Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Zevia Natural Ginger Root Beer

Just a brief update, i've made some good strides in obtaining some new root beers to review now that school is out for the summer and i have more time to devote to this important task. I had to order some online, plan to do some light traveling to a couple states to pick some up personally, and even made a few "deals with the devil", if you will. But the good news is that my supply will increase, which ultimately means that you, my gentile readers, will not have to wander through the root beer wasteland without some much needed guidance.

Anyway, Zevia comes from Seattle, WA and from the best i can gather, it started around 2009. Honestly, this root beer (if you can call it that) wasn't really worth doing all that much research on. Feel free to do it on your own if you really care to. Today's featured root beer was found at the local Whole Foods grocery store, which means it's another one of our wonderful "natural" root beers. Which means it's not good. Which means you shouldn't bother with it. Not much reason to keep reading this review now, is there? My bet is that you will anyway.

I picked up a 6-pack of this soda, which is unfortunate because it ran me about $6. Not the cheapest stuff out there. There are several flavors of Zevia distinguished by the color of the can. The label on each is identical (except for the name of the flavor of course). There is a bit drop of something on the label with a couple little leaves dotting the "i" in Zevia. The wavy parallel lines on the background of the label remind me of Max Headroom, which is either totally awesome or completely lame based upon your childhood memories of the TV show. But other than that, i don't really have much of an opinion about the label. It's fine i suppose. Nothing to write home about though.

Zevia's website focuses largely on educating people what stevia is, which is the plant Zevia gets its sweetener from. As a result, it does not contain sugar OR high fructose corn syrup. If you're truly interested in what stevia is, Zevia has a page on thier site dedicated to the topic. Feel free to browse it for yourself, but since i don't plan to ever drink this crap again, i am going to go ahead and not care what stevia is. Basically, Zevia tastes like nothing with an aftertaste of gross. It largely just tastes like soda water. The gross aftertaste i allude to is likely the crushed hopes and dreams of countless hippies in Seattle congregating to exact revenge on the masses. I don't taste root beer, i don't taste ginger; all i taste is dissatisfaction with my purchase.


My official review is that Zevia gets 2 (two) IBCs. Very disappointing, but then again, i kind of expected it being a natural soda and all. All i can say is that outside of going to school and reviewing root beers, i spend most of my time preparing for the zombie apocalypse, and that entails stocking up on quality root beer. Let's just say Zevia won't be in my bunker with 10 inch thick reinforced concrete walls.

4 comments:

Terra X said...

You are sort of a loser. I like the Zevia root beer and the fact that I am not selling my soul
(or rather my health) to drink a soda. Stop spending so much time trying to be clever and just say that you don't like diet sodas. Oh and yes I am one of those hippies from Seattle.

Kevan said...

I think you've missed the point entirely. This is not supposed to be a traditional root beer. It's a ginger root beer made with ginger extract and stevia. While stevia does taste weird in some of Zevia's flavors, I really like the ginger root beer. The licorice flavor of stevia fits well with the flavor profile of the soda.

Brother James said...

You could use the Zevia cans, full or not, to help fortify the structure of your bunker.

I detest artificial sweeteners only a little more than I hate the "natural alternatives" to real, honest-to-God sugar. Sugar exists for a reason. Use it.

Nice blog. After 20 years of hiding from root beer, I'm just rediscovering it, especially the Henry Weinhard's.

Unknown said...

My god, just had a can of this cause the wife brought it home for me after he visit to whole foods. Me being a pretty avid root beer drinker I was thrilled to try a new brand, not so thrilled after the first sip. Seriously, it's not root beer, whatever it is. It's just plain gross. The overwhelming taste of fake sugar fills your mouth and just kills your taste buds instantly. A nice can of nastiness. I have advised the wife that this is NOT root beer, I don't know what it is, but it's never allowed in my home again.