Ward's Root Beer

Hello root beer enthusiasts... i know it has been a couple months since i have posted and for that i apologize, but the good news is i just took a cross country trip with a friend and rounded up several more root beers to go through. Not promising a high volume of posts, but hopefully i will have less breaks in between. Anyway, we planned our trip so that we would pass along the southern united states from North Carolina to Arizona. Unfortunately we only made it as far as Baton Rouge, LA before Richard's car broke down and i had to catch an early flight home for work and school. BUT!... luckily we did pass through Mississippi before that, and that is where today's root beer hails from. Ward's is a chain of fast food restaurants in Mississippi. I heard about Ward's a few years ago from one of my friend's little sisters. She had married a guy from Mississippi and they knew i was doing this blog and told me i had to try the root beer there. He was emphatic that it was fantastic, but I figured i would probably never get a chance to get down there since i had no reason to go to Mississippi. Then my friend Richard moved across country and asked me if i'd help him drive, so i told him as long as i could plan out the route i was up for it.

Talking about the Ward's restaurant we visited in Gulfport, MS i can't say much. It was really small and typical of a fast food restaurant in structure and arrangement. We were there at 7:00 in the morning, but they served their entire menu all day. So naturally, Richard got the deep fried shrimp plate and i got a burger and fries. The fries were decent, but the burger was super bland. We didn't expect much though. Most of the reviews we read about the place said the food was not good (and they were right).

We both got drinks with our meal and helped ourself to the root beer that was so highly recommended. Normally this is the part of the blog where i talk about the bottle or can and the label, but this was just in a fast food fountain cup (not sure the volume in liquid oz.) and the label is the dumb Ward's logo on the cup in red and yellow. A triangle, some writing, you get the point. No big deal and nothing to get all excited about. i photoshopped the "root beer" onto the cup in the picture above just to make sure everyone knew what i was drinking. Also for me in case i forget. I sometimes do that.

Does Ward's live up to the hype of one guy i met a few years ago that is married to my friend's sister? Not really. It's not a bad taste, but i'm not a fan. I think i can nail it dead on by saying it tastes like syrup. Not like soda fountain syrup you mix with carbonated water to make soda, like syrup you put on your pancakes. Like maple syrup. It tastes exactly like a pancake. And it is SWEET. Too sweet. Way way too sweet. Now, i don't mind pancakes. I prefer waffles, but in both cases i use a generous amount of syrup. However, what i don't do is drink syrup directly from the bottle, which is basically what drinking this root beer was like. It was so rich and sweet that neither Richard or I could finish our cups and poured them out  about a third the way through to get something else a little less... diabetes inducing.

My official review is that Ward's gets 4 (four) IBCs. Like i said above, just way too sweet. Not a fan. It's not that it tasted bad, but i couldn't even finish the cup, and for that i couldn't even bring myself to give it a 5. I don't know how you would make this better (or even bearable). Maybe thicken it up and pour it on some pancakes? No, that would be ridiculous. Everyone knows waffles are better.

Surf City Root Beer

I wanted to review this one now for a couple reasons... one, it's been sitting in my fridge for well over a year now. Two, i feel like i have been phoning it in with boring reviews lately cuz i have nothing to say about the root beers i have reviewed lately, but this one comes from a really cool place i will talk about shortly. And three, my wife was supposed to bear our first child two days ago. Sadly, he's turtling and refuses to come out, making my wife increasingly miserable as he's just getting bigger the longer he stays in there. I swear we're going to have to pull him out by his feet while he maintains his kung fu grip on my wife's uterus and fights leaving his now cramped confinement. So what does that have to do with this root beer? Well although it's called Surf City, it is made at a place in Huntington Beach, CA called Brewbakers, and to me, that sounds like Babymakers. It's a stretch, i know, but sometimes my writings are desperate for clever, even poor showings like this one. Anyway, Brewbakers is a cool little spot in Huntington. I learned that they had their own root beer and thought it was a restaurant, but when my wife and i went there with some friends of ours last summer we found that it really wasn't geared toward being a restaurant. They did serve some food items (bread, pizza, pretzels and the like), but what draws customers there is the opportunity to individually brew their own little batches of beer (or root beer) using ingredients and recipes on hand. It was a really neat idea, and had we known we would have booked the time to actually make some Surf City ourselves. I have posted some pictures of the inside of the place, which is quite small but very neat.

There is basically just a long table in the middle of the room right when you walk in with a lot of bowls and weights and measures on it. Below the table are cabinets with large bins of ingredients; grains, flour, sugar, etc.

Along the right wall are several small kilns. Not sure if that's what they call them, but it's where the batches are brewed. To the left of of the counter is the cash register and bottles of different brews for sale. I would totally book the time to brew my own batch next time i'm in Huntington cuz it looks like a fun little evening activity to do with friends. As you can see from the pictures, it was pretty packed for how small the place is. Needless to say, this place is pretty popular.

The bottles are dark brown 12 oz. glass with no labels. The label you seen the one in the picture at the top is another one of my hack photoshop jobs. We bought two 3-packs because there were 4 of us and they don't specifically have 6-packs. Regardless, we got what we came for. They do other flavors as well, including a sarsaparilla, but i don't review those even though we did drink a couple. As far as the label i put on there, it's the logo of the soda line they create at Brewbakers. However, the other cool thing about the place is that you can actually design your own labels that go on your brewed batch. So if you decide not to go by a recipe on hand and make your own concoction and want to bottle and label it afterward, they are all set up to allow you to do that. Pretty cool set up. We were impressed.

As far as the taste goes, it's pretty good. It has a really nice aroma when you open the bottle, not much carbonation (although it HAS been sitting in my fridge for a year and i'm not sure the seal on the bottle kept it all in), and it doesn't taste like a cheap generic or a natural brand or anything. It's made with real sugar and is fairly sweet, and i can taste the anise which i don't normally care for but don't mind in this case. It's not an overwhelmingly obvious root beer taste, but it definitely works. By no means bad, and i think had i brewed it myself i would have enjoyed it that much more.

My official review is that Surf City gets 7 (seven) IBCs. I'm not particularly blown away with the taste. It's good, but not outstanding. But i must say most of my rating is applied toward the unique nature of the endeavor and the fact that is can be customizable and changed with each batch based on the taste preferences of the one making it. If you're ever in Huntington, look this place up. I'll definitely book some brew time next time i'm there.

Harris Teeter Root Beer

Here's a root beer from the east coast, brought to me by a friend of mine currently residing in North Carolina. Harris Teeter is a grocery store chain in the south east United States, and this is their brand name root beer. There is no site specifically dedicated to the root beer, but here is the website for the grocery store (if any of you really care). I don't really have much to say about this root beer's origins and beginnings, so maybe i will talk about my friend in NC instead. He's a dentist with the navy right now and keeps asking us to fly out there and visit, but we simply reply that for the same price we could fly to Hawaii and stay with my wife's cousin. So basically, he now has to sell us on the idea that NC is better than Hawaii. Granted, i've already been to Hawaii and have never visited NC, but it's still kind of a hard sell. And since he's already scoured the area over there for root beers to send me, that avenue has been closed off. Sorry Richard. Looks like we're gonna save our money. But you're more than welcome to come visit us if you'd like. Except you can't stay with us. We don't have room for you.

This root beer was brought to me in a 12 oz. can, but i am betting you can probably get it in a 2 liter bottle if that's what you prefer. The label is pretty typical for a generic brand; brown color scheme, simple design, lots of bubbles. It has kind of a cartoon quality to it, with pretty below average sketches of root beer mugs. But again, i can't fault them too much for lack of good design since the objective of a generic brand is to make a product as cheaply as possible.

As far as taste is concerned, i again don't have much to say. I'm at the point where i've tasted enough root beers to make it hard to pick out what makes one distinguishable from another unless it's obvious. But as is standard of generics, it tastes like this root beer is copying A&W. Good carbonation, standard taste, typically generic. It's probably really inexpensive though.

My official review is that Harris Teeter gets 5 (five) IBCs. Even though it tastes good, it's so unoriginal that i can't in good conscience give it anything higher than a 5. And again, i don't have much else to say, so i think i'll just leave it at that. 

BJ's Handcrafted Root Beer

I should have written this review a while ago when i went to dinner with my wife and some friends of ours. BJ's is a restaurant and brewery which brews its own beers. It's a franchise, so there are several of them around, and there is a large dining area as well as a sports bar area for people just looking to try their brews.  It was started in California in 1978, but the food and atmosphere seems to have a Chicago influence (i was probably tipped off by the fact that the BJ's logo says "Chicago style pizza" at the top of it, although i am still keenly observant without that little bit of help). It's not terribly expensive and i think everyone in our group that night really enjoyed their meals. But ultimately, i'm here to talk about the root beer. So let's get to it, shall we?

The root beer was served in a large glass mug, as seen in the picture. Please note, i have taken to editing pictures of root beer where no logo is present to include a logo. This is the case for the picture in this post. I don't know the dimensions of the glass, but i was free refills, so that's kind of irrelevant since once you commit to having root beer with your meal, you swim in it for all the restaurant cares. I like the whole root-beer-in-a-mug experience, but my only complaint is that it wasn't a frosty mug. A minor pleasure i concede, but i like seeing the frost on the mug when it's delivered and all the fun and excitement that accompanies that experience. I believe A&W drive-ins do the frosty mug, but it's been a while since i've been to one. All i will say is that any place that serves root beer in a mug that isn't frosty should reconsider their business model. Put the fact that it's in a frosty mug on the menu and i guarantee sales will increase exponentially (*note* all guarantees expressed in this blog are opinion based only and cannot be relied upon for future business projections whatsoever). I won't comment on the BJ's logo except to say it's fine just fine. It's technically the logo for the restaurant anyway, not the root beer, and what do i care about restaurant logos, right?

So is this handcrafted root beer worth the $2.95 you'll be paying for a bottomless mug of it? I would say go ahead and get it. I don't know that the root beer alone is good enough to draw me to the restaurant, but it is very good, and the food is great too so you really can't lose. It could have used a little more carbonation, but other than that i was impressed with what the BJ's crew could throw together. It was sweet, creamy, and had a good vanilla and root beer flavor to it. My guess is that putting ice cream in it would be an excellent decision. I don't know that the root beer had as much of a Chicago influence as the food and atmosphere, but the only other Chicago style root beer i can compare it to is Goose Island, which was also very enjoyable. Oh, and i guess Berghoff also, but i find this stuff much better than Berghoff. Ultimately though, i think Chicago may be on to something with the way the citizens craft root beer.

My official review is that BJ's gets 7 (seven) IBCs. I was impressed with it. Add a touch more carbonation and put it in a frosty mug and i think you've got a real winner there. There are a few BJ's locations here in the Valley of the Sun and several littered around California i know, but you'll have to check out their website to see if there is a BJ's near you. If so, take and evening and go enjoy some good food with some good root beer. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Stars & Stripes Root Beer

Well, they changed the format on Blogger (supposedly for the better), but i am trying to get used to it still. Not sure i like it just yet. Anyway, i thought this one would be appropriate given the month. I would have liked to have reviewed this last week on the 4th, but my wife and i take a trip every year for the 4th up to a small town in Utah to do some camping with her extended family. Therefore, this is a little late, but still appropriate. The root beer i am reviewing today is Stars & Stripes Root Beer, from the Cott Beverages line (which also makes Vess and RC brand soft drinks, or at least owns distribution rights to them). You can see in the picture on the website a case of Stars & Stripes Cola, though i didn't look hard enough to find a shot of their root beer. While a truely American and patriotic root beer, in my mind this falls into the "generic" category of root beers. I was actually tipped off to this one long ago by a loyal reader and was told i could find it at the local Dollar Tree store. Well i happen to live less than a mile from a Dollar Tree, and while i don't frequent it very often, i did go in a few times to look for Stars & Stripes to no avail. I found other brands of root beer there, such as Shasta and Big K, but i basically chalked this one up to an "east coast thing" (Cott is apparently quite big in Canada as well). But my lovely wife discovered a bottle of this root beer here in Phoenix not long ago, and no less, at a Dollar Tree store she happened to be visiting. So thank you to the loyal reader who tipped me off. I have long since forgotten your name (and am too lazy to go back and try and find it among the many comments i have received over the years), but please allow me dedicate this review to you and your love of root beer.

The bottle in the picture is actually a 3 liter bottle. I'm not sure what my wife paid for it, but i am assuming it was around a dollar, which makes this root beer a pretty good buy. The label is a little drab. Not as patriotic as i would hope. Not even an American flag on it. That's probably those silly Canadians' doing. But it's called "Stars & Stripes" for crying out loud. You'd think they would stick a picture of Old Glory on there somewhere. Instead it has a brown, wooden background that i assume is supposed to represent a root beer barrel, but looks more to me like a table top or a church door or something. Then there's the blue and white logo of the brand name, followed by a rather large decal saying something about Hoover's Barrel Root Beer. Now, i don't know who Hoover is (unless we're talking about our former US President, but i doubt it) and i don't know how he got his name to be attached to this root beer, but all i have to say is this: knock it off. Does this root beer have two names? What's going on? It's just confusing. One of them needs to be eliminated (and my sights are set on taking out Hoover).

For a generic root beer, this one is pretty good. It's very sweet, has good carbonation, and a rich root beer flavor. I hate to keep comparing root beers to A&W, but i gotta say that's the one i think it tastes most similar to. However, it still has a distinct taste that is very un-A&W-ish (man, i'm good with words). I told my wife last night that i think it tastes (and smells) like pancakes and syrup. She had a drink and said she could see where i came up with that. So my assignment to you is to get your hands on some of this and try and let me know if it tastes like pancakes and syrup to you as well. Maybe i'm just crazy. Maybe i've lost all reasonable tasting ability and should no longer be relied upon for accurate root beer judgement (although, we all know that's completely ridiculous). Regardless, give it a shot and send me a comment. I'd be interested to hear what you think, even though it will hold absolutely no sway on my final judgement. I mean, come on... who's the expert here? 

My official review is that Stars & Stripes gets 7 (seven) IBCs. It's a good root beer, and the fact that it's inexpensive can only help. Most generic or store brand root beers are either way too sweet or really watery and don't make much of an impression, but i gotta say, S&S does well to taste like a reasonably good root beer. Give it a shot, regardless of what month it is. It's your civic duty, like voting and jury duty and openly mocking British people. So enjoy.

Food Lion Root Beer

This is another one brought to me from my friend in North Carolina. It is from a local grocery chain there based out of Salisbury, NC, and the root beer bears the same name as the store. Food Lion has it's own line of generic products in all varieties, much like Kirkland or Kroger. So going into this, i wasn't expecting much more than a generic root beer from a grocer, much like many other stores have done. That being said, their isn't much back story or information i can dig up on this one that isn't completely irrelevant or boring. So i'll skip all that.

This root beer was brought to me in a can, as were several of the root beers my friend brought me from North Carolina. I suppose they are easier to pack into a suit case that way. But regardless, i doubt it comes in a glass bottle anyway. The label is a bit drab, but typical of a generic. Very few colors, just white and a few shades of brown, with a basic design showing the logo of the store (which somewhat resembles a family crest or insignia) and some circles and swooshes which can either be considered a new age kind of look symbolizing carbonation bubbles or something, or it could be a throwback to the 70's style designs. Could go either way really, but if i were you i wouldn't look to far into it.

It's definitely a generic root beer, and as such follows by having a lack-luster taste. It's fine. Some may say sufficient. But it definitely doesn't stand out. I would say it does it's best to mimic A&W like so many others do. And like i always say, if you're going to copy a root beer flavor, you might as well copy a successful one. Food Lion can't quite capture the true taste though. The initial taste is solid, very strong and sweet with good carbonation, but that fades very quickly to basically tasting like water. It's not bad, but definitely not good.

My official review is that Food Lion Root Beer gets 4 (four) IBCs. I suppose the appeal to this one is the low cost per unit, as is the case with most generics. And if that's the only draw, i say just get whatever generic is available to you (except Shasta or Big K, they aren't very good). There are no Food Lions here in Arizona, so i don't have regular access to their root beer. And i don't really know how common they are outside of North Carolina, but i wouldn't travel too far just to get the taste of their root beer. When it really comes down to it, this one's pretty unsatisfactory.

Culver's Gourmet Root Beer

So i stumbled on to this one almost by accident when i met a friend to get some ice cream at Culver's, which is mostly known for their concrete mixers (which is basically just like a Dairy Queen Blizzard). Anyway, when i met him at the local Culver's, he told me that the fast food restaurant chain makes its own root beer, and as a result i was able to review a root beer i wasn't aware of. Craig Culver opened his first restaurant in 1984 in Wisconsin by converting an old A&W stand, which makes me think he has been making root beer from the very beginning, though i have no documentation of that. However, using my superior root beer knowledge, judgement, and wisdom i will say that must be true. Makes logical sense. I always drive past the Culver's here and confuse it with Carvel's, an east coast ice cream cake shop famous for Fudgie the Whale and other ice cream cake concoctions. So it never dawned on me to stop in and get some food, let alone see if they make their own root beer.

I can't really judge the packaging on this one, as it is clear from the picture that i made the label on the cup by pasting a picture of the label from the soda fountain (and it looks quite poorly executed at that). I doubt they bottle this root beer, but i may be wrong. It was easiest just to do it this way, and if i am being completely candid, i have plans to make my own label in a similar fashion for another root beer which i have yet to review. That one, however, is in a bottle, just without a label. So i won't hold any points in favor of or against this root beer for the packaging. It's just standard fast food fare as far as cups and lids and straws goes.

My friend, whom i have consulted with on root beers in the past, informed me that this root beer was pretty good. And he's right. It is pretty good. Quite creamy tasting and well carbonated, it has a good root beer taste. You would think it would taste like A&W since the first restaurant was converted from an old A&W stand, but i think it tastes more like a creamy version of Mug Root Beer. It's similar, yet distinct. But in any case, it's a good root beer, and the food and concrete mixers at Culver's aren't half bad either. Overall, i had an enjoyable experience.

My official review is that Culver's Gourmet Root Beer gets 7 (seven) IBCs. It's a really good root beer. Maybe even worth an 8 considering i just got it out of a soda fountain and couldn't experience it in a glass bottle the way the root beer gods intended. So if you find yourself near a Culver's (not sure how nationally dispersed the franchises are), stop in and grab a bite to eat and wash it down with some of their delicious root beer.