I found it. I finally found it. After 18 years of searching the root beer world for Mug in glass bottles, someone kindly pointed me to a little known website that sold this in a blog comment. This whole blog is worth it just for that comment, because I can finally tell people what I think about one of the most common root beers out there. To put how badly I’ve wanted this into perspective. I had thought of calling a Pepsi bottler that does those little stubby glass bottles, and ordering a custom run of Mug in glass bottles. Would I need to buy a whole pallet for that? A whole truck load? I don’t know, but I was actually in the process of trying to do that. Yup. Now only one major brand left, Hires, we’ll see how long that takes me. What else to say about one of the most common brands of root beer out there? This is bottled by West Jefferson and is made with real sugar and not HFCS. So, what do I think of this long expected root beer?
The Body is rich and creamy with a little vanilla. There’s some licorice and wintergreen too and all it mingles together like a generic root beer barrel candy. There isn’t much Bite, it’s smooth. The Head is a good height but could use a little more staying power. The Aftertaste is wintergreen with a bit of licorice and vanilla.
Not bad. It’s a nice middle of the road soda with a slight leaning towards the darker side. It’s better than Dad’s and Barq’s, though not as good as A&W. I’d drink it again if I could find it bottled locally and not mail order at $25 for two. See how it rates against other root beers.
My first blog post! I’ve been running the site for over 10 years and a lot has changed in the web since then and so I’m adding the blog to get more with the times. I’ll write a “long format” blog post review of every root beer I taste test from now on and as time permits, go back and write up blog posts of the old “short format” reviews. Other blog posts will be added as seems appropriate. So, another root beer with a dog on the bottle. What is it with dogs on the bottles of root beer, I mean; mug, dog n suds, sea dog, bull dog, etc. Everybody (and their dog it seems) wants to put a dog on their root beer bottle. But beyond my canine quipping, it is a pretty sweet bottle. It’s got a fancy label and it doesn’t have a twist cap. I like it when they do that. I had to use a bottle opener like with Mason’s and Mendecino Taubold’s Private Reserve. It’s more old fashion (maybe its cheaper too?) So how did this old doggy root beer stack up?