Sudz Root Beer

There is a little grocery store here in Ocala, FL (and i assume other places) called Aldi. Someone told me they are either affiliated with or have adopted the IKEA model and formatted it to a grocery store, but everything i read online says it is owned by the same corporation that owns Trader Joe's. I can see an IKEA influence in the way the store is laid out though. There is a specific path you have to follow as you enter the store and wind through the aisles toward the exit. It's not as bad as IKEA, forcing you to walk through the entire store before you can get out, but there is a distinct entrance and exit strategy that they use. They carry a lot of unknown brand names at significantly lower prices than even Walmart in most cases.  But people around here kinda rave about how fresh and novel their approach is. I mean… it's ok. But i don't really get it. I buy chips there cuz they are super cheap and pretty decent, but i don't shop there for much else. When i told

people i had never heard of Aldi before moving here, the one thing people wouldn't stop talking about was how amazing it was that they charge to "rent" the grocery carts. They are all locked together until you slide a quarter in this little mechanism that releases the cart. Then once you return the cart, you get your quarter back. Frankly, i find it a little cumbersome and never even bother getting a cart, but whatever. They also charge you for plastic grocery bags to take your food home in. Something like 10 cents a bag or something. Again, i don't usually bother, but i guess thats good if you're one of those people who is all "save the planet" and bring your own grocery bags with you. Whatever. Anyway, this is less a review of Aldi than it is of a particular root beer they carry called Sudz Root Beer. It's brewed by Summit (i think, but don't really care) and distributed by Aldi exclusively. Essentially it's just another generic root beer. 

I got 12 pack of cans of this stuff for something like $2.50 (Aldi has really cheap prices). I didn't even see the option to get this in a 2 liter bottle in the Aldi i went to. If i had, i would probably have gotten that. The label is well done, but is typical of a generic root beer. The color scheme and picture of the mug are a dead give away that this thing is just another store brand. So… i don't really know what else i can say about it. 

I really don't mind this stuff. It's a basic root beer flavor, but it has decent carbonation and drinks really easily. Nothing really sets it apart from other root beers, but its a good generic. Like the label though, i don't have much else to say about the taste. It's sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, so there is a little more info for you if that sways your decision at all. I will say i used it for a root beer float and it did quite well. And my two year old loves it. He calls it a "spicy drink". That has nothing to do with root beer though. He calls every soda that. And he's not very discriminatory, he loves all spicy drinks.

My official review is that Sudz Root Beer gets 6 (six) IBCs. It's pretty good stuff at a very reasonable price. I could see myself getting this again. Not sure if i'd go out of my way for it, but i liked it well enough. It's on the higher end of the generic spectrum, that's for sure. Check it out if you're near an Aldi. And don't forget to bring a quarter.