I’ve been a big root beer fan all my life. There was an A & W Root Beer place in Little Rock that was very popular in the 60’s and 70’s. The car hops served it in big, frosted glass mugs. Root Beer floats are still my favorite.
I’ve read that root beer isn’t as popular as it used to be.
There’s still a lot of brands. IBC is my favorite. Barq and Mug my least. A & W used to be only available as a fountain (tap) drink. They started selling it in cans in the 70’s. Somehow, it doesn’t taste the same.
Root Beer is naturally caffeine free. I get too much caffeine from coffee. It’s nice having a soda that doesn’t get me jumpy.
IBC is definitely up there, though I wouldn’t swear it’s the best.
A surprising one is the Albertson’s store brand: It’s not as good as the only-sold-in-glass-bottles brands, but it’s a fair bit better than Barq’s, Mug, or A&W (at least, bottled A&W; I’m not familiar with it from a tap), and for half the price.
Sprecher is my brand of choice. I can find it at my local butcher shop, and surprisingly at some hardware stores. It comes from Milwaukee so it may not be a national brand.
Otherwise I agree that IBC is good, but if you can find A&W on tap that is hard to beat.
Actually I just bought some at Bartel’s Drug (a Northwest pharmacy chain). Haven’t seen it in a long time either, but it was part of a RC cola/Canada Dry promotion. Gonna try it out tomorrow.
Boylan’s is the best I’ve ever had although I haven’t had very many outside of the major brands. Of those, I always liked Dad’s a lot but I can’t find it anymore. The worst that I’ve tried is Mug.
My favorite also. A bit more mellow than others cause of less carbonation but may be a bit sweeter. They don’t use HFCS or sugar but rather pure honey.
They sell it at Menard’s in Minnesota.
(I actually like their cream soda even better).
Of the ones in the poll I like IBC the best. But there are plenty of smaller/regional root beers that I like better.
Barq’s is the worst and doesn’t even deserve the label “root beer.” I prefer canned A&W over what they sell on tap in the restaurants which I know is sacrilege.
I do miss when a local beer and pizza movie theater used to have Henry Weinhard root beer on tap.
It’s debatable as to whether Barq’s even counts as root beer. It wasn’t originally marketed as such. They decided to slap the “root beer” label on it years later. Personally I don’t think it tastes much like root beer.
I used to collect root beers, though I sold my collection in 2002 shortly before I moved overseas. My favourite ones for regular drinking were probably IBC and Sioux City. Here in Britain the only brands commonly available (and I use the term “commonly” rather loosely, since you have to go to Chinatown or specialist stores) are Bundaberg and A&W. Bundaberg tastes nothing like root beer to me, which figures since it’s made in Australia—having lived there I can attest that the beverage is virtually unknown there.