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.