A pirate themed energy drink root beer, I’ve never seen one of those before. To be fair, I had this one first. At the time ordered it, I thought they were referencing one of my favorite comedy actors, who, to the best of my knowledge has never actually portrayed a pirate. The only other Jack Black was some pirate ghost from an old Disney series that had to go and save 100 lives to avoid damnation. I don’t think that’s what these guys are going for. It does seem a jolly scull and crossbones, so let’s just assume they were envisioning some sort of Nacho Libre-esque film set on the high seas in a ship called the Dead Red with an awkward, incompetent captain (Jack Black) and a delinquent crew. Root beer would somehow be involved. Probably Jack Black’s favorite drink and the crew would always be doing something to it as part of a running gag. And then Jack would yell “Who’s been screwin’ with my brewin’?” or something like that. I’d definitely watch that movie. There are also many humorous sayings written on the bottle like “Second time available in 416 years” … okay, and “Better Dead Red than just plain Dead” which remains to be seen.
This has a nice sweet and creamy Body. After the initial contact however, there is a strange flavor that surfaces and takes away from beauty of the brew. The Bite is too strange. There is too much Guarana in it. The Head is alright. The Aftertaste is of vanilla and Guarana.
Well that is pleasantly surprising. These energy drink type root beers are usually frightening at best but that’s pretty decent. Not Seal of Approval good, but good enough to warrant an occasional bottle on International Talk Like A Pirate Day, for a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon, and similar type activities. See how it rates against other root beers.
After a bit of a drought in new root beers (a month or two) I snapped and went on a buying spree. The first to get to me was this. Barton Springs Soda Company is located in Austin Texas and was only founded in 2012. That’s the spirit boys, keep new root beers coming. I need at least 52 per year to keep this pace … Anyways I like the simple label. It’s direct and to the point, kind of retro, and isn’t too busy. The only flavor text reads “Made with the finest quality cane sugar” That’s usually a good thing.
Pallino Pastaria is a modern Italian fast food type place that’s all around the Seattle area. Evidently the name comes from the small clay ball used in Bocce because why not? Everywhere I’ve lived over here has had a Pallino not far from it. Granted, that’s really only two areas, U-District and Redmond, but still. Despite this I’ve only ever eaten there twice and that was in the last year. Where I actually found this was at Sea-Tac airport when I was invited to the University of Washington for visit days while I was deciding which grad school to attend. On my way back to Utah I noticed the root beers at their little outlet and bought three bottles for reviewing. This was back when they actually allowed liquids on a plane. The label is simple and circular with the ingredients wrapped all around it. I find it classy and unassuming. They actually use real sassafras root bark in this one which is really cool, but they use licorice as well, and more of it than the sassafras.