Commander Ron’s Root Beer is made by Moonglade Brewery in
Oceanside, CA. The brewery was started in 2017 by a guy named Jason who began
experimenting with making craft sodas from the original English recipe for
ginger beer (or so the website says). It looks like they only put out two
flavors as of now, a ginger beer and a root beer, and if they ginger beer is
anything like the root beer I’ll go ahead and skip it (more on that later). My
wife and kids picked up a 4-pack of these tall cans as a Father’s Day gift for
me. We “enjoyed” 3 of them and the last has been sitting in my fridge taking up
space until I could find a time to review it. Seems to be a problem I am
increasingly running into, but luckily my backlog isn’t getting out of control
again. So let’s talk about this one and mark it off the list, shall we?
I think my wife just got these off Amazon, and if so they
aren’t that cheap. For a 4 pack of tall 12 oz cans it ran her about $20 from
what I am seeing currently. That’s steep for a root beer considering a 12 pack
of regular cans in any grocery store runs… what, about $8-$10 now? I don’t
actually know. I know I seem like a man of the people, but in reality I have no
idea what my butler pays when he picks up my groceries. Anyway, I do like the
label on these cans. There is a playful looking boat captain with a nautical
shaped hat and the silhouette of a large sailing vessel on the horizon while
the foreground is adorned with tropical trees and an eye catching font. It’s
colorful, whimsical and fun, full of promise and the hope that what is sealed inside
will be both interesting and refreshing. Sadly, it is neither.
Now, I don’t want to come out swinging at this one just yet. This guy Jason seems like a dude just trying to do his thing and make a decent product using natural ingredients. I don’t have an issue with that, but I’m simply not impressed with the taste of this stuff. For starters, it’s super watered down tasting and nearly completely devoid of any carbonation. Ingredients listed on the label are real vanilla, molasses and a hint of cinnamon, which gives this a very "spicy" overall flavor. It somewhat reminds me of the Christmasy flavored root beers, like Dad's. The can also says it is sweetened with pure cane sugar, but the best way I can describe the overall taste is “unpleasant”. I wouldn’t call this a “healthy” soda cuz I don’t think that’s the lane Commander Ron is trying to pilot in. But I would call it a “bad” soda because… well, it’s bad. I don’t like it. My wife doesn’t like it. My kids don’t like it. And as I’ve said numerous times before we all know my wife and children don’t have opinions that matter when it comes to this subject, but I figured it was still worth mentioning, if for nothing else than effect.
My official review is Commander Ron’s gets 4 (four) IBCs. This should be a 3 but the label is doing the heavy lifting to raise this up for me. I really don’t see myself ever getting this again, and certainly not spending $20 for 4 cans. Free shipping be damned, this stuff simply isn’t worth the trouble. Sorry Jason, nothing personal, except that your root beer sucks, so take that as personally or non-personally as you’d like I guess. I am but a humble truth teller in the realm of root beers and I cannot in good conscience endorse this beverage. Kudos on the name and label though. Maybe re-tool this one and come back with something more palatable.
