Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog – Page 50 – The blog of the gourmet root beer site.

Mill Street Brewery Distillery Root Beer

Feb 062019

A pint of Mill Street Brewing Distillery Root Beer Last week I was in Toronto for work, doing the things I do when I go off to travel for work. I’d been there in the summer, for less than a day, and had been frustrated that the Mill Street Brewery pub in the airport was in a different terminal than the one I flew out of, so I couldn’t get any root beer. This time I had many a evening free, but I was determined to get it my first night, just in case. Though Mill Street Brewery has expanded to several locations, their original, in the Distillery District, is where I went. The whole district is in a 19th century whiskey distillery, and it all arts and crafty now, the sort of place you’d hope to find a craft brewery with their own root beer.

The Body is nice and sweet and rich and creamy. Definitely my favorite flavor profile. The Bite is rather mild, however, and the Head is pretty dismal, though it is there, it’s short and gone by the time the glass reaches the table. The Aftertaste is a nice vanilla with hints of caramelized sugar.

Yum, it’s tasty for sure, but doe lack some depth in the Bite and Head department. I think it’s the best root beer I’ve gotten in Canada. The best draft root beer I’ve gotten in Canada at least, though, now that I think about it, maybe the only draft root beer I’ve gotten in Canada so far. The food there was amazing. I didn’t get a picture of my burger, but I did for my double smoked poutine, with bacon and a root beer reduction, it was divine. This place is definitely worth a visit.

Three and a half kegs

My heavenly Double Smoked Poutine

Some of the brewery vats. I always try to get a picture of these.

Ice Chips Candy Root Beer Float

Root Beer Candy No Responses »

Jan 302019

Ice Chips Candy Root Beer Float

I don’t know where I found these. I think someone gave them to me. Part of the reason I decided to start writing about all of these root beer products after all is because people give them to me regardless (the other part being I have to write about something…) So yeah, xylitol? It’s a naturally occurring sugar alcohol. You find it a lot in gum because it still tastes sweet, it still has calories and is metabolized, but sugar alcohols don’t promote tooth decay. I don’t know why, I’m neither a dentist nor a chemist so I’m just gonna believe my five minutes of googling on the matter and call it good. Yes, I know it’s a root beer float candy and not a root beer candy, but these posts are already setting their own rules so I say it’s well within the realms of “root beer products”. I’m not near as picky about these things as I am about actual root beer.

It has an interesting root beer type taste with some creamy vanilla undertones to make it root beer floaty, it isn’t very strong but it isn’t bad. It has a kind of off texture, the kind you get when you make crystallized candy that isn’t from sugar. It seems best to not chew them for that reason. There is only the slightest hint of off flavor from only xylitol being a sweetener.

All in all they’re surprisingly good, considering what they are and what they’re made of. I honestly expected much worse. Now, if you’re looking for a root beer candy, do I recommend them, err, no. While it isn’t bad for a sugar alcohol sweetened candy, and while those end up much better than diet sodas cause, calories still, it still doesn’t taste like what you’d be looking for in a hard root beer candy or root beer float candy. But it isn’t bad so I eating it isn’t a punishment, just not much of a pleasure.

Some of the ice chips. They are chips.

Gilliam Stick Candy Root Beer

Root Beer Candy No Responses »

Jan 232019

Gilliam Candy Stick Root Beer

Gilliam’s Candy was started by a man named Cleve Gilliam. It was originally called “The Candy Kitchen” at his flagship location in Paducah, Kentucky. Cleve made his candy well, and it expanded and expanded until in 1944 he retired and sold the business. It kept going and expanding and was eventually bought by Quality Candy Company in 2003, which made them the largest manufacturer of stick candy west of the Rocky Mountains. Which I’m glad someone still uses such phrases, though I’m curious how they figured that. Also I got this east of the Rockies, so that means there’s a bigger, yet at this moment unknown, maker of stick candies who’s rivalry no doubt is the stuff of legend in the stick candy world. Also they probably make their own root beer flavor, but anyways, back to Gilliam. I personally like stick candy, it reminds of candy canes but isn’t near as annoying because the crook isn’t always breaking off.

A pleasant generic root beer flavor, much like a root beer barrel. There is a distinct wintergreen flavor in this, which, not uncommon in root beer, does distinguish this a bit from other root beer hard candies I’ve had and leaves your breath feeling minty. It also has a strong flavor for a hard candy, so I recommend you should lick it slowly rather than bite off chunks and suck on them. Maybe that’s general knowledge, but I’m kind of new to this hard candy world.

All in all, it does justice to the beverage from which it gets its namesake, and really, that’s all that one can ask for with this sort of thing. So I can honestly say I’d get it again, if I were looking for a root beer candy stick.

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