GourmetRootBeer

Whistler Classic Soda Lemon Root Beer

Apr 072021

Whistler Lemon Root Beer Bottle For the first time in awhile I went out to Blue Sun Soda. I’ve been trying to avoid in-person shopping as much as possible what with the pandemic. Plus it’s sad to me to go up there and not play video games and enjoy a phosphate. Any how, I went back, hunting for a different root beer (review coming next month) and when I asked them if they said they had anything new, they remarked that they’d just started making a lemon root beer. That sounds like a terrible idea to me. If you’ve read this blog much (or my reviews in general) you know my opinion of sour, citrusy, fruity flavors in my root beer. I’ve also not had the best experience with Whistler despite my love for what they do. To set my expectations even lower, when I posted about the new root beer on Facebook, the owner of Whistler commented that he himself didn’t like it but people kept asking for it so he made it. That’s actually hilarious and I told him to not take it bad if I panned it in my review. After all, would you be excited to drink something its own creator has dismissed as weird? But so I found myself filling my mug with a lemon scented brew.

The Body has a rich creamy root beer flavor that is almost caramely and is sharpened by lemon accents which transition to a vanilla lemon flavor. Despite a strong lemon, it isn’t sour or even feel citrusy. The Bite is mostly from prickly carbonation but it finishes smooth. The Head is medium height and staying power, sufficient for a good brew. The Aftertaste is rich vanilla and lemon, like a lemon custard, but for some reason it feels completely natural to finish a root beer like this.

No. No no no no. This isn’t right … how? It’s amazing! But it shouldn’t be. Literally nothing I just wrote makes any sense to me. Finishing a root beer with lemon custard? What? But it’s delicious. I can’t stop drinking it. I want more. It seems like the most natural fantastic root beer despite contradiction of its flavors. What dark wizardry is this? A lemon root beer has no business being this good. But I’ll be back for more. Congratulations Whistler, I award you the Seal of Approval. See how it rates against other root beers.

Keto Chow Root Beer Float

Root Beer Flavored Drinks No Responses »

Mar 172021

Keto Chow Root Beer Float

I was looking through Amazon for any root beer things and stumbled upon this. I’ve not had a ton of experience with protein drinks and Keto stuff, but it says root beer float flavor so I figured I should try. Maybe this could be the thing for those poor souls who can’t eat sugar and thus are deprived from proper root beer float … shake type things. No actually, I don’t think that’s the market, there’s sugar free root beer and ice cream. I don’t know. Keto diet people will want this, maybe. It said to mix with half a cup of fat and 14 ounces of water and then refrigerate over night for best flavor. I chose heavy whipping cream as my fat source, since that seems to be more root beer floaty. The next morning I decided this would be my breakfast.

It smells kind of like a root beer float. The taste is initially a small hint of root beer, accented by the cream to make it floaty, and then it tastes like whey protein. Like, it’s really a lot of whey protein flavor. It isn’t really sweet, which makes sense, because it’s a protein shake. It’s also really thick and creamy and rich, but because the flavor isn’t particularly good, it gets pretty gross the more you drink.

Ugh! This is… not so good. I think the slight bit of root beer float flavor is actually quite a detriment, and makes it worse than if it were just “original” flavor, whatever that would be. I think maybe chocolate would work, I’ve had chocolate whey protein shake stuff before, but root beer float is a fail, like fail hard. Maybe someone out there enjoys this, but I fear they’ve been on the Keto path so long they’ve forgotten what root beer and root beer floats are about. Anyways, avoid if you can.

Root 42 Old Time Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Mar 032021

Root 42 Root Beer Bottle This was my Christmas present for 2020. Props to my diligent wife to be able to track it down, as it had stopped being produced in bottles several months earlier. Yet, she was able to mail order some not just from one of the last distributors, but also get in contact with the makers and get two bottles from them. That’s the sort of thing that makes a gift extra special. This is made by New Creation Soda Works in Georgia. They say it’s “as natural as the government will allow” which I assume is referring to lack of sassafras? I don’t actually know. But yeah! Fight the power, or something. I don’t know why they are Root 42. There is no explanation, so kind of like Olde No. 43 in that respect, which is one number better? I don’t know. Let’s see.

The Body is sweet and rich with a nice caramel, vanilla, and aged sarsaparilla flavors featuring prominently. They are accented by a nice nutty taste which comes from pecan. The Bite is a little harsh from carbonation and a little light on the spice. I feel it could use more depth here as well as a smoother finish. The Head is quite nice. It’s pretty tall and though it fizzes down a little faster than others, it isn’t short lasting by any means. The aftertaste is a nutty vanilla flavor with caramel hints.

This is good and rather unique. There’s some interesting ingredients in this, including lemon juice and pecan, but it works far better than you’d expect. They also use “two-fold vanilla” which I had never heard of before. There is something missing, however, I can’t quite put my finger on it. A little bit of texture and spice is missing or something, keeping this out of Seal territory, but it’s good nonetheless, and I lament the decision to only produce in cans going forward. See how it rates against other root beers.

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