Argh! Another pirate themed root beer. I’d venture that the pirate theme is the second most popular root beer theme (with dog being the first unfortunately). This is brewed by the Drunk Monkey Brew Werks whose inability to spell ‘works’ properly could be from either the drunkenness or the monkey-ness. I’m not sure. Either way the fine Captain Jack has such a meticulously crafted elaborate website that all will be forgotten. The identity and back story of Captain Jack is unknown, though maybe they were going for Jack Sparrow but didn’t want to infringe on copyright or something. Or perhaps they’re going for Jack Black when he was still alive. Their stated goal is to create eco-sensitive products and locally source materials, the irony of my then having it shipped across the country from Pennsylvania is not lost on me.
The Body is sort of rich and sort of dark. There’s some wintergreen and the slightest bit of honey but not much. There’s a tad bit of Bite but not a lot. It isn’t really very smooth though. The Head is medium in height and frothiness. It lingers but not as long as I prefer. The Aftertaste is some wintergreen.
This stuff is pretty good. I wish the honey had a stronger presence though. The second bottle I had was noticeably better than the first but still within the whole range of what I was thinking. See how it rates against other root beers.
Several months after I started reviewing root beers my friends and I drove from our tiny town to Seattle to watch our beloved Mariners lose a baseball game. I’m not sure if they actually lost, but statistically speaking, if I was at the game, they probably did. Outside of the ballpark was a mini-mart with several new root beer varieties including this one. The name is rather perplexing. Saying Sassafras Root Beer is like saying beef hamburgers or pork bacon, while true, it’s not generally something you have to mention. “Oh, our root beer is sassafras flavored …” well they’re ALL supposed to be sassafras flavored. I am also not sure where the Shenandoah comes from. The only other time I’ve seen that word is in Choir singing some song about being bound away across the wide Missouri, and this stuff is from Vermont so, yeah confusion abounds. 
I can’t look at the name of this and not think about The Arrogant Worms, a Canadian comedy folk band whose song, The Last Saskatchewan Pirate contains the phrase “A bridge outside of Moose Jaw spans the mighty river. Farmers cross in so much fear their stomachs are a quiver. Because they know that Tractor Jack is hiding in the bay …” (Coincidentally I also had two bottles of Captain Jack’s Root Beer to review right after this one…) It is a glorious song. Interestingly the 