50+ Brand Name Root Beers

In "the box" (see my 9/11/08 post), I keep copies of all the lists I make. As you can tell from the rest of this blog, I make a lot of lists. You can laugh at my expanse. It's OK. Or you could cry at how NOT OK the time I've wasted is when I could have been saving the whales. Either way, I include them all here for my amusement and hopefully yours too. In Old Town San Diego, there is a small shop, not even the size of a Wal-Mart bathroom, that just sells bottled root beer (and cola, grape, lemon-lime, orange, and strawberry soda pop, but the name is the San Diego Root Beer Company). The first girl that worked there made up her own alphabetical inventory list and was generous enough to give me a copy. I started doing tastings (every month or so), and now, a hundred bucks and a couple years later, I give you this:

Brand Name, Description, & Rating
A & W – the best & the creamiest *****
Abita – good vanilla ****
AJ Stephan’s Birch Beer – sweet w/ “pure” cane sugar, but good **
AJ Stephan’s Sassparilla – sweet & spicy ***
Americana – “cream style”; between A & W & Abita ****
Barq’s – “has bite” (their slogan) ***
Barrel Brothers – no standout flavor **
Berghoff – “Chicago’s draft style” ****
Big Bear – just made with “root beer extract” ***
Boylan – sickeningly sweet *
Briar’s – extremely bitter *
Buckin’ – pine-like ****
Bulldog – honey & lots of “real” vanilla *
Capt’n Eli’s – wintergreen oil & anise ****
Cool Mountain - metallic *
Dad’s – sweet; my dad’s favorite ***
DNA – more honey than root beer flavor *
Dog N Suds – generic flavor; perfect w/hot dogs **
Dr. Brown’s – strong ****
Empire - metallic *
Eric’s – more of an energy drink *
Faygo – metallic *
Fitz’s – metallic *
Frostie – bitter; “since 1939” *
Gray’s – “gourmet . . . since 1856” ****
Hank’s Birch Beer – strong ****
Hank’s Root Beer – not as good as their birch beer ***
Henry Weinhard’s – honey & vanilla blend *
IBC – like a cheap Barq’s **
Jack Black’s Dead Red – generic **
Journey Desert Sage – like diet root beer *
Kutztown Birch Beer - smells better than the sarsaparilla, but metallic *
Kutztown Sarsaparilla - closer to that generic root beer taste than the birch **
Mason’s – cinnamon-like ***
Milligan’s Island – sweet & somewhat rum-like *
Mug – like A & W ****
Natural Brew – licorice, then clove, & root beer aftertaste ****
Old Town – molasses flavor *
Rat Bastard – “herbal blend” (ginseng, jasmine, & many more) ****
Route 66 – lots of honey *
Sea Dog – wintergreen & anise oil ****
Sioux City Root Beer – like IBC, but stronger ***
Sioux City Sassparilla – metallic, but good **
Snake River Sarsaparilla (Jackson Hole Soda Co.) – strong licorice flavor ****
Sparky’s – “pure” cane sugar & honey *
Sprecker – “Wisconsin” honey *
Stewart’s – generic; “yucca extract(?)” **
Terra Soda – more like club soda *
Thomas Kemper – metallic; “pure” honey *
Triple X – “the way root beer used to taste” (their slogan”) ***
Virgil’s – lots of herbs & “unbleached” cane sugar ***
Virgil’s Bavarian Nutmeg – just like it sounds ****
Waialua – “Maui natural white” cane sugar; perfect for ice cream floats***

It should be obvious I'm not a fan of the ones with a lot of honey or sugar, but everyone has different taste buds. When you're not counting calories, what do yours tell you?