Pumpkin root beers. The limited edition brews that show up near the end of September and stick around through pumpkin spice season. I’ve had mixed experiences with pumpkin root beers. Granted, I’ve only had two of them before, making it one of the rarest type of flavored root beer. One of those two is toppest tier while the other was very meh. I’ve known about this one for a few years but it has eluded me until recently when anthony sent me some. Filbert’s is a brand I had tried awhile back and it was decent but nothing special. But now they’ve made pumpkin so is this the redemption arc? I like their label, what with the horses and wagon, but shouldn’t it be carrying pumpkins and not just kegs? I mean, we get that the root beer is in kegs but add that extra pumpkin? I don’t know. The orange on black does capture the Halloween asthetic.
The Body is sweet with a mild pumpkin spice flavor. There’s a distinct lack of root beer flavors. Just pumpkin. The Bite is decent with some clove and other pumpkin spices shining through. The Head is short and fizzes away quickly. The Aftertaste is sweet pumpkin spice.
Well, this is a pleasant soda, but isn’t really a root beer at all. I get they want it to taste like pumpkin, but there has to be a way to make the pumpkin flavor shine over a root beer core. I’ve tasted it done properly and this is not done properly. They should likely just call this pumpkin soda or something but they didn’t so I don’t really like it. See how it rates against other root beers.
When I was at Blue Sun getting one of the most perplexing yet delicious brews (Lemon Root Beer?) I also stumbled across this. Mother Road isn’t exactly brand new. It’s Filbert’s except with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Now those two things do taste different and can make a difference in a root beer. I’m actually quite please with Filbert’s, for rather than change their original product which may anger their old fans, they just made a whole new soda line for the cane sugar recipes. This is even better because people like me have no issue reviewing a new root beer with a new label and name and only one different ingredient, then going back and reviewing again the same root beer even though it changes. Yes, I really want everything in the (root beer) world to just be easily categorized. Anyhow, Mother Road is now the fifth brew with 
Wow! That’s quite a name and an assertion they’ve got going. I mean, you’ll get old time root beers, and draft root beers, and even the occasional quality root beer, but more than one of those three on the same title? And not only that but all three no less. Well, it has been in continuous business for almost 90 years. If they haven’t changed the recipe at all then it would be old time. It must be of some quality in order to stay around for that long. Draft, well, I’ll see about that.