Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog – Page 16 – The blog of the gourmet root beer site.

Dairy-Ette Drive-In Root Beer

Root Beer Stand Root Beers No Responses »

Jun 082022

Last fortnight I was in Dallas for DistruTECH and DERMS in a little trip I like to call, DERMS Does Dallas… anyways, I was there and therefore I was searching for brews. I found several, but sadly, most were closed on the Sunday when I arrived, yet I wouldn’t be stopped since I had other days. So on Wednesday, after the show was over, I took off with a coworker and a customer (see me being a good employee) to Dairy-Ette Drive-In, Root Beer, Hamburgers. This is a third generation family owned drive-in, that originally opened in 1956. You know it’s got to be good if it’s still around. They make their own root beer which they serve from a red root beer keg, that says “Coca-Cola” on it. I don’t know why. I don’t know why it’s called Dairy-Ette either. But it’s a beautiful little place hiding on a corner in North Dallas.

The Body is smooth, amazingly smooth, so smooth I can’t even properly describe the liquid silk that is the Body of this root beer. There’s a classic flavor with lots of vanilla. It’s a simple, yet elegant taste. The Bite is small, a little spice but so so smooth. The Head is beautiful. So frothy and crazy tall if they let it. It lasts nearly forever, and you know how that foam feels in your mouth? Smooooth. The Aftertaste is sweet, smooth vanilla that lasts the perfect amount of time.

Okay, remember how last month I raved about some cream soda being smooth. Well that might as well be sandpaper compared to this. Seriously. I can’t remember a brew so silky smooth. With a wonderful classic flavor too, this is top notch. It could be a little spicier with a little more depth, but this is still one of the best root beers I’ve reviewed in quite awhile. The food there is just as amazing as their root beer. This place is worth its own pilgrimage.

A bacon burger with onion rings and root beer. Truly divine.

The “Red Root Beer Keg” according to them. But the brew comes out of there so I guess.

Dairy-Ette. Basically unchanged since 1956.

Rocket Fizz Boosted Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Jun 012022

Another one I got back last summer at Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store. It was my caffeinated root beer run, and is always a pain to review these. Rocket Fizz decided regular caffeinated root beers were too weak evidently so they amped this up to having nearly twice as much as the Sprecher with 4 ounces less soda (pop/coke). They also put guarana and ginseng and b vitamins in it. So an energy drink basically. Usually Rocket Fizz just copies some other soda with their root beer flavors, but I can’t think of another one that’s a pure energy drink root beer, so maybe they’ve found some originality? It’s got a sleek metallic label too, like they wanted to do that energy drink in a can but realized that I wouldn’t drink it if they did and since my review is more important than anything else they put it in glass. Thank you for that. Now on to the review.

The Body is sweet and creamy with a soapy medicinal flavor underneath a rather generic creamy root beer core. Faint flavors of ginseng and guarana accent this. The Body is spicy and complex and it finishes pretty smooth. The Head is very nice, tall and foamy. The Aftertaste is a little strange, a little soapy, a little medicinal and a little vanilla.

Overall it’s good, which is surprising considering all they put in it, but still tastes a little off, which is entirely expected for an energy drink, vitamin fortified brew. I would rather drink the Sprecher if I need a caffeine boost, but if I needed a full energy drink (which is basically never), I wouldn’t pass this up. See how it rates against other root beers.

Rio Bravo Brewing Company Root Beer

Draft and Keg Root Beers No Responses »

May 182022

Last week I found myself in Albuquerque doing DERMS things. That’s right, Corona has been defeated to the point where DERMS now takes me traveling places. Huzzah! Glory! Triumph! Root beer!!!! Because my very first trip would of course be somewhere new with root beer to boot. The Rio Bravo Brewing Company is built in the restored historic building from 1949. Their about page doesn’t say when they started, but I think it’s 2015. They seem to have won a lot of awards for their beer. In addition to this brew, they also make a cream soda. When I went the waitress said she didn’t actually like their root beer but rather the cream soda, which didn’t give me high expectations but still, maybe she just didn’t know good root beer.

The Body is weak, bitter, and not very sweet. I get some dark-ish wintergreen that is watered down and not very sweet overall. The Bite is spicy, at least, but not smooth nor particularly complex. The Head is sad, but not completely non-existent, just sad. The Aftertaste is bitter, but thankfully weak.

Actually, she was right, this is objectively terrible in about every way a root beer can be terrible. Why so weak? Why no Head? Why no sweet? This is without doubt one of the worst root beers I’ve had in a long time that wasn’t trying to be weird or fruity or organic or some nonsense, it’s just made bad. Oh well. There’s other root beers in that town that hopefully are better. So when I had my delicious green chili burger, I ordered the cream soda, I’d had enough of their brew. And Wow! So much sweet and creamy vanilla in that cream soda, one of the best I’ve ever had. If you are ever there, get the cream not the root.

The Rio Bravo Burger with fries and a heavenly smooth cream soda.

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