This root beer sure has a busy label. I mean, there is just a lot happening there. You’ve got trees, both living and dead, some deer silhouette, mountains, a lake I think, plus all sorts of text. The actual name of the company which was done in two different fonts for some reason. The flavor of their soda, root beer in this case, which is done in yet another font. And some other stuff like “Caffeine Free,” “Made with Pure Cane Sugar” (and corn syrup as well per the ingredients), “Mange Tusen Takk,” (whatever that means (roughly: Many thousand thanks. I do know how to use Google after all)) “Spring Grove, MN,” “Classic Fountain Flavor” and the list goes on and on. About the only thing that they didn’t put on there was “The Original” which is to their credit. Mange Tusen Takk is actually pretty cool though since it’s all Norse and viking and my ancestors and whatnot. I gather that the nature scene is none other than Spring Grove itself, but I think they could have done with a little less. Though you don’t judge a book by its cover nor a root beer by its bottle so all of my ranting on that is really completely irrelevant but I just felt like saying it anyways.
It has a nice fully Body with a complex and spicy flavor. There is a hair too much licorice. It is syrupy and creamy. There is a decent spice Bite but it is a little lacking on the carbonation. It goes down nice and smooth. The Head is amazing. The first bottle was unbelievably tall and frothy and lasted nearly forever. The second bottle’s head wasn’t as tall but was still wonderful. The Aftertaste is sticky, sweet, and spicy with hint of licorice.
It was interesting because the two bottles I had actually were two different sizes and the first had the most epic of Heads and more licorice flavor than the second. They still were pretty similar but I do believe I was tasting two different batches. Of those the second bottle was the better so let’s hope that one is the normal and the first bottle I got was the fluke. Either way, it’s still better than average but I think I would still pass it up if I were looking for a sipping brew. See how it rates against other root beers.
So one day, a few years back, when I was visiting my parents, it was discovered that one of my younger brothers’ friends had lost his cell phone at our house. It had been over a week and the battery was dead. The last person to have seen it was my dad who had found it on the back seat of a car but he couldn’t remember what he did with it afterwards. It was getting very worrisome for the family. I suddenly leaped to my feet and exclaimed, “I’ll find the cell phone, or my name isn’t Mr. McGillicuddy!” (Which it really isn’t) I then quickly ran upstairs, took a Sharpie and drew a mustache on myself, grabbed a magnifying glass and returned to the “scene” and said that Percival C. McGillicuddy, world famous detective, would solve The Case of the Missing Cell Phone (soon to be a major motion picture based off of the children’s book based on a true story). I then melodramatically scoured the house looking for clues, making a mess, and generally entertaining the family. After about 15 minutes I actually FOUND the missing cell phone proving that indeed I was Mr. McGillicuddy. Fast forward to November. I had recently received my doctorate and was scouring the web for new root beers when what did I discover, Dr. McGillicuddy’s root beer. The six packs even had a picture of a mustached gentleman who looked for all intents and purposes like some old fashioned detective. This WAS the root beer that was made for me. It is MY root beer, since I am now Dr. McGillicuddy (ah what a few extra years of grad school do for you.) I ecstatically called my sister to tell her about it since she was one of the most entertained by Mr. McGillicuddy’s original performance. Since it was Christmas time, I figured I’d wait to acquire it until after the holidays. To my pleasant surprise, under the Christmas tree was a 12 pack of Dr. McGillicuddy’s Old-fashioned Root Beer for me Christmas morning. Yay! Even better. Free root beer. I love my family! The bottle says that it’s made with natural herbs, real birch, and imported vanilla. Sounds like a winning combination. It also says “The Original” and if you’ve followed this blog at all you know how I feel about that.
So this root beer had a lot of stuff they claimed on the label. It’s an “Extra Rich Draft Style Soda” It’s also “Caffeine Free” though I don’t know why so many root beers make a point of claiming that since almost all root beers are caffeine free. I do like draft style and extra rich, though, I’ve found that it’s about 50% of the root beers are what they claim with regards to taste and texture. But there’s more. It is also “Made with micro filtered naturally pure water” which I suppose means that they use an all natural micro filter or something. Maybe they found a natural micro filter and used that on the water. Surely they couldn’t use a regular micro filter on naturally pure water because if the water was already pure what is the point of micro filtering it again. Maybe the brewers have a little OCD with washing their hands and demand double purity. Either way, there is a lot of text on this label. I guess pictures are overrated. 
