Trader Joe's Vintage Root Beer

This one has been on my radar a long time, but i seriously could never track it down. I think a lot of people are going to be familiar with this though. Trader Joe's is a chain of grocery stores located in several states across the nation which pride themselves on being small, dealing with local farmers and grocers, and being utterly overrun with hippies at all times. It's somewhat similar to Whole Foods, but not as big or expensive or pretentious. They make a line of their own sodas, which includes a root beer. It is, of course, naturally sweetened and made with natural ingredients. It's even vegan, if you care about that kind of thing (cuz i don't). I have gone into several Trader Joe's locations from time to time over the years looking for this one, but it was always out of stock or not on the shelves. At one time i thought it might be discontinued, but i kept seeing mentions of it. I finally found a store with some root beer stocked, so i picked up a 4-pack. It's not a bad store if you can tolerate the shiftless hippie employees and patrons. I once dated a girl who was a vegetarian yoga instructor border lining on being a full blown hippie, except she was very clean and not a vagrant or a burnout. It was a bit of a moral dilemma for me. Needless to say, it didn't work out even though i still think highly of her. She was the one who introduced me to Trader Joe's. But i honestly have never shopped there much. All that was just to say i'm not opposed to the place, but it's not my first choice either.

They went with the 12 oz. clear glass bottles which are typical of a lot of the natural root beers. The label doesn't inspire much, but it's not terrible either. The color scheme lacks originality, but the design and font are lively enough and save the label from utter drabness. This came in a 4-pack, and it was about $4, so it's not the cheapest stuff around, but it's not expensive either. For your money, the best deal is still a sixer of IBC on sale for around $2.50. And last i checked, stupid Henry Weinhard's is around $7 for a 6-pack. Are you insane Henry? Oh wait, we've already established that you are, you tyrannous ne'er-do-well. But i digress.

My wife has told me that she really enjoys this stuff. And i have to say, for a natural root beer, it's easily one of the best i've had. Maybe even the best. It has good carbonation and a good root beer flavor with a hint of vanilla aftertaste (one of the flavors listed as an ingredient). Other listed flavors include anise, wintergreen, and birch. I can taste maybe a hint of wintergreen, but i don't really get the other flavors. It's sweetened with cane sugar, which makes it pretty sweet too. It's fairly watery, but i find it compliments the salty taste of a plate of nachos (a staple of my diet). So... i guess all i can say is... nice job vegans. You did a decent job on this one. 

My official review is that Trader Joe's Vintage Root Beer gets 7 (seven) IBCs. I have to say, it's a borderline 7. I wrestled with giving it a 6, which i think it wholly deserves. But it's better than a plain old 6, especially considering it's a natural root beer. So i am letting it squeak by with a 7. It's decent stuff. Really. Just another reason to consider Trader Joe's an alright place to shop. Grab some if you get the chance. 

Mercury Root Beer

I want to get into this one, but before i do i need to say that i got this root beer from a site called the Root Beer Store. It's another good mail order root beer site that someone (i think Eric) directed me to. I alluded in my last post (Freaky Dog Rooffbeer) that this was the next one i was going to review. Mercury Root Beer is brewed by the Mercury Brewing Co. The website on the bottle (MercuryBrewing.com) leads to a dead end, which you would know from reading the Freaky Dog post. You would also know that by googling Mercury Brewing, you can reach this site, which is the site for the brewery that brews Mercury Root Beer and has been operating out of Ipswich, MA since 1991. Other than being a town in Massachusetts, Ipswich is also a popular football club (aka soccer team) over in England. I'm not really a professional sports fan in any sense of the word, so someone over there please correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think i am. I think i've overheard enough soccer talk in my life to get some of the basics. But the point is, i think Mercury Brewing and Ipswich Brewing must be one and the same. Not sure if it was a take over type situation or a shared labor agreement, but i have to think they are working together for more reasons that just this one. But we'll get to that later.

The typical 12 oz. clear glass bottle is adorned with a generic color schemed label with the main focus being on the fact that this soda is a root beer, and the name of the company is below as a secondary consideration. So instead of being Mercury Root Beer, i should probably have labeled this post "Root Beer! ... (oh yeah, that's made by Mercury Brewing Co.)". Nothing on the label really stands out from the bland background except the little depiction of the Roman God of Messengers, Mercury himself (or Apollo if you subscribe more to the Greek mythological god naming protocol). Mercury can be seen drinking from a mug wearing his distinctive winged hat. Traditionally he is depicted wearing winged sandals to symbolize his speed, but the label only has him shown from the shoulders up. Kind of a bad call if you ask me Mercury/Ipswich Brewing Co. Instead of the giant "root beer" font on the label, maybe you should have shown a better image of Mercury in all his glory. Hey, even a picture of the planet Mercury would have been better. All the planets of course taking their names from Roman gods, Mercury was so named for being the innermost planet with proximity closest to the Sun, giving it the shortest orbital cycle. Indeed, Mercury's swiftness is displayed by completing an orbit once every 88 days, which means it circles the Sun a little more than 4 times every Earth Year. But while its eccentric orbital path may be the shortest distance of all the planets in the solar system, Mercury has one of the slowest rotational speeds, completing roughly three Mercurian days every two orbits. It has been documented for centuries via telescopic Earth observations, but was only visited via satellite during the mid 1970's Mariner Probe missions and recently at the end of the last decade via the Messenger flyby to study Mercury's core and magnetic field. Fascinating stuff. I mean, come on Mercury Brewing... i think you really dropped the ball on this label.

Outside the obvious connections between the websites listed on both the Freaky Dog Rooffbeer and Mercury Root Beer labels, one of the main reasons i wanted to try this one right after Freaky Dog (and quickly after) was to do a taste test between the two. Now, it wasn't side-by-side comparison, but i just reviewed Freaky Dog yesterday and i have to say... i think they are the same root beer. I think the same liquid is bottled in two separately labeled bottles and sold under separate distribution channels. A true side-by-side test would help me confirm my suspicion, but for the time being i am going to say that they taste identical.  It's not uncommon for one root beer to taste like another, but when both companies list the same brewery/website and then that website leads to a dead end and the only common link is a third unmentioned-on-the-label brewery, i gotta stop and think these crazy kids are trying to cover their tracks or something. Seems kinda fishy what these two companies are up to.

My official review is that Mercury Root Beer gets 5 (five) IBCs. Now i know what you're thinking... "Yo Cosmo, why would you give this a lower rating than Freaky Dog if they tasted identical? How can that one be better than this one bro? I mean, i know you're like super awesome and probably like real good lookin' and stuff. I mean, i aint never seen you and i'm not gay or nothin'. Like, i mean, i like girls and stuff. So ya know... just sayin'. But how could you do that bro?" My answer, dear reader, is this... because i can. In fact, i just did. It's not just the taste that sells the review. It's the whole package. And the Freaky Dog package is better than the Mercury Package. Need i say more? I do? Well... i'm not going to.

Freaky Dog Rooffbeer

 Ok, tracking down the correct website for this one took a little extra work (and i emphasize "little" cuz really i'm just sitting at a computer and typing and clicking), but i finally tracked down the right one. Freaky Dog Rooffbeer (clever) is bottled by Drinx Unlimited Inc., but is somehow associated with Mercury Brewing Company. Both companies' websites are on the label. Typing in MercuryBrewing.com will send you here. Not much help. Google searching Mercury Brewing lead me here (after clicking on the sodas page). I didn't see Freaky Dog Rooffbeer on this site, but i did see Mercury Root Beer, which i have at home and in light of all this i will probably review that one next. So i will talk more about that page/company in my next post. Typing in DrinxUnlimited.com took me here, which brought me much closer to my final destination. All i had to do was click on the icon in the top left corner and we finally get to the correct website for Freaky Dog Rooffbeer. So making sense of the whole thing i found out that brothers Tom and Jim Magli grew up in Connecticut with a father in the soda business. They too went into the beverage distribution business for a while before starting their own distribution company (Drinx Unlimited). So that explains that. I am still not certain how they are associated with Mercury Brewing, but i will go so far as to say they probably contract Mercury to brew their root beer. Don't really care to do further research though cuz that's not really what you, my loyal readers, really care about. The name Freaky Dog comes from a little beagle rescue dog Jim and his wife adopted and named Eddie (aka Little Eddie). The site gives some details about the crazy antics of this destructive/kleptomaniac dog of theirs that they just love to death. I like animals in general, including dogs, but i've never been big on pets, so this didn't tug at my heart strings like it might with some of you dog lovers out there. But if you care to read up on Little Eddie and see some videos of him (i presume they are of him), you can check out the website for yourselves. It's set up to be a fun site. The home page has a little animation at the top of Eddie walking down a sidewalk. I'd suggest hovering you mouse over him for a moment for a little thrill and then disappointment in yourself that you actually wasted you time by listening to my suggestion.

Tom and Jim's website stress the fact that all 16 fun flavors of their sodas are bottled in clear 12 oz. glass bottles so you can see the soda. That was a big thing for these guys when they were kids. The Freaky Dog label depicts a cartoon version of Little Eddie with a menacing look in his eyes and a very toothy grin. The font is big and catchy, and these two components dominate the label. There really isn't anything else on it other than the nutritional facts and some website details hidden off on the sides. It's a nice enough label. I don't hate it. Not super elaborate, but these guys weren't just phoning it in either.

One thing that i noticed different about the bottle is the level they fill it to. Without going back to do the research personally, i'm going to go out on a limb and say every other root beer i have reviewed is filled to or near the "normal" level, allowing a little room between the liquid and the cap for whatever reason. I think this is the only one i have tried so far that has the bottle filled to the "not normal" level. Not sure if this was a one-off goof or standard practice for the boys over at Drinx Unlimited. Being in a clear glass bottle it's easy to see this distinctly, but i really didn't give it much thought until i twisted off the cap and gave it the smell test before drinking it. I couldn't help but think that the liquid was a lot closer to my nose than normal (because when i do my smell test, i stick my nose inside the bottle neck as far as i can to get a good seal). That's not a bad thing, it's just a stupid observation i made. Not a big benefit or detriment for this root beer's rating at all, but something to consider.

I expected this one to have kind of a bland taste like many of the others i have had recently. I was surprised at my first drink though and thought it was really good and had a different kick to it. It was kind of peppery (like a Dr. Pepper) and had a mix of root beer candy barrel and cane sugar sweetness flavor. But the longer i drank it, the less unique i thought it was. By the end, it had slid back into the mediocre taste slot that is common among many root beers. The carbonation is decent and it's not as "thin" flavored as most, but it can be a bit watery. Still, i have to say it's better than a lot of root beers out there. But just barely.

My official review is that Freaky Dog Rooffbeer (still clever) gets 6 (six) IBCs. I think it's a cut above mediocre, but not quite ready for the big leagues (i threw that one in for Tom and Jim cuz the website says they are big baseball fans).  Nice label, amusing name, cute back story, but just kind of a decent taste that's not too bad. Valiant work though guys, keep it up. Grab some if you have the chance. But if you're looking for root beer candy barrels, there is really only one option.

Avery's Root Beer

This is another root beer i got in a not-so-recent shipment from the Soda Emporium. Avery's is another retro soda brand from long ago that produces a wide variety of flavors. It's named after Sherman F. Avery, the guy who started brewing it in his barn in 1904 in New Britain, CT. There is a picture of him as well as his barn on the website if you're interested in taking a look. Home delivery was a big part of his business, and apparently citizens of New Britain and surrounding areas can still get sodas delivered to their homes over 100 years later. I would suggest taking a look at the website and browsing around. The company seems to be really involved in the community and gives the opportunity for people to come in and make their own sodas. I am not kidding about the wide variety of flavors. The selection reminds me of the vastness of Jones Soda flavors. There is even a line of flavors called "Gross Sodas" which were inspired by kids coming in and making their own sodas. Customers can even design their own labels for fun or special occasions or whatever. Not necessarily new ideas as i have seen these options before (i.e. in my Surf City Root Beer review from Brewbakers in San Diego), but I like how Avery's gives its customers opportunities to get involved.

All the sodas on the website are bottled in 12 oz. clear glass bottles like the one in the picture above. The Avery's logo dominates the top of the label with the slogan "Always ask for Avery's". The label has a very retro look and feel to it. I doubt it has changed much if at all from the time Sherman started bottling his drinks. It's very simple but eye catching. It has a fresh look to it. Not my favorite label ever, but definitely a step above a lot of the competition. You'll also notice that it doesn't actually say "root beer" anywhere on the label because it's the same one they use on all their drinks. I guess that's their way of keepin' it real or something.

The root beer is flavored with pure cane sugar making it fairly sweet, but the overall flavor is a little thin and watery. This is common of many clear glass bottle root beers i have tried, and i have yet to make a valid connection as to why. So i kinda wasn't expecting much on the taste. It's definitely not terrible, but it doesn't knock my socks off either.

My official review is that Avery's Root Beer gets 5 (five) IBCs. I like a lot about the company and its a decent root beer. That doesn't make it one of my favorites though. It just kinda falls in the middle like so many others. I don't mind it at all, but nothing about the flavor really stands out to me. Unfortunately this leaves Avery's with a mediocre rating. But if you're dying to try one, i don't think you'd be wasting your time. I just have better root beers to be drinking is all.

Bedford's Root Beer

This is another root beer i ordered from the Soda Emporium. Bedford's Root Beer comes from Port Angeles, WA and has been around since 1984. I know this because it says so right on the label. The root beer is currently distributed through Orca Beverages, same as Red Arrow Root Beer. Little else is known by me about this root beer, but the name Bedford's is a little generic. There are tons of things that come up in Google when you enter Bedford's... a roofing service, a town in England, several inns/motels in various locations, and even some weird oceanic creature called a flatworm, which is just one more reason i hate everything in the ocean. But finding more info on the root beer named Bedford's was more difficult for me than all these other (un)interesting topics sharing the same name. For the most part though, i got what i wanted straight from the bottle.

This root beer comes in a classic (i've taken to calling it classic now, cuz i'm fancy) 12 oz amber glass bottle. The label isn't over the top amazing, but it is eye-catching. The big letter B in the center swirled in what appear to be some kind of vines or something draws your attention away from the fact that this is probably the only root beer i've seen where the name "Bedford's" is actually below the words "Root Beer". So reading in the traditional Western practice of left to right, top to bottom, it reads Root Beer Bedford's. A little clunky for my liking, but it's all about what you're used to i suppose. For example, here in America we would call the longest river in the country the Mississippi River. In contrast, over lovely friends over in England call the river dividing the city of London the River Thames. Neither is wrong, just a different way of saying it i suppose. I suspect it's part upbringing and part preference. But just between you and me, those people over in England are saying it wrong.

This stuff isn't half bad. It's quite sweet (made with pure cane sugar) and has a faint molasses taste to it, but it's not unpleasant. It has a good root beer flavor and decent carbonation. The flavor does fade fairly quickly though, and it leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth (literally, not figuratively). But for the most part, it's a decent root beer. Much better than Red Arrow, which is distributed by the same company.

My official review is that Bedford's gets 6 (six) IBCs. It's a good root beer. Not my first choice, but good. Really not much else to say about it, so... yeah. Lets just leave it at that.

Tower Root Beer

Here is another root beer i got from the Soda Emporium site. Tower Root Beer has a lot of history attached to it. It comes from Somerville, MA and has been serving the Boston area since 1914. The site has a big write up on the history of the family run company, complete with some cool black and white pics from way back. The company that produced Tower Root Beer was called Prospect Hill Beverages, LLC which was a location where a tower stood atop a small hill for which the root beer is named. It was started by three brothers (i assume they are brothers, although it never really specifies) from Italy named Domenick, Giuseppe and Felice Cusolito.

Very Italian mob boss sounding names. During the years of prohibition, the company thrived and expanded to service much of New England throughout the Depression and into the 1960's. In 1969 the company was sold to a conglomerate and a franchise was run by Domenick's son Richard until 1978, at which time Tower went off the market. Then in the late 90's, Domenick's grandson Larry found the old recipe and brought the root beer back into production. All this can be seen on the website. Kind of a neat story i guess.

This root beer came in a stout brown 12 oz glass bottle, but the website tells of a time that the root beer was bottled in clear bottles until the acquisition of several 7 oz amber bottles from a beer brewery that was shut down during Prohibition. Ever since then, the brown glass bottles were used. I like the label. It has the old timey look of something you'd find in a pharmacy or apothecary. The font and colors selected are classically in line with the way it has always been made. The small circular depiction of the tower in the center includes the words "better than the best". While i admire the brash show of confidence, it has already been established that nothing can be better than IBC. Nothing gets 10 IBCs except IBC. Sorry Tower, you're just wrong on that one.

Keeping true to the old recipe, Tower is sweetened with pure cane sugar. But the ingredients on the label don't give any other indication to the flavor of the root beer. I think it has a very subtle molasses base which thankfully is not overpowering. But aside from that and the cane sugar i can't say i really get a root beer taste from it. That doesn't make it bad. In fact, i find myself enjoying this stuff quite a bit and perhaps without justified reason because i can't really defend it. I just like it. It's not amazing, but i wouldn't mind having another any time soon.

My official review is that Tower gets 6 (six) IBCs. I teetered on giving this one a 7, but i don't think it's quite deserving of that high a rating. But it's enjoyable, satisfying, has good carbonation and a pleasant taste, and therefore is easily deserving of a 6. Well done Tower. And welcome back.

Red Arrow Root Beer

A few months back i made a couple large online orders for root beers from a couple different sites, so the next several root beers that i will review will be from one of these sites i used. Red Arrow Root Beer was found on the site Soda Emporium, which has turned out to be quite useful as they cycle through new things all the time. They usually have the option to order individual bottles of a root beer, but sometimes they are only available in 4 or 6 packs. Shipping is always the killer with acquiring sodas this way, so it's only viable for me to order as many as i can/need at a time rather than one by one as they become available. But like i said, this is a good site for getting new root beers. Red Arrow is distributed by a company called Orca Beverages operated out of northern Washington state. They distribute a lot of older/classic sodas that aren't in regular circulation right now. I didn't spend to much time on it, but it's kind of a neat site.

The bottle is a tall 12 oz. dark brown glass bottle and the label is very simple and straight forward. I don't want to say lack luster because it really contains everything it needs and still caught my eye with the basic design of it. Sometimes simple is good. I like it.

I gotta say though, i wasn't as impressed with the taste. It had a nice hint of wintergreen aroma as i first twisted off the cap, but the taste left me wanting. It was very watery, sweet tasting from the cane sugar, but other than that i couldn't decipher much of a root beer flavor from it. I got a bit of anise flavor from it and it has somewhat of a sharp, almost spicy aftertaste (not uncommon to many root beers). It got better the more i drank it, but still was overall a bit of a let down. All the flavors were quite subtle and when all was said and done i had basically forgotten it.

My official review is that Red Arrow gets 4 (four) IBCs. I was leaning hard towards a 3 at first, but talked myself into a 4 after drinking it for a while. I realize that the reviews most people are interested in reading are the root beers which are very highly or very lowly rated. I want to deliver on those types of reviews, but the truth of the matter that the majority of root beers out there are just middle of the road. This happens to be another one of them, although i would consider it slightly less than middle of the road. Not the worst thing out there, but not my style. Go ahead and skip it.