Flashback Olde Time Root Beer

Happy New Year everyone! We made it! Well this time of year is a time for new beginnings and i wanted to review a root beer today to reflect that, but when i looked through my inventory i didn't feel i had anything that really matched the criteria. However, i do have one that is synonymous with looking back and reminiscing over the past year, so i think i am going to go that direction with this review. First off, i must say congratulations to all of you who survived the Mayan Apocalypse which wiped out  all but 1/8th of the world's population just a few weeks ago. I assumed it would affect my reading audience, but hopefully i can recover and find new survivors to read my blog as they scavenge the wasteland in search of acceptable root beers. Other than the obvious end of civilization as we know it, 2012 was an eventful year. It was a leap year, an Olympic year, and an election year for starters. My wife had her 30th birthday, i had my golden birthday, and my baby had his first birthday last year. Really, for the purpose of this blog there is too much of last year to reminisce about, but what i am trying to say is that this seems like the perfect time to sit back and reflect on last year with a Flashback Olde Time Root Beer. This root beer comes from Seaside, OR and is distributed through Orca Beverages all around the Pacific Northwest. My friend Lafe moved up to Portland last year to start pharmaceutical school and picked this one up for me while checking out the area for an acceptable place to build a bunker and survive the apocalypse. Thanks again Lafe. If you care to go up to the ruins of Seaside you may find the malt shoppe and ice cream parlor where this root beer was crafted. Perhaps my wife and i will brave the wasteland some day and venture up to Flashback's for a chance to look back on what life was like so very long ago.

This root beer comes in a classic 12 oz. brown glass bottle with a very colorful label. The background is made to look like red bricks and the retro font style and design is supposed to remind people of the 1950's when malt shoppes and ice cream parlors were regular hang out spots for people. Apparently it still is for residents of Seaside. They are treated to themed nights of the week for particular deals and everything. Sounds like a popular destination. I gotta say, i like the label. It's fresh and fun. Flashback has 4 flavors of soda and each label is the same design layout with different color schemes for each. I haven't tried any of the other flavors, but i think i'd be willing to give them a shot if i ever got up there.

The folks in Oregon have a bit of a reputation for being very particular about the food they eat and the ingredients they use. It's a very high vegan population, and from what i hear, the humorous sketches on the TV show Portlandia are more or less quite accurate and credible of the way people live up there. So, that being said it's no surprise this root beer is made with natural ingredients, including cane sugar and honey. I am not a fan of most natural root beers, and i don't know that this one claims to be "all natural", but i do know this... it's pretty dang good. I like it quite a lot, and my wife agrees. This stuff is definitely not too shabby. It has a good amount of carbonation and a nice sweet, vanilla taste with just a tiny hint of honey (which is just enough for me). Overall, it's a well constructed root beer.

My official review is that Flashback Olde Time Root Beer gets 7 (seven) IBCs. I was very tempted to give it an 8. It's really almost there, but ultimately i thought an 8 might be a bit too generous. But to set the record straight, this stuff is really good. I would be glad to travel up to Seaside to visit the shoppe and have another anytime. So to anyone out there who is still alive and has internet access, check out Seaside, OR for some delicious root beer. And now that the word is out, be sure to get there quick before the roaming gangs of the wasteland do.