Old Town

The Pooj prepares to hit the town.

(Cost Plus World Market, January 2011)

If your store is called the Old Town Root Beer Company, I say you’d better make a good house root beer – otherwise just close down shop and go home. That having been said, I actually did not find Old Town Root Beer at an Old Town Root Beer Company store, so one way or the other, I don’t expect the owners of that store to close down and go home. For that matter, I don’t expect the Old Town Root Beer Company to do so either – quite the contrary, I hope they have a long and fruitful life, because they make quite a good house-brand root beer!

Old Town uses honey very well as a secondary sweetener – it smoothes out the texture and adds a nice flavor that does not overpower the herbs like honey has a tendency to do. The rest of the flavors blend together very well to give a good root-y initial taste that continues to build as you drink more of it. Although cane sugar is the main sweetener, it does not detract from the herb flavors like it can in other root beers. Many of these other root beers hit you first with a heavy sweetness that only fades into root-iness. It’s actually the other way around here – Old Town hits you with a nice rich root-iness, with the sweetness following through with the aftertaste. Even then, the aftertaste is refreshingly herb-y.

Bravo to Old Town Root Beer Company for making their namesake beverage proud. Now all I have to do is find one of their stores and get some from the draught… Old Town gets a high 4.