Root Beer Reviews – Page 54 – Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Twig’s Root Beer

Dec 202017

Bottle of Twig's Root Beer The color scheme of this root beer’s label makes for a difficult photo. Mostly black, then brown and glossy gold to reflect the flash. I’m sure some expert or even amateur photographers reading this right now know exactly what to do, but I don’t study photography, I study root beer. And I just use my wife’s digital camera with it’s “Intelligent Auto Adjust” setting. It usually works well enough. Twig’s is a brand with a long, and continuous history. It was started by a fellow named Hartwig, who decided his last name was just a bit too long for a soda label. His company had humble beginnings up in Shawano, Wisconsin in the 1950s. According to their website he’d sell a case of soda and use the money made to buy a loaf of bread for his family. Bread must have been a lot more expensive back then or a case of soda cost a lot less. Either way, he somehow was able to both grow the business and not starve, though he was forced to mix ingredients with an ax handle. He probably used that same ax to slice his bread. And so today you can still buy Twig’s. I don’t know if they use the ax handle in the plant, but they should, then they could write “Ax Crafted” on the label. That’d be so metal…

The Body is rather generic with a middle of the road flavor that’s a little creamy and has a hint of sarsaparilla like taste. The Bite is sharp but not from spice. The Head is ye olde “two-second-Head” unfortunately. The Aftertaste is pleasant enough, a little vanilla and some more of that sarsaparilla but it light overall.

This is an okay root beer, the biggest flaw is the Head. The flavor will probably not get many haters nor fanboys, but it’ll do in a pinch. See how it rates against other root beers.

Junior Johnson Original Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 132017

Bottle of Junior Johnson Root Beer Question, what do you do after a successful career as a NASCAR superstar? If you thought the answer would be, get my own root beer brand, you’d be wrong. Because what you do is you become a successful NASCAR team owner. But what about after that is over? Root beer? Nay! You get your own line of fried pork skins and country ham. But when you get bored with that, then root beer? No, moonshine! Legal moonshine (is that even a thing?). And then, only after that many lifetimes’ worth of accomplishments, can you settle down and make a root beer. Or at least that’s what Junior Johnson did. If you didn’t know who he was before, you pretty much know it all now. He joins the likes of Gene Autry and Judge Wapner in the celebrity root beer market but unlike them, doesn’t have Rocket Fizz make his brew.

The Body is rich and sweet and creamy with a lot of vanilla. It reminds me of a root beer float flavor actually. There’s also a strong bitter herbal presence that surfaces. There really isn’t much Bite to speak about, smooth and rich creaminess instead. The Head is excellent! It can’t be better. In fact, pour with care, because it’ll build too tall and never go away. And the Head tastes strong to the bitter herbs. The Aftertaste is that earthy herbal flavor with some vanilla.

This reminds me of someone taking a strong herbal root beer and adding a scoop of ice cream to it, letting it melt and then bottling it. It’s pretty good, but just a little too off. Especially the Head. Since the first and last drinks of the root beer are mostly the Head, the bitter herbalness is very intense, which I don’t like at all. It was those two extremes at the start and finish that just knock this out of the coveted four kegs. See how it rates against other root beers.

Crooked Oak Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 062017

Crooked Oak Root Beer Bottle This root beer is made by the same people who make Penny Frosted root beer. I learned this fact when I was trying unsuccessfully to get the Penny Frosted Root Beer direct from the company. According to some guy named Ryan who works there, Crooked Oak is “a similar root beer flavór with a lot more love and time going into the process and ingredients.” So it’s their premium brand offering, the Lexus to Penny Frosted’s Toyota. That’s a new one in the craft soda world. The label itself tries really hard to drive this point home, saying things like “of the finest quality” and “Handcrafted” and “Limited production” and whatnot. There’s even signatures by people who approved this particular batch of root beer. And there’s also a large number 10 in red, but there is no explanation as to what it means. Maybe 10 ingredients? 10 painstaking days making this? 10 steps for the approval process? We may never know. Whatever it is, all of this really clutters up the label and makes me think of official forms and stuff. I guess the most important question is, how does it compare to Penny Frosted.

This has a sweet crisp body with a standard creamy root beer flavor and a hint of what seems sarsaparilla in there. The Bite is sour and sharp and spicy. But the sourness stays in the Bite and goes away later so it doesn’t really ruin anything. The Head is tall but fizzes down quickly. The Aftertaste is very light vanilla and some sarsaparilla. I think.

This is a pretty good root beer, AND it’s better then Penny Frosted in basically everything. Good job guys. I don’t like it enough to give it a Seal of Approval, but I’ll acknowledge their effort to make a better root beer than their entry brand. You know, after you’re more established in life, get some raises and a nice bonus, you can move up from the Penny Frosted and impress your friends and neighbors with Crooked Oak in your fridge. See how it rates against other root beers.

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