So Rocket Fizz is back with another new celebrity type root beer. They all have the same listed ingredients yet they all claim to be unique. Granted “natural flavors” can be wildly different, but I wish they’d go a bit of an extra mile to assure people like me. My doubts are beginning to grow to the point that I won’t review another of these until I have some hard evidence that it’s unique. I mean, going over my reviews it seems that they have all tasted different, but I’ll still probably have to dispatch Dr. Percival C. McGilliguddy … Anyhow. This is Kiss Army Root Beer. Load and Proud and dedicated to the Kiss Army. I must confess that I had no idea what the Kiss Army was, though I assumed it had something to do with the band Kiss ’cause I’m not that ignorant. Turns out it’s just their fan club. It’s odd that they would have the root beer devoted to the fan club and not the band, like if Faygo released a special Juggalo Root Beer (please do actually).
The Body is really dark with a lot of licorice flavor. There’s a bite of vanilla and it’s slightly creamy, yet there is also a hollowness to it, despite the copious amounts of licorice. The Bite is there. It’s got some spice and some carbonation. The Head is excellent! I’ll give them props for that. But the Aftertaste is really strong licorice, maybe a tad bit of wintergreen. It lasts too long and builds the more you drink. So I like it less and less.
I’m not a fan, no offense to the Kiss fan club, but this is one of my least favorite Rocket Fizz celebrity brews. I really don’t like this at all, yet it isn’t super horrible. Kiss fans, you should not be fooled by this, and demand a better drink to bear your name. See how it rates against other root beers.
After so many years, the Safeway brand is finally being bottled. I’ve been waiting for this moment since I first started seeking out gourmet root beer and Safeway was the only supermarket in my little town. The brand has changed from the old Cragmont days of my youth. This latest brand is Signature Select, but since you can read titles you already knew that. I still like the old Cragmont logos better than what they’ve got now, but it isn’t too bad a label, pretty much what you’d expect from a store brand. I found it in the local Safeway the month I was moving to Minnesota and it was the last brew I reviewed in the state of Washington before saying goodbye. I find it fitting that my final Washington brew should be the one I wished existed since the beginning of this quest of mine, nearly 20 years ago. 
Back in Chicago this past week with a rental car and no coworkers coming with me to dinner. This was a perfect time to venture further off the beaten path in search of root beer excellence. About 40 miles south west of Chicago lies the city of Joliet, which I think is still technically a suburb. There, one can find the tiny Ace Drive-In, owned and operated by the same person for the past 38 years. This place is a classic root beer stand in every sense of the word. They still have car service, which was the first time I’ve ever had the waitresses come to my window with a tray. They still make their root beer in house, poured from a tap and served in frosty mugs. They only take cash and they don’t give receipts. The whole place is beautiful and wonderful and a true blast from the past. 
