Aug 012018
 

Polly's Pop Root Beer Bottle Polly’s Pop has its roots back in the 1920’s when a man named Louis, for some reason known as “Polly”, and a woman named Dorothea started the Independence Bottling Company in Independence, Missouri, which made Polly’s Pop. In 1972, however, it closed its doors. Then, in 2015, a lawyer by the name of McClain, who enjoyed Polly’s Pop as a child, resurrected the brand. He brought back bottling a year later. They use a 66 year old bottling machine to keep it as close to the original in every way possible. Because it’s called Polly’s Pop, they of course have a parrot on the label. Polly want a cracker? No he want’s a pop as evidenced by the bottle clutched in his zygodactyl foot (which has been one of my favorite words since elementary school). As with many in the craft root beer revival, this brand uses only pure cane sugar. Now the real question is was it worth bringing back.

The Body is rich and a little creamy. There’s a nice caramel flavor that stands out in a rather standard creamy root beer flavor. It’s very sweet and kind of heavy and syrupy as well. The Bite is on the small side and there’s a lot of spices to it. The Head is medium height but fizzes away too quickly. The Aftertaste is a mild and sticky vanilla.

This is pretty good, but not quite top notch. There’s not anything wrong with it at all, it’s just not amazing, and I like my brews amazing. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs




Jul 252018
 

Fizz Roc City Root Beer Bottle anthony is a great guy. He trades me root beers that are hard to find over here, like this one. Fiz Roc City Root Beer comes all the way from Rochester New York, which is much closer to New Jersey than to Washington. Is Roc City some slang for Rochester? It’s made by College Club Beverages but doesn’t seem to be branded as College Club in any way. The brand seems to be Fiz, so that’s how I’m labeling it. Some places seem to have it as Fiz Specialty Beverages or Fiz Specialty Drinks, and I alone am left to mourn the lack of coherent standards for root beer branding and labeling so every reviewer knows what to title his post as. But maybe that’s the goal, to provide an avenue for each and every reviewer to look deep inside themselves, and use the name that they feel is best, with all being right in the end because each of us is a special snowflake and we all see the world differently, and by allowing us to call the root beer whatever we want, we all fully able to express our individuality … I’m just going to stop that train of thought right now and tell you about this brew.

Very sweet Body with prominent sarsaparilla and vanilla flavors. There’s a strong Bite with spice and tingle. It’s solid and good. The Head is very nice and tall and foamy. The Aftertaste, however, falls flat. It’s just sort of sugar and that’s all. After much goodness, you’re left with just pure cane sugar that goes quickly, which is quite a disappointment.

Not a bad bit of brew, but that poor Aftertaste has torpedoed any chance of a Seal of Approval. It’s still better than average though so don’t pass it up if you are looking for a sarsaparilla-y root beer but not a sarsaparilla. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs




Jul 182018
 

Kiss Army Root Beer BottleSo 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.

2 out of 5 root beer kegs