Capone Family Secret Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Dec 212011
 

I discovered this brew when the Capos-Capone Pasta Sauce ‘liked’ my page on Facebook. I looked at who they were and discovered that they made this root beer. But wait, why would they ‘like’ me if I hadn’t even tried their product? So I shot them an email, apologizing profusely for not having tried their esteemed brew and asking them how I could acquire it (you don’t want to anger Mr. Capone’s ‘family’ after all). They were very understanding and offered to send me some to review. Maybe they were a little too friendly. Great, now I’ve given them my address, I hope they weren’t mad about my ignorance of the Capone Family Secret, I mean, it was a secret after all. But a few days later, instead of receiving a hail of 0.45 calibers delivered from a Tommy gun and a quickly passing 1928 Cadillac Town Sedan, or a pair of cement shoes and a new apartment at the bottom of Lake Washington, I received two bottles of root beer each in it’s own burlap sack. That’s pretty cool. I’ve never gotten root beer shipped like that before. I would expect nothing less from the Family. It says on the bottle that this is soda was the only thing ever found in Al Capone’s warehouses during the many times they were raided (along with pasta sauces it seems). So how did Mr. Capone like his root beer?

This is one of those brews with a nice, creamy, full Body. It has a nice spicy caramel type flavor that surfaces after the initial contact. The Bite is good. It grabs you with those spices and a carbonation tingle but then lets you go slowly and smoothly for an excellent finish. The Aftertaste is lovely vanilla and a hint of spicy caramel that you could just swim in (you’ve never swum in vanilla?). The Head is a bit perplexing. The first bottle I had didn’t have much of a Head, but it was very frothy and lingered long enough to not be fatal to the rating. The second bottle had a huge Head that was medium frothy and fizzed down until the last centimeter. That last centimeter stuck around awhile. So either way the Head was good enough, though, I prefer a Head I can count on.

So this is quality stuff. Clearly Mr. Capone would settle for nothing but the best. Dare I say it, if he had focused on selling this, he wouldn’t have needed any other of his ‘businesses’. Or, I’m sure he could have had his sentence commuted if he had sent this stuff to the Governor or the President. Perhaps his greatest crime was keeping this under wraps for so long. Either way, I’m glad it’s been released now so we can all enjoy it and I am proud to award it my Seal of Approval. See how it rates against other root beers.




Frostop Premium Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  4 Responses »
Nov 232011
 

You’ve got to love a root beer bottle with a picture of a drive-in on it. Those were wonderful days, back when root beer reigned supreme as the soft drink of choice, our cars were beefy and so were the burgers. I don’t know how I can really get nostalgic about it since I wasn’t alive then, but I’ve heard stories. It is always nice when a dedicated root beer stand bottles their product so root beer aficionados like myself can enjoy it without having to take a trip to the Midwest. They say it’s been around since 1926 and it’s “Top Rated!” at that. What really got my hopes up was its claims about the amazing Head. So it was with great anticipation that I cracked it open to give it a try.

Sweet mother of root beer Head! The Head is amazingly tall and frothy. It overflowed my mug! The Body is very sweet and creamy. One of the sweetest I’ve ever had. There is a lot of wintergreen and some spices, maybe nutmeg? It is a little light on the sassafras, more of a medium bodied brew. The Bite is pretty good. There are some spices that grab you and a slight carbonation tingle but a smooth finish, as it should be. The Aftertaste is a deliciously creamy vanilla and wintergreen.

So it lived up to it’s claims, especially with the epic Head. I do rate this as a top brew. They say “NOTHING tops it… but the foam!” While not the best root beer ever, I must say, that’s pretty accurate. See how it rates against other root beers.




River City Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  1 Response »
Oct 262011
 

Sacramento is a special city to me. Both of my grandparents lived there and so we would go every summer for a week or two. After I became a root beer connoisseur, Sacramento was a place where I found many a new brew to review. The very first summer after my root beer ascension, while I was looking for root beers in the Sacramento mall near old town, I came across the River City Brewing company. They made their own root beer but only sold it on tap. It was amazing. I wished they bottled it so I could review it. They didn’t so I moved on, always remembering that amazing brew. Well when I came across this, I did a double take. Had the amazing root beer of my nascent days of a root beer aficionado finally been bottled? River City Root Beer is from Sacramento. Sadly though, it is made from different manufactures, so my dream remains yet unfulfilled. I was still excited, however, to try a brew birthed in the city of such root beer legacy. This time, I was not disappointed.

The Body is rich and creamy with traces of mint surfacing. It has a very strong and rooty flavor. The Bite is most excellent with the perfect amount of spices and carbonation. The Head is good. It builds to a very decent height and is pretty frothy. It lingers throughout the entire drinking experience, though I’ve had many that are taller and frothier. The Aftertaste is a lovely, creamy combination of vanilla and mint that sticks around about the perfect amount of time. This is an exceptional brew in all categories.

It says on the bottle that this is a brew to bring back memories of a time gone by, and I do think of glorious root beer days in Sacramento when drinking it. Underneath the cap it reads “Thanks to those who have gone before.” I must say, that this root beer, truly honors the past of great brewers while leading the way to a glorious future. See how it rates against other root beers.




 Older Entries  Newer Entries