Deerfield Trading Company Old Fashioned Root Beer

This one may win the longest name ever award (between this one and Journey John Barleycorn i think, but JJB is garbage so it doesn't deserve any kind of positive accolades). Anyway, you know how i was saying there were two Walgreen's root beers? Well this is the second one. Deerfield produces sodas exclusively for Walgreens. The website on the bottle is just the Walgreens site, but i got on BevNet and found some information about the company (just a little). It looks like Deerfield is based out of Westmont, IL, but i am having a hard time tracking down much more info about this company, i.e. when it started and all that nonsense. However, i have learned that Deerfield makes several other flavors and apparently the Black Cherry is incredible (according to random web authors without as much credibility as me). So if that's your thing, give Black Cherry a shot. I however am just going to focus on the root beer.

Take a look at this bottle. I am impressed Deerfield. It's something out of the ordinary. Almost looks like it's the shape of a rocketship. Additionally, Deerfield goes for the 16 oz. bottle, so it's a little bigger than the regular bottles. The label isn't extremely enticing. It's just some writing and a semi-fany logo. It's not the worst thing i've ever seen, but it's not amazing (btw, this is probably the worst thing i've ever seen). So the coolness of the bottle is kind of counter-balanced by the less than cool label. Over all though, not a bad presentation.

One thing this soda company runs on is the fact that it does not use high fructose corn syrup in any of its drinks. However, it doesn't say anything about cane sugar. It just says "sugar". But i'm not really a stickler for this kind of thing. I'll just say you can definitely taste the sugar. And i know the question on everyone's mind, "but Cosmo, is it any good?" First of all, i'm flattered that you rely so heavily on my opinion since you can't seem to form your own. It's ok, that's what i'm here for. I mean, who wants to go out and invest a good $1+ into a terrible soda? Seriously, i've been ripped off more than once. So i will just go ahead and say this. Yes. It's a good soda. It's actually quite good. It has a really good taste. BUT... here's the catch. Is it a good root beer? Not really. It doesn't taste anything like root beer. It almost tastes fruity, like a banana strawberry smoothie or something. I mean, not exactly, but i keep drinking it and getting flash backs to chewing Hubba Bubba and BubbleYum in assorted fruity flavors. I can taste a very slight hint of anise at the beginning, but it just tastes really sugary and, well... fruity to me. Nothing else really resembles root beer. So for that, i can't in good conscience put it in the ranks of the great root beers of the world.

My official review is that Deerfield gets 5 (five) IBCs. It almost got a 4, but like i said above, it's a good tasting soda. It just tastes nothing like root beer. My wife even agrees with me on this. She likes it a lot, but doesn't think it should be rated high as a root beer. And that's from an amateur. So again, if you find yourself in Walgreens, give it a shot. Maybe you could chew some Bubblicious while you're drinking it for added flavor. However, from the sounds of the web-chatter, Black Cherry is where it's at. So maybe that's the way to go when dealing with this company.

Addendum 8/18/2012: i was tipped off to a couple new root beers that could be found at Walgreen's, but it turns out that Walgreen's just renamed both the root beers they distribute. This one was renamed Good & Delish root beer. My wife said i should try and pull a fast one on all my loyal readers and just review them as if they were new and original. That's because she thinks you're all stupid. Silly wife. I figured i wouldn't insult you like that and just pass on the info. The rating is unaffected by this change.