The Pooj knows your name.Here’s a bit of trivia for you: the person that owns and operates AJ Stephans is not named AJ Stephans. Rather, Jeff Rose named the company after a combination of his children’s and his own names. The beverages he creates, on the other hand, have his family name written all over them – 200 recipes handed down from Jeff’s grandfather. Although the bottle says that they’re from Boston, the company actually started in Maine, and presumably still uses unprocessed water from an artesian spring near Providence. While their signature brew is supposedly their Ginger Beer, we are, of course, not the Stark Raving (Ginger Beer) Blog! so we’ll stick to their root beer for now.
That turns out to be a good decision, as AJ Stephans Root Beer is quite good. Initial sips can be a bit biting due to a hard, almost burning carbonation – in fact, that’s pretty much the only thing holding it back from a higher rating. Ordinarily, letting a bottle sit opened for a few minutes can release enough of the carbonation to remove any unpleasantness, which holds true here, except that once the carbonation starts to go, it goes pretty fast. So wait a little bit after opening it to enjoy it, but enjoy it quickly thereafter. Flavor-wise, it leans towards the wintergreen side, and the wintergreen carries through to the slightly menthol-y aftertaste. Wintergreen is also dominant in the scent, so I can confidently say that it tastes pretty much exactly like it smells. Texture-wise, it’s pretty rich and pretty smooth once you get past the shock of the initial carbonation. Sugar-wise, it’s just sweet enough – not too much, but not bitter either. Although wintergreen is dominant, it plays well with some vanilla and sassafras tones.
All in all, a good root beer – I give AJ Stephans a solid 4.
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