Sioux City Root Beer

This root beer has a long and rich history of American heritage. You can learn more about it on the website, but the basics are that Sioux City Beverages are part of the White Rock water company which was founded in Waukesha, WI in 1871. It was later bought by National Distillers and moved its operation to New York state where it is currently produced. In 1975, White Rock introduced Sioux City Sarsaparilla, which is the first in the Sioux City line of flavors. I quite enjoyed the sarsaparilla when i tasted it, and i'll admit that i like it better than the root beer, but i'll get to that in a moment. Anyway, the company itself has a long and distinct history, but i will let you read up on that if you care to. Quite impressive and worth a look if you have the time (or care in the slightest about beverage history). However, guess what else White Rock distributes... Olde Brooklyn. Boooo... That was a very unimpressive root beer. But hey, you can't win all the time.

The 12 oz. brown glass bottle is fairly standard. It looks a little more stout than a typical bottle though and reminds me of a Stewart's bottle. Each flavor has a different picture embossed on the bottle, all of which are cowboy themed. They are going for that old west look and feel. This one looks like a sheriff sitting in a saloon playing some cards and enjoying a delicious mug of root beer. The sarsaparilla has a picture of a sheriff walking through the swinging doors of the saloon, presumably on his way to sit down, play some cards, and enjoy a delicious mug of root beer. Not sure if there is any kind of connection with chronology there, but i doubt it. I'm probably just stretching for something that's not there.

As far as taste goes, you already know that i enjoy the sarsaparilla more (which i am debating the idea of including sarsaparillas in my reviews because it is so similar to root beer), but that doesn't mean the root beer is bad. In fact, i think it's quite good. I rather enjoyed it. It has a nice, mellow wintergreen flavor to begin with and then it has a kick of something to it that kind of reminds me of Gale's root beer, which i have reviewed previously. It's almost like the yeast taste that i thought i tasted in Gale's, but it could be something completely different. Either way though, i thought it was pretty good. A nice blend. I was also interested to see that Sioux City uses both cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Not sure how many sodas do this, but it's the first time i took notice.

My official review is that Sioux City gets 6 (six) IBCs. It's a good root beer, no doubt. I like the taste of the different and unique flavors as they blend together. Like i said, it reminded me of Gale's, but i think Gale could take some lessons from Sioux City. Grab one if it's available, or if you can find the sarsaparilla, i say go for that one instead.