market because my wife wanted to leave, but I’m not going to blame her. I blame myself. My New Root Beer Sense was tingling and I thought it was only for the Silver City stuff. I’ll need to pay closer attention to my Sense on future journeys. A few months later I learned about this and contacted them but they didn’t seem interested in shipping it. I let the people at The Root Beer Store know about it, and told them they should really support the local brews by carrying it, so I wouldn’t have to wait until I found myself over there again. Thankfully The Root Beer Store came through and I was able to save some gas. This soda is made by a retired couple who couldn’t find a better way to spend their golden years than making root beer. Considering that the only thing better than making root beer is drinking root beer, I don’t blame them.
The Body isn’t very sweet and is rather hollow. There’s a strong wintergreen and spice flavor, but it feels like there’s a big gaping hole in the flavor profile. Something is missing. It’s also a little bitter. The Bite is strong with wintergreen and cloves featuring prominently in the burn. The Head is short yet lingers. The Aftertaste is the fading traces of the Bite which ends bitter.
This brew is unique. However, it’s missing a lot and I don’t like it. I wish I liked it, you know, support the local root beers and all, but it just isn’t something I’d drink again ever. See how it rates against other root beers.
A and W. Two letters that redefined the root beer and fast food landscape. While Charles Hires brought us the fine drink we call root beer, it was Allen and Wright that took it to the modern era. Forty-three years after Hires swept the nation with dry powdered concentrate and bottled goodness, a new player entered the fray with a new way to do things. While Hires was a genius in advertising, and Allen the father of the modern franchise. Within two decades his root beer stands dotted the land and his brew the most commonly drank root beer in the country and became the defacto root beer standard definition of a root beer for many. Other business titans, like the Marriotts, sprang from humble franchise owners. While growing up, for me, A&W was the good stuff. The special root beer instead of the store brands. And after I became The Root Beer Gourmet, A&W also ushered in another era. For while I’d had several types of glass bottled root beer, and had sworn never to go back to cans or plastic, it wasn’t until I found bottles of this being sold in a mini-mart on White Pass that I started my root beer bottle collection. I was traveling there with my future brother-in-law to get his sister on the other side of the pass. I’d never seen my old favorite in glass bottles and I wanted to keep the bottle to show my dad. 
Premium gourmet root beer is now officially a thing. There’d been a few before, notably Virgil’s Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg Root Beer and Thunderbeast Black Label (blog posts coming soon). 
