GourmetRootBeer

Barq’s Frozen Root Beer & Vanilla Ice Cream Float

Aug 182021

Barq's Root Beer Float Tubes

My wife was shopping at Aldi for some ice cream treats and grabbed these cause they looked good and she knows I need moar content. I’d known about them for awhile but could never find them. I realize that I’m actually quite bad at tracking down things that aren’t root beer proper, and thus for over a year these had eluded me. Anyways, these are equal parts Barq’s Root Beer slushy thing and vanilla ice cream. They actually use Barq’s syrup and thus reading the ingredients reveals caffeine. I think these are the only caffeinated ice cream thing I’ve ever seen/had. They are in little conical type tubes that you squeeze from the bottom as you eat.

There’s a strong root beer flavor with that classic Barq’s taste. They definitely didn’t skimp on it. The vanilla ice cream is rich with a strong vanilla flavor as well, the combination of the two gives a wonderful root beer float experience.

This is by far the best root beer float frozen treat I’ve had. These things are delicious. Barq’s Root Beer float in a tube, I can’t recommend it enough, unless you absolutely need a decaffeinated ice cream treat. But at only 3 ounces a tube, and only half of that root beer, the caffeine is pretty trivial. Either way, I can’t recommend these enough. Get ’em if you see ’em.

Soda Pop Bros. Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Aug 042021

The Soda Pop Bros Root Beer Bottle One of my root beer friends on social media runs a craft soda shop in Windsor Ontario, The Soda Pop Bros. In addition to their large selection and soda delivery, they worked to develop their own line, which includes two flavors of root beer. He was so kind as to send me some samples to review. Sadly he mixed up the boxes and accidentally sent what was intended for another reviewer to me, but I still got some of each of his root beers. I decided I’d start with the plain, er, ordinary, er, original, that’s it, root beer! I like their label, it’s got a classic vibe and isn’t too busy. One other interesting thing, it has 2% of the daily allowance of calcium and 10% of potassium. I’m not sure why that is, but extra nutrients isn’t a bad thing at all. Maybe it’s mineral water? Or maybe they just want electrolytes for hydrating root beer? Not sure, but I hope to love it.

The Body is sweet with sassafras and vanilla flavors. There’s a faint sarsaparilla that builds over time. Overall the flavor is nice and clean and simple. The Bite is mild though it isn’t smooth. The Head is wonderfully tall and frothy and you shouldn’t try to build it because then it’s too much and takes forever to fizz down. The Aftertaste is that sarsaparilla, which is pleasant.

It’s good. I’ll say that, but nothing really stands out, except the head, and the potassium. Need that potassium. So while I won’t give this one the Seal, it is better than average and is worth a try. See how it rates against other root beers.

Dorothy Molter (The Root Beer Lady) Museum

Root Beer Pilgrimages No Responses »

Jul 212021

The last weekend in June I took a road trip with the family to the north of Minnesota. Our final destination was Ely and top on the list of things to see there was the Dorothy Molter, aka The Root Beer Lady, museum. Dorothy lived out in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the Isle of Pines where she ran a resort. They used to have pop flown in by float plane but after that was banned she started using the empty bottles to make root beer for her guests. Eventually the area was designated by the federal government as wilderness, but Dorothy was allowed to keep living there, where she still made thousands of bottles of root beer every year for the canoeists that would visit. After her death, her cabins were relocated to the museum site.

I’ve written about her root beer before, and while it’s not by any means my favorite, I must acknowledge anyone who devotes so much of their lives to making root beer in the wilderness that they earn the title The Root Beer Lady. The museum itself is quite nice. The interpretive center and gift shop opens to a trail with her cabins and artifacts. Mostly focused on her life, but also the history of the Boundary Waters area. They also have a lot of her original root beer making equipment. The Dorothy Isle of Pines Root Beer is said to be as close a recreation of her root beer as possible.

The gift shop has not only bottles of her branded root beer, but also many other root beer candies and products, many of which I’d never seen (look for future posts). The whole place is wonderful, informative, and very much root beer themed, making it a site to which any true root beer fan should make pilgrimage.

Dorothy’s root beer making equipment. They actually have root beer making lessons here.

The Point Cabin. Where guests stayed in the summer.

The Winter Cabin. Where Dorothy stayed during the winter.

The gift shop

Older Entries Newer Entries