Shortly after I began reviewing root beers my good friend found me this in Seattle. If you can’t tell the picture is of some sort of car completely consumed in flames. Above it reads “Something to drink when you’re hot” and below the destruction it reads “we’re sure he’s dead anyone got a root beer?” in two different fonts. This is both awesome and confusing but since I was but a mere teenager at the time, it was overwhelmingly awesome. It was also a limited edition root beer made for Hot Rod Magazine. The back side of the label says you can win a free year’s subscription if you send them a picture of something with wheels. There’s no expiration date on that. I wonder if I can still win 17 years later? For some odd reason this is only 11 ounces instead of the normal 12. If any root beer seems to be a mere private label in disguise, this fits the bill, however, I can find no other root beer that matches the same ingredients in my collection. The closest is Jack Black’s Dead Red, which has all of the same ingredients listed other than the sweetener, Jack Black’s uses cane sugar while this uses HFCS. Then there’s that whole “Natural and Artificial Flavors” that could be completely different. This is bottled by Generation Foods who also makes the Skeleteens line so it is probably just a variation of the Jack Black’s recipe. Yet it does have different ingredients and a different name so it is a unique root beer on its own.
This is one of those root beers with a nice sweet smooth Body. The Head is lacking but it doesn’t go flat. The Aftertaste is adequate. The Bite is wonderful with Brazilian Guarana. The worst part is that it is caffeinated but it does add to the Bite.
I like it. I really do. I like Jack Black’s as well, but this one is better, smoother, sweeter. The Head is a drawback, it it is much better than the two second Head. This was one of the first Seal of Approval’s I gave, though I haven’t seen this in years. It’s a shame. It’s the only guarana energy type root beer that’s worth drinking on a regular basis. See how it rates against other root beers.
Another one which I received in trade from the great root beer collector Jon. It also seems that this has been discontinued so he gave me one of the world’s last. Truly I must sing his praises. Okay, here goes … ♫♪ Oh Jon, oh Jon, oh great and glorious Jooooooon! ♫♪ … Alright, now that’s over with, on to this Cold Spring. It’s a brewery, you know, with a storied past. There’s a spring there and they use the water to make beer. And root beer, or they did at least. It’s been around for 125+ years so they’ve probably made root beer several times in their “storied” history. Springs seem to been another reoccurring theme with breweries. It makes sense, you kind of need a source of water. They took a Spartan approach to their bottle. A simple circle with the name and the flavor. Some small text above. Who needs anything else? Well most other brands do, that’s who, but not Cold Spring they are so above that, or they were when they were making this at least.
I found this in Seattle shortly after I began my eternal quest to review every gourmet root beer in the world. It was the first spring actually. I’d gone with some friends to a Mariners game and across the street from Safeco Field I found three different varieties in a mini-mart. Since the security was much less stringent, I actually took them into the game with me since I didn’t want to go back to the car. This brew is microcrafted, which I’ve never seen before. I’ve seen plenty of hand crafted and microbrewed, but never microcrafted. The label on this has got a lot going on, but it’s all very patriotic. It is Americana after all, so there’s got to be a bald eagle and The Liberty Bell. Then add some old fashioned squiggly lines that I’m sure have some sort of formal name but I don’t care to check and voilá, a truly American label, nay, an Americana label.
