Don’t suppose anyone would like to explain to me the difference between root beer, birch beer, and sarsaparilla? I love all of the above, but I’ve always vaguely suspected that they were the same thing. They taste a little different, but of course considering how different various brands of root beer are, that doesn’t mean much.
Two Malaysian guys I worked with who went to school in the US said that the most disgusting things they were encouraged to try were:
- cranberry sauce
- meatloaf
- rootbeer
Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer is delish.
Virgil’s also.
Barq’s is yummy. Diet Barqs tastes almost exactly the same–but no caffeine! (Geez.)
IBC used to be my favorite, but last time I had some I thought it was kind of flavorless. Don’t know what happened.
And also, I can testify that people in Japan (at least, ones I spoke to on the subject) also say Root Beer tastes like medicine.
-FrL-
Is it anything like Beverly?
IMO, it’s more like Veno’s Cough Syrup. Not in bad way, either :dubious:
Schells 1919. Absolutely the best stuff, but very rare. As far as I know, you can only get it by the keg, which pretty much rules out me having it in my fridge.
My Norwegian husband, who does not like root beer, says it tastes like drinking chewing gum. Same thing for birch beer.
My kids, raised in Norway, love both and drink as much as they can when we’re in the States.
My everyday standby is either IBC (which I can snag a bottle of for free at work on my way out,) or Stewart’s. I actually don’t like Barq’s at all, and if I have to drink a larger-chain’s brand, I go for A&W or Mug. Most generic or store brand root beers I don’t like the taste of, but damn if Price Chopper doesn’t actually have a really good root beer.
<SLAPS VernWinterbottom with Wet Trout Inside Soda Bottle. HARD!>
I love Root Beer, but it’s almost impossible to get it in this part of the world. The Bundaberg Beer people used to make it- and it was very nice- but I can’t find it in the supermarket here and most people only seem to remember it as a vague memory in the “I had that once” vein.
Ironically, you can get Irn-Bru from most supermarkets. Rather an odd state of affairs, really…
I introduced my Thai wife to the wonders of the root-beer float. She loves for me to make it for her now.
This reminds me of my buddy’s housewarming party several years ago. He’d always wanted to do a “root beer tasting” so when we were out shopping we hit the BevMo and got a selection of root beers - something like 30 varieties, ranging from standards like Barq’s and A&W through the little specialty “microbrew” root beers.
Then we did a blind taste testing and everybody filled out a form with their thoughts as we tried each sample. We had at least 20 people participating.
At the end we totalled it all up and the winner by a long shot was one of the major name-brands (I think it was Barq’s but I’d have to check). Many of the microbrews were judged to be truly awful. Tasters were your average 30-something year old crowd, many are “foodies”.
So there’s a wide variety of flavors out there and not everybody likes them all (or even the same thing). A number of types taste like nasty medicine or petrochemicals, but others are really delicious.
For the most part, I’d agree… But the Albertson’s store brand is actually pretty good. It doesn’t compare with the really good ones like IBC (or probably that Virgil’s stuff, though I’ve never tried it), but it’s better than your standard Barq’s, Mug, or A&W. Most unusually for a store brand, Albertson’s also has cream soda. Again, it’s not as good as the deluxe brands, but I’m not even sure there exists any other non-deluxe brand of cream soda.
Publix (Florida-based chain of excellent supermarkets) has its own store brand root beer and cream soda. I think Archer Farms (the high-end Target brand) may as well, but I’m not sure.
A-Treat has red cream soda, but that’s a very regional brand. (Pennsylvania, as usual, gets all the good junk food.) I don’t know if it’s any good - I’m not a cream soda fan - but I do know their birch beer is seriously yum and their cola is the only non-deluxe brand I actually like.
Nowadays Virgil’s is my go-to root beer, but the best I ever had was the homebrew stuff from the Unicorn Pub in Seattle (it’s been closed for a decade, and I still miss it–that was some damn fine root beer).
A-Treat’s sarsaparilla was also great, as was their golden ginger ale. I may have to break down and see if they do mail order.
BJ’s make their own root beer, and mighty fine tasting root beer it is.
I went and bought some root beer today because I’ve been thinking about it nonstop since this thread started.
What kind?
IBS. Oh wait, that’s the irritable bowel thing.
Um… IBT. No wait… that’s a gay bar
…IBC! That’s it! IBC.