Bottled Root Beers – Page 10 – Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Soda Pop Bros Maple Root Beer

Oct 062021

Soda Pop Bros Maple Root Beer Bottle Root beer number 2 from The Soda Pop Bros! It’s a limited edition Maple Root Beer! Because what could be more Canadian than putting maple syrup in your root beer? Apologizing for your coworkers missing a meeting because of opening day of moose season (true story by the way)? Eating poutine at a hockey game while sipping a cup of Tim Horton’s? Being all dressed as a Mounty while eating All Dressed chips and a Coffee Crisp? Maybe but maybe not, because those Canucks love their root beer like their neighbors south of the border, and maple syrup is the glue that holds their country together. The only thing I really don’t get is the beaver. Like what’s a beaver got to do with maple syrup? Maybe they cut down maple trees for their dams? I don’t know, but it’s a cute beaver that somehow feels very Canadian. Anyways, root beer.

The Body has a rich maple syrup flavor on initial contact which is followed by vanilla and aged sarsaparilla. The flavors mix well. The Bite is mild and smooth with a good mouthfeel from the maple syrup. The Head is top notch. The Aftertaste is sarsaparilla and maple. The more you drink the more the maple diminishes and the sarsaparilla grows to almost taste fruity, sadly.

Dang, I wish that Aftertaste weren’t so strong of sarsaparilla. My first drink of this and I was like “Ah, now this is the stuff!” But as I drank more I was all “Is this the stuff?” and unfortunately by the end, I was like, “This is not quite the stuff”. But it’s still better than average, and I prefer it to their normal root beer. The fact they used real maple syrup rather than maple flavor really improves the mouthfeel. It’s definitely worth a try if you can find it. See how it rates against other root beers.

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.

Todd Bosley’s World Famous Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Jun 022021

Todd Bosley's World Famous Root Beer Barrel I take issue with the name of this root beer. I know it’s cliche to call your product world famous, but if the people who’s primary reason for existence have a hard time learning about your product, it isn’t world famous. Small gripe I know, but of all the “world famous” type products I’ve ever heard of, this is probably the most obscure. I heard about it from anthony who found it trawling Amazon. The label also screams private label, but anthony assures me that when he reached out to the Great and Glorious Todd he said they have their own special recipe. I will believe him, GinsengUp does do custom recipes. I have another gripe about this brew. It came mailed to me using USPS Flat Rate padded envelopes as the padding in the box they used to package it. Seriously? They were too cheap to buy bubble wrap? Decided to raid the local post office after hours for the “free” envelopes whose cost is baked into the packaging and just use it to stuff your root beer mailing box. It rather sours me on them as a company. They can of course redeem themselves completely with a good brew.

The Body is sweet with a bit of vanilla, some sarsaparilla and a bit of sour. It’s rather generic other than that and the sour doesn’t help. The Bite is prickly from carbonation with a sudsy mouthfeel. There’s but little spice. The Head is tall and frothy, full points there. The Aftertaste is faint sour and sarsaparilla.

Meh. It’s okay, nothing special. That sour in the brew ruins it like their behavior sours my opinion of them overall. So yeah, skip this, if for no other reason than to support your local post office. But I must admit, in a pinch, it’s drinkable. See how it rates against other root beers.

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