A&W Giving Away Root Beer Floats On August 6th

If you're a Root Beer Fan and like a nice Root Beer float then you are in luck! Your local A&W will be giving away free Root Beer floats on August 6th, 2017, to help raise funds for Disabled American Veterans. It's a worthy cause and you get a Root Beer float! Everybody wins!

A&W Restaurants nationwide are partnering with DAV (Disabled American Veterans) to celebrate National Root Beer Float Day on August 6. Root Beer lovers can participate in the festivities using hashtag #RootBeerFloatDay. All day long participating restaurants will give away free small Root Beer Floats with any purchase. For the first time, A&W will raise money for DAV, which supports more than one million veterans every year. A&W patrons will be encouraged to contribute to DAV during the celebration. Donations also can be made online at www.rootbeerfloatday.com.

A Look At Orca Beverages, Retro Soda At Its Best

Here's a look at a nice article on Orca Beverages, the maker of many fine retro Sodas and Root Beers. This Mukilteo, Washington enterprise is turning out many classic beverages using classic formulae, real Cane Sugar and a love for the product. I've had quite a few of their products and they've all been pretty darned good. Nice to see them getting some press time. Drop by for a look at Orca's website and, if you can't find their products near you, you can order direct from the manufacturer.

Will This Be Pepsi's "New Coke" Moment?

Mug Root Beer has been around for many years now and has been fairly successful with Root Beer drinkers. Now PepsiCo has decided that they will change up the formula. They're going to add in a new flavour/sweetness enhancer and reduce the actual sweetener used in the beverage. Why the decision to change something that has been working for years? Corporate shenanigans, most likely. Mug is a perfectly decent massed produced Root Beer and doesn't need any "improvements". If they really wanted to improve on it they could switch over to Sugar as their sweetener and put out some nice glass bottle editions of it. That would be an improvement. This does not bode well for Mug fans, I am thinking.

Rhode Island Root Beer

Well, it's time to head back to the New England area for our latest Root Beer. Olde Rhode Island Molasses Root Beer was a recent addition to my drinks queue and I must say that I am looking forward to giving it a try, despite my lack of faith in molasses sweetened Root Beers. This particular Root Beer is bottled by Empire Bottling Works of Bristol, RI for the folks at Real Soda In Real Bottles, Ltd.  I have some faith in the Real Soda folks. I have had a number of their offerings over the years and they've never let me down. Now we get to see if that holds true for Olde Rhode Island Root Beer.
   One thing is rather strange, though. One thing missing from the listed ingredients is molasses. Maybe it's part of the flavourings that are listed. Let's get to it!

Ingredients:

Natural Artesian Spring Water
100% Cane Sugar
Natural And/Or Artificial Flavor Extracts
Citric Acid
Sodium Benzoate

Aroma: A draft Root Beer aroma with some clove elements to it. Also some sugary scent with a hint of a molasses scent.

Head: Nice at the start, but dissipates quickly.

Carbonation: Nicely carbonated, with a bit of bite to it. Gentle on the palate, though.

Root Beer Flavour: A watered down draft flavour with some very subtle hints of molasses-like flavour. Not a very upfront flavour or very strong.

Sweetness: Nicely sweetened by the Sugar. Well balanced and not overly sweet.

Aftertaste: A slightly woody aftertaste. No lingering tastes other than Sugar sweetness.

Overall: Not a bad Root Beer, but it doesn't stand out in any particular area. The molasses flavouring is very subtle and the Root Beer flavour is mild. I did like that it had a bit of bite to it, but that didn't add a lot to the party.

Olde Rhode Island Molasses Root Beer gets a 6 out of 10.

Wondering Down Under

Now comes the wonder from Down Under. A Bundaberg Root Beer from Australia. I've been wanting to try one of these for a while now, but no-one has sold them individually in my area, till recently. On a recent Soda and Root Beer venturing I stopped in at a local Fresh Market to see what they might be offering and lo! and behold they had Bundaberg Root Beer for sale in their cooler. Without pause I snagged one and added it to my other purchases. I am really interested to see how such a brew holds up against its American rivals. Root Beer is such an American thing, but if anyone can get the spirit of it down in a location outside the US then it would be our Australian cousins.

Ingredients:

Carbonated Water
Cane Sugar
Root Beer Brew (Water, Sugar, Molasses, Ginger Root, Sarsaparilla Root, Licorice Root, Vanilla Bean, Yeast)
Caramel Colour
Citric Acid
Potassium Sorbate
Sodium Benzoate
Ascorbic Acid
Root Beer Flavour


Aroma: Strong licorice scent. Hints of molasses and sarsaparilla.

Head: Nice head. Doesn't dissipate as fast as many on the market.

Carbonation: Nicely carbonated. Not a lot of bite to it, though.

Root Beer Flavour: This is not your usual American Root Beer flavour. There's an astringency to it that is almost medicinal in nature. The molasses and licorice that are in the scent do not really show up at all in the taste profile. It's not bad, but it's not a flavour that many Americans would associate with Root Beer, as we are used to it. The sarsaparilla does come through a bit, though.

Sweetness: Well balanced in its sweetness. Not cloying in the least. They hit this just right and chose well in using Cane Sugar.

Aftertaste: There's an astringent taste that lingers on the back of the tongue, that is reminiscent of an alcoholic beer. Perhaps this is due to the yeast in the formulation. It's not unpleasant, at all, but it is unexpected.

Bundaberg Root Beer gets a 6 out of 10. Well worth trying, but it may not be your cuppa tea if you're stuck on American Draft Flavour.