Appalachian Brewing Co Rootbeer

a very kind fellow sent this to me after seeing i had not reviewed it. actually i did not even know they bottled it, so it was a very thrilling day when the offer was made. and even better when it actually arrived in one piece on my doorstep.
i don’t quite get why a small brewery would not have settled on a sweetener so they have to put “corn syrup AND/OR sugar” or whatever. is it one or the other or both? i know there are a good amount of people who avoid corn syrup, so it would behoove them to not have that stuff in there.
but besides that, this is one excellent brew! the flavor is a refreshing herbal mix that i just can’t drink down quickly. i must take small tastes and try to figure out just what i am having. well, i don’t have to do that, i could just drink it and know it is great each time i take a swallow. yet i want to savor it. i cannot really make out the honey though i must admit. the sweetness level is a bit lower than the sodas i usually like a lot which surprises me. it is still sweet but rather subdued in that aspect. that herbal flavor mentioned above is unusual. other sodas seem to try to achieve this taste but most do not do so as well as this one. i will definitely have to go out to PA to get more of this stuff sometime!
good work Appalachian Brewing Co!

Anthony’s Rating: 95
Your Rating: 96
# of ratings:1

Winchell’s Pizza Birch Beer

so, like i said in the review of their root beer somewhere above, i stumbled upon this pizza place with their own root and birch beers. i really should have taken a photo of their “root beer on tap” sign as you came in the door but i did not. i was rushing and my camera was packing away somewhere. but we did pass by the next day again so i stopped and tried to get the photos. sadly they were not open yet so i could only take a photo of their birch beer sign, complete with real birch branches and bark, through the window. actually right after i took it, someone walked by inside. thinking back now, i should have tried to flag him down and explain what i was doing but i paniced a bit and just left. oh well. so anyway, there is the sign over there on the left.
i wish the birch beer was as well made as the sign though. or the pizza. but it IS better than the root beer, that is for sure. this time, instead of going crazy with the licorice/anise, they went crazy with the wintergreen. but not quite at the same level, which is a very good thing. i did not really hate this soda but it was a little hard to drink much. for whatever reason the flavor probably would have worked better as a white birch beer. perhaps the carmel color or whatever makes the brown birches heavier and not as refreshing as the white birches. carbonation level was quite high also, which i can take or leave, either way is fine by me.
Anthony’s Rating: 66
Your Rating: 0
# of ratings:0

radio interview

so i am going to be on the radio, talking root beer and junk on sunday, 7/13/2008. the show is called “Sauced!” and it airs live in Nashville, TN on
ClearChannel’s WLAC 1510 AM and is streamed at www.wlac.com.
so listen in, check it out.
my first radio appearance in about a decade i guess. and the first time as some sort of authority on something. wacky indeed. but it should be fun nonetheless even if it is on a ClearChannel station…

coolio.

EDIT - actually i guess it is called “The Saucy Sisters Show”. it is on 12-1pm CST, so 11am-12 noon Eastern time, where i am. their website is here

Winchell’s Pizza Root Beer

so i went away to the Catskills for the long 4th of July weekend. every year for the last 8 or so i have gone camping with some friends from college on that weekend. this weekend it was sort of my turn to plan where to go and all, so i did, choosing a place that was semi-equidistant from all parties. my wife and i went up on thursday night, leaving early as we had to check in by 9 pm. we had not really had any dinner so when we were pretty close we stopped at a pizza place for some pizza to go as it was still going to be pretty tight, time-wise. as i walked in the door i saw a big sign, “ROOTBEER ON TAP” which made me quite excited but most restaurants can say that really, they have 6 or 8 or whatever sodas on tap. but then i saw a sign above the counter advertising their birch beer and caught site of the generic “Root Beer” and “Birch Beer” labels on the soda dispenser and was very happy. what sort of luck is that, to randomly stop at a place in the middle of very little and find two new sodas? i will even answer that for you, it is not at all likely!
after waiting a really really long time to even place our order i tried the root beer and i sadly must say it is rather bad. not diet soda level bad mind you, but bad anyway. i think they heard that root beer could be made to taste like licorice and they totally went to town with that plan. hey if a little licorice is good, a ton is better, right?! um, no. sorry Winchell’s. their pizza was kind of tasty though, a little spicy and very thin, but that is fine. anyway, this soda was not really worth it. it is different but that does not equate goodness, at least here. actually i only even drank about half of the small cup i got, the rest i used to help put out the fire later that night. yes, i know i should not have done that, i used a lot of water afterwards to try to wash away any smell that may attract wildlife though, rest assured.
Anthony’s Rating: 41
Your Rating: 0
# of ratings:0

Zuberfizz Creamy Root Beer

hhhhmmm, well, to begin i am shocked i have not reviewed this yet! it has been in my house for months, i certainly hope it is still good. i went on a big soda ordering kick when i added all of that Availability info and really scoured the tubes of the internet to find all i could. this one must have been somewhat overlooked in the shuffle. quite a shame indeed.
but beyond that, i am not sure how to list it. see the company is the Durango Soda Company, but the product is Zuberfizz Creamy Root Beer. i think i will keep it this way, as “Zuberfizz” and not “Durango” but whatever, you don’t care I am sure, it is my own wacky organization/database stuff that i am trying to keep in line here.
although i quite like their color scheme and overall design here, i feel the “Creamy” is a bit off, i don’t like the font, it does not seem consistent with itself. oh well.
very small foam action on this brew but a high carbonation level. i guess this soda did not go bad yet, very cool! i suppose i usually associate fizziness with foaming action but in reality they are quite seperate things. many brands add in stuff like yucca to make the foam bigger and last longer which is mainly for visual appeal. while i don’t deny that i like the visual elements of a soda, it is not the main thing. (yes, this from a fellow who just complained about the “e” in “Creamy” not being italizied enough).
the taste is decent, not remarkable. the fizz kind of overwhelms one’s mouth so the flavor sneaks past without too much of a presense as it is not so strong on its own. i am enjoying it but it is predictable. a little more subtle than others though. the cane sugar is somewhat apparent and is appreciated, by me at least. sweetness is good, creaminess is decent. i would drink it more, just probably would not mail order it

Anthony’s Rating: 77
Your Rating: 54
# of ratings:1

new features

lately i got a couple of suggestions of things that people would like to see so i am trying to implement them.
first i added the ability to sort of the Rankings page by soda name and also by how many votes it has. click on the links at the top of the tables or on “Soda” or “# of Votes” to see it in action. it is only sortable A to Z or high to low, not the other directions as that seems less useful to me.
second i am trying to add more info to each soda, ingredients, plus exact calorie, sodium, carb and sugar content info. this will probably not happen for everything as it would entail taking many crates full of empty bottles down from my attic and typing it all in but perhaps one weekend i will be very bored and do it. the canned and plastic bottled sodas i (mostly) did not save at all, so unless someone wants to write me with their info, that will not happen at all. sorry folks.

any more suggestions of what you might want or are looking for, let me know!

Dang! That’s Good Root Beer

i just have to say, first off, that this is probably the most pretentiously named product i have ever reviewed. it reminds me of some sort of infomercial product like “the greatest chamois cloth ever!” or “the perfect pita toaster” or something. or else something like “i can’t believe it’s not butter” which always makes me ponder who THEY are to tell ME what i can and cannot believe?! especially since i definitely CAN believe that that slop is not butter. but back to the matter at hand, ok?
i have heard quite good things about this soda so i have slightly higher hopes than usual, which may or may not work in its favor. probably not i think.
the design leaves something to be desired, even beyond the name, it just sort of bores me. and slapping “The Original” in the corner there makes me wonder just who was claiming it is NOT the original and whether there are fake, bootleg version of this pop out there.
my first impression of the actual drink is that there is barely any gas escape upon cap removal. that makes me think i may have a bum bottle here. the carbonation seems way too low. i will try another one soon and update this if i find it different. this soda gets yet another superlative, as it is also probably the most syrupy soda i have ever had. that could be a direct result of the lack of carbonation making me notice such things more. being the crazy person that i am though i blame it on the high fructose corn sweetener instead. it just coats my mouth with sweet. that would normally be a great compliment coming from me but here it is just TOO much. too sweet. and that is a shame since the flavor is actually very good besides that. it is not so far from the root beer you would expect that you think it is not root beer yet it is different enough to be distinct. i really do hope this is just a bad bottle as i would like to like this more. i think more carbonation would help it a lot. i think i root (pun not intended) for most small brewers to make a really amazing soda and this one is very close. to me at least.
they make a butterscotch root beer too which i shall review soon i am sure but seeing as how sweet this one is, that scares me a bit. stay tuned…

Anthony’s Rating: 78
Your Rating: 62
# of ratings:9

NY Times and junk

ok, so i got interviewed last week for a NY Times article on root beer which should be out tomorrow (6/25/2008) in the Food section, so check it out and i hope it is actually good. very fun for me. keeping my fingers crossed that i actually don’t sound like a foolrod. we shall see. or at least i will. and my mom i bet.
if you are coming here from the article mentioned above, welcome! i am anthony, these are my reviews. i try to update a couple times a month at least, but it is getting quite hard to find new sodas so that is variable. look around, click on Reviews to see links to all of the brands i have reviewed so far, or Availability to see what sodas are supposedly available near you, or any of the other links in the top navigation bar or just jump around the site. write and say hello too! and if you can get any of the sodas in that right side bar deal, PLEASE let me know.
thanks!
and come back again soon!

oh, just to make this not totally worthless, this article is very funny to me:
High School Root Beer Party Raided. especially as someone who has had a root beer kegger or two.
ok, so maybe it was one birch beer kegger…
although i did have a birch beer keg at my wedding too.
i suppose this story was all over the news some time back but it seems i am out of the ole loop. i am not sure when that happened or if i ever actually was in said loop, but i am not now, rest assured.

UPDATE the article is live! check it out. it came out well i think although not a whole lot of the interview was used. but that is cool as site traffic is way up! woo hoo!

Mercury Brewing Company Root Beer

ah, at last, I have some of their root beer to review! not that i have actually looked all THAT hard for it, but just knowing it is somewhere in the general Boston area and the number of times i too have been there and probably less than 1/4 mile from said soda drove me crazy at times. but then my pal Craig came through and brought me a six pack of Mercury pop! woo hoo! go Craig! i do very much enjoy their graphic design. the old school “the Flash” comic book style mascot dude drinking a flagon of some (presumably) Mercury Pop is very cool. the general feel of it is cool too, the intersecting circles and font choices are excellent. anyway, on to the brew as they say in the business!
i admit i like this better than the birch beer. it has a more solid, identifiable taste. it is a morphing sort of taste at that. it develops from just a mild root beer on your tongue to a slightly bitter, full bodied, much more herbal root beer after the swallow. but then a moment later it repeats on you (as my grandma used to say) you get a sweeter version which slowly fades away with your saliva. to me, that bitterness is good and bad. it makes the soda a little more distinct but it also is not a trait i like in general. here is sort of does work, it is kind of kicks you, or maybe it is more of a “bite” if you will. so i suppose when i think about it, i quite like this beverage. i don’t love it but it is better than most. the sweetness is not overpowering or too long lasting, the flavor is identifiable as root beer but unique from most others and the carbonation is about right, there but not making your stomach expand intensely.
Anthony’s Rating: 86
Your Rating: 60
# of ratings:3

Foodtown Old Fashioned Diet Root Beer

ok, so i am back from a brief pause in the root beer action. i went and got married which took a good amount of time away from other endeavors. i am sure you can imagine. and then we honeymooned and i did my best to find new brews to review but came up empty in the caribbean. there was a lot of ginger beer, which i also love, but no root or birch. alas.
this is all irrelevant to the soda in my hand of course but i suppose i am delaying writing about it as it is diet and i am not a big fan of diet drinks in general. this one being no exception either.
both of my issues with diet sodas come into play with this beverage, one more than the other in this case. first i always feel like diet drinks have much less taste than their full-on sugared brethren. that is very much the case here, it barely tastes like anything. the second issue is the awful aftertaste. and actually this drink does not have that nearly as much as other diet sodas. not that having less of a bad thing equals a good thing of course, it is just a smaller bad thing, but that is something i suppose.
it is hardly recognizable as root beer but perhaps i like the sensitivity to pick it up in diet sodas for some reason…
if you must drink diet, you could do worse than this is the bottom line.

Anthony’s Rating: 33
Your Rating: 79
# of ratings:4