Official Root Beer Flavour

by

Root beer, a once prevalent fizzy flavour is now as scarce as a silverback gorilla. It used to be a staple of Fast Food joints and corner shops alike. A perfect accompaniment to a McRib in McDonald’s (also now sadly departed) or a great way to wash down a strawberry sundae after a round of ten-pin bowling. It always had a bit of a marmite quality: you were either a kid that loved it or shunned it and I guess in these homogenous mass-market times, not appealing to all demographics will see you sidelined.

These days your best chance for a taste of the eponymous root lies in swigging dentist’s mouthwash so I was delighted to see SodaStream representing the old skool (sic) flavours once again and offering Root Beer alongside cream soda and ginger beer.

On cracking the bottle, the initial prognosis was good. An aroma of caramel, licorice and cordite. A syrup that pours out with the appearance and consistency of tar (don’t spill this on your carpet) to turn fizzy tap water completely opaque. Staring into a glass of Root Beer is like staring into a pint of Guinness. Somewhere in there lies the fall of nations, the death of dreams, the splitting of the atom. Abandon all hope all ye who enter.

And what of the taste? Overpowering, sweet, complex and best taken from a seated position. It’s not something I can describe well, but I’ll try. An initial dash of kerosene, a sear of carbonation, an infusion of herbal remedies and strychnine followed by a two note aftertaste of cherry and roses.

As you drink it you feel your teeth crying out for toothpaste. It has no value for refreshment and more than one glass might put hairs on your eyelids and send a small child rabid. Nonetheless, I can’t offer any criticism. For a fizzy drinks connoisseur this beverage is pure magic. It is everything a fizzy drink should be: No subtlety, incredibly sweet and a deranged flavour. I would definitely heartily recommend it to consenting adults everywhere.

Want to go Root Beer crazy? Snap at 6 bottles of the stuff for a bargain price here.

Rating: 4 out of 5

10 Responses

  1. Stuart says:

    What the hell is root beer?

    • Thunderlips says:

      Root Beer in Australia is known as Sarsaparilla and is quite easy to find. The real stuff, which we can still get here, has ingredients that include molasses, ginger root, sarsaparilla root, licorice root, vanilla bean and yeast.
      It’s really nice :)

  2. popsicle says:

    Well… I don’t know what root they use or if in fact it comes from a real or imaginary root, but lets say for the sake of imagination that it’s a drink made by pummeling roots and adding sugar and water.

  3. Lindsay says:

    Root beer was originally made from the root of the sassafras and sasparilla plants. It’s now mostly made of imitation ingredients.

  4. popsicle says:

    Nice one Lindsay, thank you for adding some wisdom.

    The SodaStream Root Beer bottle describes its flavour as: ‘Non-nutritive sweeteners (acesulfame potassium, sucralose)’, which let’s face it could be anything and a dash of lemon, which is rather more terrestrial.

  5. Homer Simpson says:

    Get rid of the “Root” and lets make Beer!
    BeerStream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  6. Dave says:

    If you people have never heard of root beer (or consider it an exotic flavor), obviously this blog is not based in the United States. Because root beer is very popular here, we even have a chain of fast food places called A&W that serve typical fast food along with A&W root beer floats.

    Every major soda manufacturer here has a root beer product, and the chain stores all have root beer in their house brand.

    • popsicle says:

      Correct Dave, this blog is based in the United Kingdom, though we welcome our ex-colonial cousins and have much respect for their role in driving forward the fizzy drinks concept.

      Over here in ‘good old blighty’ root beer is rarer than an albino panda, but it did used to be more prevalent and those of us who remember it, miss it dearly.

  7. JAMES says:

    HAVE TRYED ALL FLAVORS IS A WONDER IM STILL ALIVE ,THE TASTE IS LIKE NO SODA ON EARTH, HOWEVER I FOUND A SIMPLE SOLUTION,CALLED MY LOCAL PEPSI DIST BOUGHT A 5GAL BOX OF SYRUP FROM THEM THE MIXTURE IS LITTLE DIFFERNT USE 1 CUP OF SYRUP PER LITER AND YOU HAVE PEPSI THAT TASTE LIKE PEPSI, IM SURE THIS CAN BE DONE WITH OTHER FLAVORS AS WELL AHHH, AND YOU WONT SPROUT A 3RD EYE FROM DRINKING ALIAN CREATED SUBSTANCE

    • popsicle says:

      Great idea James, you win this month’s SodaStream Reviews Innovation Award. I can imagine that working really well although presumably you have to cane through the 5gals pretty quickly before it goes off or turns alcoholic? Personally, I’d much rather coke than pepsi, but beggars can’t be choosers and all that.

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Number of bottles fizzed 272

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