Method
We had four reviewers sit down at a table with 19 root beers poured into coded white plastic cups. No one knew what he or she was drinking until the end, when the list revealing the number on the bottom of the cup's root beer brand. I thought it best to have a blind taste test so that no preconceptions of what a brand did or did not taste like. Tasters were encouraged to describe their thoughts as they tasted each brew, and write whatever they felt like. Below, you will see each brand followed by the four reviewers' thoughts.
Results
1.Natural Brew
green flavor, bad;
Herbal sour, and tree texture;
Blond, lasting aftertaste
Thick, earthy
2.Sarnac
Maple, cane sugar flavors;
Moldy sour finish, not good;
Mild carmelly, honey colored
Normal, vanilla, good
3.Steaz
Green tea, good;
No smell, very thin, clear green tea
honey color here, sweet;
No smell, thin, gross taste
4.Archer Farms
Too sweet, coffee flavor, diet tasting;
Medium texture, very disappointing;
Not it either
Mellow
5.A&W
Light carbonation, corn syrupy;
Sweet finish, light body, a little think start, light color, no head;
Brown sugar;
Grassy
6.Jones
herbal, wintergreen, weird, light carbonation;
Sugar came from bottle
Carmel color and flavor
No words
7.IBC
Wintergreen, good head, good licorice;
Creamy texture, “Christmas in Aspen”, wintergreen, lot's of head;
The best, more traditional licorice tone is there.
Licorice smell
8.Virgil's
Good, strong woody;
Mouthy texture, a little bitter;
herbal, good carbonation
Bitter
9.Hanks
lot's of head, generic taste;
Mellow average in taste, normal;
sassafras flavor
Sweet, vanilla finish, very good
10.Thomas Kemper
Different, herbal;
earthy tates like freshly moved grass;
Not it! Bad.
Fresh moved grass
11.Abita
Woody, too sweet
The least thirst quenching of all;
Minty sweet, ok.
Good
12.Stewarts
Too sweet, generic;
Full body, dessert like dark color, tastey
Too little carbonation
Normal
13.Tommy Knockers Float
Vannila beans, good;
Very sweet creamy start and finish;
Vanilla
Strong vanilla taste and smell
14.Tommy Knockers
Vannila flovared;
Cane sugar, molassas, some head, maple syrup
Looks and tastes like maple, decent.
Mapley
15.Sky Blue Organic
Not remarkable;
Sour old like a foot;
Tastes like flat Coke
Plane taste
16.Sky Blue Encore Organic
weird, strong woody taste;
Ginger root, lucious texture, very bad finish;
has bark, not a bite, wintergreen?
Very bad finish
17.Dr. Brown's
Overpowered wintergreen, bad;
Minty herbal, light in color;
lightly effervesent
Minty
18.365 Organic
Generic, not great;
Least favorite;
More body, super sweet
Sweet smell, bitter taste
19.Barq's
Noticibly barq's, good and mellow;
Lots of flaver, can taste, spicy
Sweet, smooth, mild
Barq's sting
Conclusion
As with any product, there are different tiers of quality; there is root beer flavored soda, classic main stream brands, and gourmet brews. While we didn't explicitly rank or rate each, we did arrive at favorites. The standard IBC came through as one of the top favorites that everyone liked. Even when blind tasted against A&W, everyone liked IBC better. Sorry, A&W. Barq's was another favorite, and also a unique flavor that everyone knew was Barq's when they tasted it. It is worth mentioning that Barq's has caffeine, unlike any of the others and that some root beer purests argue whether it is root beer at all. My personal favorite is Virgil's, which also scored praise for the other tasters. Abita and Tommyknockers Root Beer Float were two others that became favorites of the tasters.
What came in worst? Blue Sky Organic did not do well, nor did Thomas Kemper. Steaz Green Tea Root Beer also had mixed reviews. Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to hold their own root beer tasting. I'm sure you will be sick of root beer for at least a week after all that! |
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