Spring Grove

Root beer's happy Norwegian counterpart makes a new friend.

(Rocket Fizz Pasadena, October 2011)

"Mange tusen takk," which means "many thanks" in Norwegian, is emblazoned on the Spring Grove Root Beer label, honoring the fact that its hometown of Spring Grove, MN was one of the first Norwegian settlements in the Midwest. Spring Grove Bottling Works, which produces the root beer, was established in 1895, and is the oldest business in the city. According to the Spring Grove website, at least 3 sets of Norwegian hands are involved in the production of each and every bottle (which is actually corrected in the FAQs section of the site to 2 1/2 sets of hands, since one set is only half Norwegian...), which is significant because the bottles are still packed for shipment by hand.

First the positive: Spring Grove Root Beer has a nice head, which despite having larger bubbles than would qualify as head per se, does linger a while. Second, well, the rest: there's not much root beer scent and even less root beer flavor. And when I say "root beer flavor," I mean it in a generic sense because there aren't any distinct herbs or spices to speak of. To its credit, it actually tastes like real sugar - as in this is what a spoonful of sugar would taste like were I to eat a spoonful of sugar (in theory, that is, because, you know, I would never have dreamed of doing such a thing when I was a child, or an adolescent, or last week). Perhaps more accurately, given the slightly caramel-ish tones (and I say "slightly" rather generously), it tastes like I'm eating a turbinado sugar packet, and letting it dissolve slowly in my mouth (again, in theory, because I would never dream of grabbing handfuls of said packets for such a purpose every time I'm at the local mermaid-themed coffee shop). Maybe again to its credit, the aftertaste is also rather sweet, so at least it's consistent. 

Whether the hand is Norwegian or otherwise, it suffices to say that Spring Grove Root Beer uses a pretty heavy one whence applying the sugar during production. That in and of itself doesn't make it unpleasant - in fact it's actually kind of nice and smooth if that's what you're looking for. Unfortunately, when it comes to root beer, that's not what I'm looking for. Spring Grove Root Beer gets a 2.