My $100 review. What, you say? I spent $100 to drink two bottles of this root beer? No, I didn’t. But, I found out that since I had bought it and before I got around to drinking it (I have a rather large queue you see) it got discontinued. The only store that still had any had decided that since there was almost nothing left the price per bottle should be $50. Supply and demand they say. Fair enough on the supply side, but where is the demand? I don’t know if anyone would pay $50 to try one bottle of root beer except for maybe someone like me, who was intent to try all of the root beers (I know, there are already ones I’ve missed). But, I already had my two bottles at that point so I didn’t need any more to accurately review. I’m not sure about other reviewers. I’m also not sure if I would pay $50 per bottle if I didn’t have them yet, but I really only paid about $4 so I don’t have to make up my mind about that yet. Then again, maybe it is so amazing good that I would spent hundreds to buy up the last bottles.
It has a medium Body with a creamy caramel flavor. I actually really like the flavor. There is a decent spicy Bite from some cinnamon I think, or other spice. The Head is the classic Two Second Head though, very disappointing. The Aftertaste is a spiced caramel flavor with vanilla.
So, it is a pretty decent brew. Worth $50 to get another one? I think not. Though I will miss it a tad and thus mourn its passing with a moment of silence … Ok, I’m over it. See how it rates against other root beers.
So I had heard about Dick’s Root Beer from Anthony’s wish list. I found it was made in Centralia, which isn’t too far from me. Before I planned a trip there, I figured I would send a shout out on Facebook to see if any of my UW friends (Zombie Tag comrades) were from there or going there. Lucky for me a good friend and CFH member Brian lived there and said he would get me some over Thanksgiving. I told him I needed three bottles. Well he left a message on my voicemail over the break that they didn’t sell their root beer in bottles, only draft and growlers (filled from the draft) and that he got me a growler. So this caused a conundrum. I only rate bottled root beer. Though, technically, I should rate draft root beer from kegs and growlers as well, or at least drink them, since I rate my root beers with a keg system. Clearly, root beer from a keg is gourmet, as well as a growler filled from a keg. The problem is that I can’t really hold growler root beers to the same metric with the head since the bottling process preserves the head while pouring it in the growler will lose it. So I decided that I’ll review root beers from growlers, using the same Body, Bite, and Aftertaste metrics. The Head metric will be thrown out. The reviews will be on the blog under the Growler Root Beers category but there will be no short format reviews in the review tables since I am a stickler about my bottled root beer. I am not sure how I will rate root beers only available in kegs, but I’ll figure it out when I happen upon a keg root beer.
Wait, Langers makes a root beer? Langers makes juices. That’s what I remember from my days at BYU. I loved buying Langers fruit juices. They were usually cheaper and always 100% natural. I see them up here in the Seattle area as well. So when did they migrate into sodas? I can’t say. Langers’ own website doesn’t talk about their Gourmet Soda line. Maybe it’s their dirty little secret. True to their juice line, this root beer is also all natural. Though I don’t usually read ingredients or nutritional information before I drink the first bottle, they brag about some of their ingredients on the front of the bottle and I couldn’t help but notice they use Madagascar vanilla. Well that makes me happy since I served my mission in Madagascar and know all about their lovely vanilla. I also noticed honey on the front so I got pretty excited, since those are two of the things I like to taste in my root beers.
