XXX Root Beer Drive-in Root Beer

 Root Beer Stand Root Beers  2 Responses »
Jun 172012
 

Not to be confused with the bottled Triple XXX Root Beer, though this stand in Issaquah, WA originally started as such, it currently has no affiliation. The owner himself said that what they serve is completely different. The actual official name of the place is still giving me much grief, the website calls it a Triple XXX Root Beer Drive-in, but the sign itself refers to only XXX Root Beer as does their flyer and menu, and then some places they call it Triple X. I wish people would make things easier for me to categorize by being consistent with their names. And then there’s the question of how do I classify the root beer itself. It isn’t bottled, nor from a growler, nor keg, but is it draft even though it uses a soda fountain system of mixing the soda water with the syrup as it’s poured? I wish there was a gourmet root beer standards committee or something. Oh well. In lieu of such a committee I’m calling it a “Root Beer Stand Root Beer” and now consider all root beer stand brews, as long as they come in frosty mugs, gourmet! (This means of course that I’ll now have to drop by an A&W restaurant one of these days and review it too). I’d known about this place for several years and would always drive past it on the highway in between Seattle and my parents house in Eastern Washington, yet I never seemed to find the time to drop by to test out their brew. Finally, this last week on Saturday, we went for a Father’s Day present for me. First of all, it is a really cool root beer drive-in/stand, as the pictures below will attest to. In addition to sporting the last traditional XXX Barrel sign, which happens to be the largest Plexiglas lighted sign in the West, it is stuffed full of nostalgic artifacts from the golden age of root beer stands. When I walked in sporting my A&W shirt, the owner said that it should be hanging on the wall with the other artifacts. Pretty cool, though my shirt isn’t anywhere near that old. He said that they still use the original 1930 recipe with pure cane sugar. It comes in two sizes, a frosted mug (I’d say about 20 oz) and a super size frosted mug (30+ oz I think). They also make you pay more for it if you don’t want to commit sacrilege and water down your root beer with ice. I of course, needed a super size mug.

The Body is very sweet and full and creamy. It has a caramel flavor to it that almost tastes like honey complementing the sassafras, hints of vanilla, and spices. The spices give it a solid Bite when mixed with the carbonation fizz but it is still smooth. The Head is pretty lacking, however. The mugs they brought out for me and my wife had no Head at all. When asked they said that they pour it that way to maximize the root beer in the glass. Fair enough, but I want a Head. They then proceeded to pour another mug and show me that yes indeed it has a Head, though it is only about an inch and a half and fizzes away quickly. It could be much better, but it isn’t fatal. The Aftertaste is a light vanilla and caramel flavor with hints of the sassafras and spices.

Yum, this is good root beer. It is unique for sure, and I can’t think of another root beer I’ve had that tastes quite like it. It is great to sip by itself or great with their food. Did I mention their food yet? Wow, they have some incredible greasy, messy, amazing food there. For instance, the burger that I ordered ended up being larger than my son’s head and was absolutely fabulous as was the chicken thing my wife got. Their floats look pretty epic too, with Darigold soft serve and whipped cream. They even have the most glorious warning sign about nothing they serve being good for you and since your eating so many calories anyways, skip the diet coke and get a root beer. I couldn’t agree more. So this root beer and this stand, get my Seal of Approval (though barely on account of that Head). I look forward to dropping by again.

The Plexiglas Barrel Sign

How's that for lunch?

As I said, the burger is bigger than my son's head

Just a sample of some of the artifacts

Some root beer floats at the bar.

You know you wanted a closer look at them.

The Best Warning Sign Ever!




Northwoods Wild Bill’s Natural Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Jun 132012
 

Another one from Northwoods Soda, the natural version of their Wild Bill’s. Pretty cool actually that they make two types of root beer. I always appreciate a company that makes more than one type of root beer. This one also features “organic sugar.” They say on the label that it is “Organic dehydrated cane juice” which is marketing speak for JUST PLAIN SUGAR! That’s right, cane juice? That’s what ALL cane sugar is made of. How do you get a solid from a liquid mixture? You remove the water or “dehydrate” it. I’ve been meaning to bring this up for sometime, because you’ll see this more and more these days as companies want to show how healthy and natural their sweetener is. Anyways, I guess organic Michigan beet sugar is too hard to come by or something so they went with cane sugar on this one. While I was excited to try the natural version, I was worried that it would be nasty like that Thomas Kemper Natural Root Beer.

This has a medium Body. There is a nice sweet caramel flavor and some vanilla hints. It is crisp but not creamy. The Bite is a tad sharp but ends smooth. The Head is a decent height and frothy so that it lasts several minutes. The Aftertaste is of spiced caramel and a tad vanilla that lasts awhile.

So, they didn’t screw it up like Thomas Kemper. Another solid brew from Northwoods. When comparing the regular Northwoods Wild Bill’s with this Natural side by side (I do have two frosty mugs after all) reveals that the Natural is a little milder and less creamy. It is more crisp and it has a better Head. I like the original a tad better than this one though they taste extremely similar. See how it rates against other root beers.




Northwoods Wild Bill’s Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Jun 062012
 

Not to be confused with Wild Bill’s Rocky Mountain Root Beer. The same way Vinepark River City Root Beer is not to be confused with River City Root Beer, or Route 66 with Root 66 with Old Town Root Beer 66. Ok, people, what’s up with this. I mean, can’t you think of unique identifiers for your brews? Have you ever thought of doing a Google search on your root beer name before you start your company? I mean, whenever I write a technical paper, the first thing I do is search the title in quotes to make sure no one else has the same title. I did the same thing with my name, E. Sortomme, there aren’t any other technical authors that use E. Sortomme so if you read something from him, it’s from me. See, nice and simple like. Not saying that Northwoods Soda and Syrup Company is the primary offender (they could have had the name first for all I know), but finding them was just the straw that broke the camel’s back if you will. They do have a much classier label than the bullet riddled other Wild Bill’s, so I suppose this is after Wild Bill went into retirement and became all high society or something. A last note on these guys, they proudly declare in the ingredients that this soda is sweetened with “Michigan Beet Sugar.” And why not? What’s wrong with beet sugar anyways? I think pure cane sugar is really overrated. Plus I once spent a summer weeding a sugar beet field for $5 an acre. So beet sugar will always hold a special place in my heart. Especially after the sugar beet factory co-op failed miserably and went bankrupt, wiping out the financial resources of many farmers in the region … Anyways, the root beer.

A sweet carmely flavor with some creamy vanilla and hints of licorice make up the full Body of this brew. The Bite is good as well from some spices and carbonation. The Head is ok. It foams up to a decent height but then quickly fizzes down. The Aftertaste is caramel with some licorice accents and vanilla.

So, not bad at all. It’s definitely a solid brew, yet it doesn’t really do anything for me. I don’t know why, but when I drink it I just don’t feel moved the way I should by root beer. Oh well. See how it rates against other root beers.




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