GourmetRootBeer

Gene Autry Root Beer

Mar 202013

Gene Autry Root Beer Bottle Inspired by the success (or jealous of it) of Judge Wapner Root Beer, Gene Autry, or his foundation or fans or someone (since Gene’s dead), decided that they wanted to get a piece of that action and hence Gene Autry Root Beer. And why not? Root beer is the all American drink and Gene Autry was arguably one of the most all Americans that has ever been produced. A singing cowboy actor who wrote famous Christmas songs, owned rodeo stocks and part of a baseball team, and flew dangerous missions as a pilot in WWII. With a resume like that the biggest question is why it took so long for him to get his own root beer, especially when you consider his TV show’s appeal among children? Interestingly, both Gene Autry and Judge Wapner root beers are produced by Rocket Fizz so it seems that they’re competing against themselves for market share in the celebrity root beer market. I’m not sure if I hope that the trend of celebrity root beers ends here or not. On the one hand some people are so epic that there is no question they deserve a brew named after them, on the other hand, this could get way out of control where you could get a Kardashian family six pack with each being a different flavor of root beer. More root beers for me to review I suppose.

The Body is very light and mild. Vanilla and wintergreen surface after a few seconds and add some much needed flavor to it. It has a very harsh Bite from the carbonation and citric acid that gives way to a prickly burn. I’m not a fan. The Head is nice; medium height and pretty frothy, it lingers for awhile. The Aftertaste is yummy vanilla and wintergreen that lasts a long time so if you drink the whole bottle pretty fast, those flavors build and the whole thing gets much better. If you just sip it slowly however, it stays pretty weak at the beginning of each drink.

That’s disappointing. On the whole it’s not bad but it needs a lot more to move to the next level. It is all natural (if citric acid is natural) so it’s got that going for it at least, but honestly, Gene deserves better than this. See how it rates against other root beers.

Brownie Caramel Cream Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers 15 Responses »

Mar 132013

This was a root beer I was not excited at all to drink. While a caramel cream root beer is very intriguing, a brownie caramel cream root beer sounds terrible. I just can’t imagine putting chocolate in root beer and having it come out in any way good. I suppose Brownie might just be the name and have nothing to do with the flavor, but there’s a lot more wrong with this. There’s the Peter Pan wannabe ordering you to “Drink” his pixie concoction all framed on a what looks like a Chinese knockoff Pepsi logo. Is that even legal? Aren’t they violating at least two trademarks with that? Perhaps side text on the bottle gives some explanation. “With a Sprite on the label, it’s easy to see how this mischievous and delicious blend of root beer & caramel came about” … What? No, no, NO! That makes no sense at all, and now they’ve gone and violated a third trademark. Can it get any worse? “CONTAINS MILK” … Words fail me.

The Body has a very rich sassafras flavor that gives way to luscious caramel and cream that thankfully tastes nothing like brownies. It’s absolutely delicious. There is a prickly carbonation Bite but not much in the spice department, rather, it is nice and smooth. The Head is medium height but fizzes away in less than a minute unfortunately. The Aftertaste is more rich caramel and cream that lasts just long enough to make you want more but not so long as to be annoying when you can’t get it.

Well, I wasn’t prepared for that. I really love this flavor. I love creamy caramel flavored root beers and this takes it to a whole new level. You can really get lost in that caramel and never want to come back. It seems that the milk comes from real cream, but it works like I’d never imagined. Sweet and rich and smooth and lovely. This blew me away. The Head is disappointing but just barely good enough. I guess you can’t judge a root beer by it’s label. See how it rates against other root beers.

Towne Club Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers 2 Responses »

Mar 062013

Another root beer found recently at The Root Beer Store. This one has a unique bottle shape with a label that doesn’t give me much to write about other than the fact that they refuse to capitalize any letters for reasons unknown. It kind of reminds me of a certain root beer reviewer. Nevertheless, I will not fall for their poor grammar and you can see that I’ve capitalized their name in the title of this post. Other than that, I like the label, unnecessary ‘e’ and all. It seems that this soda is popular in the poorer neighborhoods of Detroit, a.k.a ALL neighborhoods of Detroit, where the company started in the mid 1960s. It is impressive that though their sales declined dramatically in the 1980s, they never quit so this has been around continuously since then.

It has a sweet medium Body where the generic root beer flavor slowly morphs into tasting like Red Vines. It is most curious. There is a little Bite, though it’s hardly worth mentioning. The Head is medium height but fizzes down quickly. The Aftertaste is a light Red Vines flavor.

Huh, Red Vines root beer. I can honestly say that I’ve never encountered that before. I’m not sure if this should be categorized with other candy flavored root beers (the butterscotch ones) or if it’s just a byproduct of their ingredients. Maybe when they were formulating it someone told them that you put licorice in root beer and they went to the store but bought red licorice by mistake and they just went with it. Whatever the reason, it’s actually pretty decent and not too far outside of the “normal” root beer spectrum. I’d have it again, occasionally. See how it rates against other root beers.

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