Bottled Root Beers – Eric's Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Jolt Root Beer

Nov 042026

In September is circumnavigated the globe for work trips. DERMS Around the World I called it. Flew East through Amsterdam where I had a few hours to meet with my cousin, then on to Bangkok, then Melbourne, then Auckland, then back home. I Melbourne my secondary goal, after working, was to get this root beer. Do you remember Jolt Cola? It had an interesting run in the 80s and 90s before being discontinued in the 2000s. As a child of the 80s and 90s. I remember it well but never really had it. It was the “crazy” cola for people needed more caffeine than Mountain Dew, for some reason. Anyways, while it died off in the USA, it continued to be produced in Australia, under license. Where it still is to this day. In addition to the cola, they also make other flavors, (flavours?), including this root beer. This is not the same as the Jolt Energy Root Beer sold in cans in the US. The ingredients are different, the company is different, and this has full sugar, plus 80 mg of caffeine. It’s made in Adelaide but I was able to find a place near Melbourne, so on my off day I took a tram, train, and then bus to the USA Foods store that sold American products. They had lots of root beers actually, in addition to this one. I waited till I got back home and tried this in the morning so the caffeine jolt wouldn’t mess up my sleep.

The Body is sweet with a traditional root beer flavor with some wintergreen and aged sarsaparilla accented by a slight bitterness of the caffeine. There’s a nice spicy Bite that hits you immediately upon drinking. It finishes decently but not silky smooth. The Head is exceptional! Very tall and foamy. The Aftertaste is a bit of wintergreen and sarsaparilla ending with slight bitterness.

This is by far the best Australian root beer I’ve had so far. You can tell they’d actually drank root beer before. Now I must say, I don’t usually drink caffeine. If I do, it’s usually because of work travel and jet lag. In severe cases of international travel, I’ll have a Red Bull that I sip slowly over the course of a few hours. This root beer has the same caffeine as the normal sized Red Bulls, and reviewing a root beer generally takes about 5 minutes. I felt like I was having a heart attack about half an hour after drinking this. It wasn’t pleasant, so I’ll likely skip on this in the future, unless I find myself Down Under, in which case it’s a tastier alternative to slowly sip while fighting jet lag. See how it rates against other root beers.

Deadworld Root Beer Creeper

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Oct 072026

It’s October so I have to do something Halloween themed, or try at least, and this year I have a nice zombie themed root beer! Now, if you remember (please tell me I have people who regularly still follow this blog), about 11 years ago I also had two root beers from Deadworld, a regular and a vanilla. And I loved them. Seals of Approval and everything. Sometime in those last 11 years, the Deadworld Zombie soda flavors has dropped from 12 to only 5. Additionally the mascots for the flavors have changed. Gone are Slow Decay and Twilight Shuffler as well as the vanilla root beer entirely. Now there is only Creeper. Sadly, there’s no backstory on the label as to who creeper is, maybe just a generic zombie. From a recipe standpoint, that is different too, with different ingredients and nutrition information. Sad to see two nice root beers gone but excited to try something new. As I poured this out I noticed that they’ve colored it not the standard brown, but it looks almost black, which is on point for the zombie theme, but a bit confusing for a root beer.

The Body has a strong caramel flavor. It’s sweet and rich and there’s vanilla over a classic core. Quite delicious. The Bite is a bit prickly with spices. The Head is abysmal, sadly. Gone in seconds, super short. The Aftertaste is caramel and vanilla.

Yum, it’s got a great flavor. I really love caramel in root beer and the “contains milk” allergen warning confirms what my tastebuds were screaming, they used the real deal. Sadly, that pathetic Head does it in. No matter how tasty, I can’t give the Seal without that lovely foam. I’m glad Deadworld Soda still makes a tasty root beer, but ultimately, I take this as a severe step back. See how it rates against other root beers.

Faxon Farms Maple Root Beer

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Jul 012026

Minnesota has this thing called The Renaissance Festival, or Ren Fest for short. My family likes to attend because you can watch jousting while eating giant smoked turkey legs and do other fun activities and buy things at shops and dress up like a knight and whatnot. Last year, my sister found this being sold in one of the shops and bought me a bottle to review. I always appreciate people finding me new root beers. Faxon farms is a local producer of pure maple syrup that got started out of a hobby in 2010. They’ve expanded operations over the years to not just make pure maple syrup but also pure maple syrup products, including this root beer. I do love small farm maple syrup, being a hobbyist myself. I also love a good maple root beer.

The Body has a rich maple flavor with honey but quite mild on the rest of the root beer flavors. It starts strong but doesn’t maintain. The Bite is smooth, not really any spices. The Head is very short, gone quickly. Not quite the “2-Second Head”, but close. The Aftertaste is maple. Good maple. Quality maple, but that’s it.

This has a great maple, but not not so much a great root beer. I find that happens often, with maple or other flavored root beers. You make an amazing maple syrup, you want to make that into an amazing root beer, but you are not a root beer expert so you lean into your strength. You can’t just take a root beer and add maple, or even a good root beer and add maple, but you need to formulate what will be an amazing root beer because of its maple. That’s hard to do. As it stands, the delicious maple makes for a drinkable root beer, but not much else. See how it rates against other root beers.

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