May 092012
 

Another one from the Beverages Direct order. Though, this one isn’t even listed on their site, they had to tell me about it. They keep it hidden away, for reasons unknown, and drop it in the occasional mystery soda sampler box. It’s like they’re enticing you to buy random stuff in the hopes of uncovering a hidden gem of obscure root beers or something. Maybe they only reveal it to those who they find truly worthy, and at last I have so merited in their eyes. Whatever the reason, I was able to acquire it. It seems to be the root beer for a restaurant right across the street from Wrigley Field, where people go to party after Cubs games. I wonder if there’s something like that for the Mariners that I’ve been missing out on, but I digress. It’s brewed by Minhas Craft Brewery, which sounds like a Portuguese name to me, even though the website indicates that the immigrants who started the place seemed to be from everywhere but Portugal. Oh well.

This has a medium Body that is rather sweet. It’s moderately creamy with a vanilla flavor but on the whole it’s a little weak. There’s a very light Bite with few spices. The Head is short but rather frothy. The Aftertaste is a light vanilla flavor with the slightest hint of some fruity sour thing that is almost like bubble gum.

Overall this is a decent root beer but really nothing special about it. Maybe at the end of the day, that is why it’s tucked away. I’d still get it with some food after a Cubs game though. See how it rates against other root beers.




May 022012
 

I like a diverse brand. Any brand that feels they need to make more than one root beer flavor makes the world a better place in my opinion (except for Journey but that’s another story). So I was pleased to find that Hosmer Mountain makes a sarsaparilla root beer as well as their regular. Note that isn’t a sarsaparilla. I don’t review sarsaparillas. They’re not root beers. This is a sarsaparilla root beer, much like Dang! That’s Good makes a butterscotch root beer, and Frostie makes a vanilla root beer. Though, my most recent experience with a sarsaparilla flavored root beer (Hartridge’s) didn’t turn out so well so I wasn’t sure what to expect for this one. Though this one is “bottled in the land of swift moving waters” so has to be good right?

It has a nice creamy Body with a distinct sarsaparilla flavor in addition to the more standard root beer flavors. The brown sugar is noticeable. The Bite is adequate without being overbearing from both spices and carbonation with the overall mouth feel very smooth. The Head is nice and tall. It fizzes down a tad faster than I prefer, but it still lasts plenty long. The Aftertaste is sticky wintergreen and vanilla with hints of sarsaparilla.

Yum! Though it has sarsaparilla, it’s still definitely a root beer and it’s definitely good. It seems that with this one they corrected all of the flaws of their regular root beer and then added that sarsaparilla to change things up a bit. And you know what, variety is nice. I look forward to more of this in the future. See how it rates against other root beers.




Apr 252012
 

So the fine people at beveragesdirect.com brought to my attention that there were several fine brews that they sell that I hadn’t reviewed, including III Dachshunds,which just so happens to be the root beer analogue of Dos Equis (Two ‘X’s in Spanish, you know 2 ‘x’s, 3 Dachshunds, it totally makes sense). They sell a lot of it to one man in particular. He travels around the world, so more people have the opportunity to meet him. He gives motivational speeches, just by looking in your direction. He once said something stupid, just to see what it was like. He’s, the Second Most Interesting Man in the World (almost as cool as the Most Interesting Man). He doesn’t always drink root beer, but when he does, he prefers III Dachshunds. Of course when I heard this I immediately made arrangements to procure all of the necessary brews. So why does he prefer it?

Because it has an amazingly sweet and creamy Body. It has the right flavors, sassafras, caramel, vanilla, and hints of wintergreen. There’s a pretty good Bite from carbonation and spices as well, but it is still very smooth going down. The Head, unfortunately, is barely an inch tall. It is however very frothy so it lasts several minutes. The Aftertaste is creamy vanilla with accents of wintergreen.

This is a delicious brew. I understand why the Second Most Interesting Man in the World prefers it. Probably the next time I’m out deep sea fishing, safariing, white water kayaking, or otherwise adventuring in the second most interesting way possible, I’ll have this at my side, at least some of the time. Sayth the bottle, “Time for a Treat” Indeed. I’ll take two if you please. See how it rates against other root beers.