Hey everyone!

I recently suceeded in getting root beer placed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste and I could use a little bit of help in my research. But first I'll back up a bit...

Slow Food is an international non-profit organization dedicated to preserving food traditions and promoting a sustainable food system. One of their main projects is known as the Ark of Taste. This 'Ark', loosely based on Noah's Ark, is a means by which Slow Food recognizes foods or food production techniques that are either A) in danger of being lost because of modern practices within the realms of food and agriculture or B) foods with a strong heritage that are specifically tied to a particular region of the world. Here in the US, some of these items include Native Wild Rice, Cajun Cream Cheese, and a host of specific varieties of fruits, vegetables, and animals that are close to extinction.

I gave a presentation to the US Ark Committee back in September and they voted to include "Hand-crafted Root Beer" on their list. Through this, they will promote root beer as unique beverage with a long history and a strong tie to North America that continues to this day.

Here's where y'all come in...

As part of my research, Slow Food has asked me to make a list of all the root beers in the US that I can find which fit the standards they've developed for considering a root beer "hand-crafted." These standards are fairly simple: it must be in a glass bottle and it must exclusively use natural sweeterners. Natural sweeteners can include cane sugar, honey, molasses, brown sugar, etc. -- pretty much anything except high fructose corn syrup or any of those bizarre chemicals often utilized to make diet sodas (aspartime, Nutrasweet, etc.).

Now, I'm well aware that there are plenty of great root beers out there that use corn syrup as a sweetener (some of my own favorites do), but the idea here is to promote root beer similar to the stuff made way back in the day and root beer was around long before many of these artificial sweeteners.

So, as it stands, I have about 48 root beers from around the country on my list, but I'm quite sure that this list is not comprehensive. I was hoping that some of you root beer nerds could help me hunt down some that I'm missing. If you're up for the challenge, just let me know and I'll email you the list of those that I have so far and you can see if you know of some that aren't on it but should be.

Thanks much in advance for your help. [By the way, if you want to learn more about Slow Food and their projects, visit their websites at www.slowfood.com (international) or www.slowfoodusa.org (here in the states).]

Natron wrote:

Hey everyone! ... Slow Food is an international non-profit organization dedicated to preserving food traditions and promoting a sustainable food system. One of their main projects is known as the Ark of Taste. This 'Ark', loosely based on Noah's Ark, is a means by which Slow Food recognizes foods or food production techniques that are either A) in danger of being lost because of modern practices within the realms of food and agriculture or B) foods with a strong heritage that are specifically tied to a particular region of the world. ... list. Through this, they will promote root beer as unique beverage with a long history and a strong tie to North America that continues to this day. ... list of all the root beers in the US that I can find which fit the standards ... standards are fairly simple: it must be in a glass bottle and it must exclusively use natural sweeterners. ...

1. Exactly, how will root beers from a list be promoted? Some root beers don't deserve to be promoted.

2. Do you mean, currently manufactured glass bottled rootbeers or are you including extinct root beers? The best root beers are extinct. Most of the better root beers died in 1960 when the FDA banned safrole. Too little, too late from your Noah's Arc.

3. I note that you have not excluded artificial flavorings other than sweetners. Was that your intention? One of the better extinct root beers, Fanta, was 100% artificially flavored except for its sweetener.

1. How the root beers are promoted is light at best. We're not talking advertising campaigns or anything like that. Basically, it's just a means of helping people understand that root beer, unlike most sodas out there, is a unique beverage with a proud heritage and by increasing this awareness, we would hope to see more people buying it when they're looking for a refreshing drink at the corner store. The specific brands of root beers that make the list are relatively unimportant compared to this larger goal. It's just that they asked me to make a list of root beer brands that fall into this category and I figured it best to include all of them that I can find than exclude anyone who deserves to be on the list.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say that some root beers don't deserve to be promoted. I can understand if you're referring to some of the bigger producers, but they've all been excluded by one or both of the criteria for "hand-crafted root beer." Perhaps you mean to say that some root beers taste like crap and don't need to be promoted, but that's a matter of individual taste. There are plenty of root beers that get great reviews in root beer tastings that I simply can't stand and vica versa. Either way, I'm glad that there's a certain diversity amongst root beer flavors.

2. Yes, I mean currently produced root beer, because that's the only kind possible to promote. I'm well aware that root beers were much better back in the day, but its difficult for folks to support those producers without the benefit of time travel. (As a side note, my next project is to study ways to convince the FDA to rethink its position on safrole, perhaps using the EU's position as a major example.)

3. It was intentional to leave the issue of artificial flavors alone. We talked about it, but its a difficult issue to consider. Many of root beers natural flavoring components are unique to root beer alone and their 'essences' are required to be labeled by the FDA as an artificial flavor. Unless root beers listed every seperate ingredient, it would be way too difficult to figure out what's what inside the bottle.

Hi, Natron,

It might be a very small filter - there are several brands made with sugar, honey, molasses, but some also use corn syrup. I'd bet that many are not hand-made. Why not post your list and let people add to it?
_________________
Bottoms up!
Kevin Guske

So heres a tribute toast with root beer in hand to you and the many mugs of suds along your happy trails. --Charles Wysocki, artist and root beer fan, 1928-2002

OK...good idea!

The "hand-crafted" part was just the term we used to differentiate these brews from the others. While I, too, am sure that barely any of these are technically "hand-crafted" (what does that mean exactly anyhow?), almost all of them do come from smaller producers, so its kind of fitting.

Anyhow, here's the list so far. Remember, I'm looking for root beers in glass bottles without corn syrup (or any of the artificial diet sweeteners). It's not the intention to exclude root beer on tap made at local microbreweries, it's just that there would be way too many to try to hunt down and find out what sweetener they use, etc. Here they are...

-Abita Root Beer
-AJ Stephans Root Beer
-Americana Root Beer
-Berghoff Root Beer
-Boylan’s Root Beer
-Buckin’ Root Beer/Snake River Sarsaparilla
-Bulldog Root Beer
-Cap’t Eli’s Root Beer/Sea Dog Root Beer
-Cool Mountain Root Beer
-Dr. Tima’s Root Beer
-Empire Root Beer
-Fitz’s Premium Root Beer
-Flathead Lake Monster Root Beer
-Foxon Park Root Beer
-Goose Island Root Beer
-Gray’s Root Beer
-Hansen’s Sarsaparilla Soda
-Hard Times Café Root Beer
-Health Valley Old-fashioned Root Beer/Sarsaparilla Root Beer
-Houdini Root Beer Soda
-Ithaca Soda Co. Root Beer
-JD's Old-Fashioned Root Beer
-Joe Wold’s Premium Root Beer
-Journey Shenendoah Sassafras Root Beer/Great Northern Root Beer/Desert Sage Root Beer/John Barleycorn Root Beer
-Jumpin’ Johnny’s Root Beer
-Killebrew Root Beer
-Kutztown Sarsaparilla
-Manhattan Special Sarsparilla
-Mercury Root Beer Soda Pop
-Milligan’s Island Awesome Root Beer
-Monterey Root Beer
-Mt. Angel Root Beer
-Myers Ave. Red Root Beer
-Mystic Seaport Sarsaparilla
-Olde Philadelphia Root Beer
-Rollie’s Premium Root Beer
-Root 66 Root Beer
-Root Beer Riot
-Roundhouse Root Beer
-Saint Arnold Root Beer
-Sparky’s Fresh Draft Root Beer
-Steaz Root Beer
-Tommy’s Righteous Root Beer
-Virgil’s Root Beer
-Waialua Root Beer
-Watt’s Root Beer
-Way 2 Cool Root Beer

If anyone has some to add, please post them up. Specifically, if anyone has some information about Purple Cane Road Root Beer from Iowa, could you let me know. They seem like they use a natural sweetener, but I can't find out much about them.

Oh yeah, and that Waialua Root Beer is a brand new brand out of Hawaii that's pretty much only available there and in Japan. I've got a bottle sitting in the fridge, so I'll send a picture over for the big list (and another I've been meaning to send for a year or so).

Thanks for the help everyone!