GourmetRootBeer

Foodhold Root Beer

Mar 062019

Foodhold Root Beer Bottle Back in April, when I was in New Jersey, I met anthony and traded for this brew. It’s made for Foodhold, USA, which is a company that makes food for supermarkets, it seems. I googled it and I couldn’t get a straight answer for what exactly Foodhold is, other than there were a lot of complaints about their products. Putting it in Google Maps didn’t come up with any locations so I’m assuming it isn’t a store that I don’t know about. I didn’t even ask anthony where he got it. Yeah, I’m much lazier than I once was, and I don’t care to do more investigating. Anyone’s welcome to tell me off in the comments for not making your lives easier, or better yet, tell me what Foodhold actually is so everyone can know. I’ll be more diligent in the future, I promise. It has a very generic sort of label, but I like it. All the black and what not.

The Body has a nice sweet sarsaparilla flavor that isn’t of the fruity type, more on the spice side. The Bite is mild in total spices, yet prickly with carbonation. The Head is of medium height, but fizzes away quickly. The Aftertaste is of sarsaparilla.

So year, it’s a pleasant enough drink, but nothing at all special. It seems like a middle of the road sarsaparilla type, though I don’t review sarsaparillas so I can’t say how good or not it is as one of those, but as a root beer. It’s not bad. Nay, it’s beyond not bad, it’s down right drinkable! See how it rates against other root beers.

Dad’s Root Beer Barrels

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Feb 272019

Dad's Root Beer Barrel

Time to write a post about the most iconic root beer candy there is, the root beer barrel. I’m sure that’s what you first thought of back when I said I would write about candy and stuff. Because honestly, while other candies may have a root beer flavor, there is no other barrel candy. The root beer barrel is as synonymous with old fashioned candies as lemon drops and those ribbon candy things that your grandma used to give you. There’s a lot of types, and I aim to write about them all, but to start I’m going with Dad’s, since it’s also a rather iconic root beer brand with national distribution.

They’re nice and sweet with flavor that is not unlike Dad’s Root Beer, unsurprisingly. This means that there isn’t a strong licorice or mint flavor, and there’s a hint of spice. It also isn’t too sticky for hard candy, if that makes any sense. And gives a fine root beer like experience.

Yum. I can honestly say I really enjoy sucking these things. Being of a lighter flavor profile than some of the other root beer hard candies, you can pop quite a few in a row and they don’t get old. I can’t wait to see what they other root beer barrel candies are like. Until then, I highly recommend these.

Root Beer Advertising and Collectibles

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Feb 202019

My first root beer book post. Well, I mean, my first root beer book post since I started doing Wednesday posts about other root beer products and things. I thought I’d take a break from hard candy (I’ve got more, fear not) and check my local library to see if there were any good books on Root Beer. This is written by Tom Morrison, who is/was one of the more avid collectors of root beer paraphernalia, in 1992. At over 100 pages, it is filled with photos from his collection.

The book is organized in 12 chapters: History, Bottles, Caps, Cans, Dispensers, Drinking Glasses, Magazine Ads, Matchbook Covers, Mugs, Trading Cards, Signs, and Miscellaneous. Each chapter has a brief description of how that type of item featured in the history of root beer, followed by pages of photo examples.

This book is a treasure trove of root beer history and nostalgia. That guides you through its storied past to the present day. Many long lost brands are represented as well as many that have been resurrected and endured. I was pleased to see some now dead brands that I was able to review mentioned here. This book is a must read for any true devotees of root beer, as it simply and eloquently paints the picture of root beer’s past in a way that is hard to surpass. It’s also a very good starting point for anyone looking to start their own root beer collection. I wish I’d read this years ago.

A sample page showing glasses and magazine ads.

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