Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog – Page 52 – The blog of the gourmet root beer site.

A New Year, a New Era

Jan 012019

So, it’s been eight years since I started this blog as part of my site, giving a weekly review every Wednesday. It’s been quite a journey and my devotion to root beer couldn’t be stronger, but, unfortunately, I’m faced with the reality that there just aren’t 52 new types of bottled root beers being made a year, and I’ve found just about all that there are to be had. Those I’m still searching for won’t be able to keep up with the inexorable march of time. And while I had an unprecedented year of travel in 2018, and hope to continue the pace in 2019, I’m not going to find enough new breweries and root beer stands to keep pace. I’m sorry, the weekly root beer review, cannot continue. A weekly post, however, can. I won’t lower my standards and drink from cans and plastic bottles, neither will I review sarsaparillas, birch beers, and the like, but there are a lot of root beer things out there. There’s songs, books, movies, and root beer flavored food, like candies, cookies, and ice cream. And I’m going to start exploring these, for the love of root beer, and share that exploration with you all.

So here’s how it’s going to go down:

The first Wednesday of every month will be a standard root beer review as we’ve come to know and love.
Every other Wednesday will be a post about something root beer related. A kind of review about the product and how I feel about it.

Obviously with such a diverse range of things I won’t be giving keg ratings, but I will give either a recommend or a skip sort of review, to let you know if whatever it is captures the spirit and flavor of root beer properly. I’ll also be augmenting these posts with some more of my homebrew adventures, having received as a Christmas presents the means to properly carbonate my brews (more on that in later posts).

I hope this works out and everyone likes this new direction. Please let me know in the comments if you got any other ideas or general feedback on my idea. Sorry again I can’t just keep doing weekly reviews, but the brews just aren’t there. So here’s to the next stage of The Gourmet Root Beer Blog!

Tommyknocker All Natural Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 262018

Tommyknocker All Natural Root Beer Bottle I told you last time that I hoped it was the last time. Alas, it was not to be. Strange to hear me bemoaning a new root beer to review, but I’m just getting tired of Tommyknocker’s antics. They’re like the gambling addict who can’t quit when he’s ahead, or even when he’s losing badly. Just one more try they say, I’ll win it back, I’ll win more… It never works that way. They had a Seal of Approval, with their New Root Beer, they’d finally achieved some redemption, but no, they wanted to give it another shot, another spin on the wheel, and change their recipe. At least they had the decency to change their name again. Now it’s All Natural Root Beer, because evidently that’s just what they needed. They also dispensed with their “1859” and “original” from their labels, knowing that trying to claim the same original recipe since inception was so laughable it had become sad. Despite my annoyance, I dutifully purchased my bottles to see what they’d concocted this time.

The Body is medium strength with maple and aged vanilla flavors that are all out of balance and don’t ensemble well at all. It’s also sort of sour. The Bite is spicy yet smooth so that’s at least good. The Head is excellent! The Aftertaste is a clumsy mix of maple, vanilla, and wintergreen wrapped in some sour herbs.

Tommyknocker, what have you done? This is by far your worst brew yet. Though the Head and the Bite are good, the Body and the Aftertaste fail hard. It’s like you stopped trying halfway through. I figured it wouldn’t impress, but to be downright bad? Every try before at least had a rather rich mapley goodness, but now, it’s barely there. You had the Seal, you were ahead, but like the gambler, you put it all on black for double or nothing, and it landed on green. I’m sure in two more years they’ll tweak their recipe and name yet again. I have a feeling it will only get worse. See how it rates against other root beers.

Tousignant Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 192018

Tousignant Root Beer Bottle A few weeks ago I was back in Montreal, doing the businessy things I’m wont to do on such trips and thinking about root beer when the daily work is done. In addition to my internet searching, I asked the locals, and by that I mean this guy (BFTAG) in my guild (relic) in the mobile game I play (Summoner’s War). His first reply was along the line of “What’s racinette?”, which, sadly, was a response I got way too much over there. Like, racinette is literally the French Canadian word for root beer and it’s written on every bottle of it. Yet, nearly every place I’d ask, including the A&W, I’d get this blank stare from people. Anyhow, when I told BFTAG about root beer he had no idea, but some intense googling revealed Chez Tousignant, a burger place with a bottled house root beer. I told him and he said he loves that place and if I were to go, to ping him on game chat and he’d meet me there. And a couple days into the trip, I did just that. And found myself in a nice little burger, hot dog, and poutine joint being greeted by the Frenchyiest (Quebeciest?) French Canadian imaginable. So we got some amazing Tousingant burgers and dogs and grabbed some brews. Tousignant has about 6 flavors of house soda, which are custom bottled just for them. My guildie was surprised that I had a cream soda and was saving the root beer till I could get back home. Reviews of bottled root beer much be done right, after all.

The Body has a sweet, yet sour sarsaparilla flavor on the initial contact with vanilla coming through after a bit. The Bite is on the mellow side, with only a little spice accents. The Head is very tall and foamy, yet doesn’t linger as long as the best do. The Aftertaste is wonderful, a more mature sarsaparilla and vanilla flavor without any of the sour.

This is pretty good, but that initial sour kick really ruins it for me. It could have a spicier Bite too, oh well. I imagine it’d pair wonderfully with their Tousignant Burger and Dogs, that signature seasoning was divine. So I give it a solid drinkable. Definitely worth dropping by. See how it rates against other root beers.

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