Teddy's

"It comes in pints...?"

(Big Lots, July 2010)

Teddy’s Root Beer has been somewhat elusive to me – I first saw Teddy’s Root Beer at a party a couple years ago, and because I didn’t actually get to try it at said party, I’ve been trying to find out where it was sold since then without much success (albeit, I wasn’t looking very hard…). At long last, I discovered it at a Big Lots while looking for ice cube trays – a somewhat auspicious day, as root beers come, since you’ll recall that’s the same day I found the Santa Cruz Organic – which of course may actually make it slightly less auspicious, seeing as the Santa Cruz Organic didn’t turn out to be very good, and even less auspicious when you factor in the failure to find ice cube trays. In any case, I did happen across the Teddy’s that day, and happened across what appeared to be the last bottle of it – the bull moose* almost eluding me once again – but the key word here is almost, since I made like a Dakota cowboy and wrangled it home. Still, given that the previous bargain store root beer purchase was rough riding, I had my doubts about this one…

I am pleased to report, however, that Teddy’s is no nature faker. The taste is similar to that of an old fashioned root beer like Dad’s, earthy and herby, with a pleasant sweetness that doesn’t hit the herb-iness with a big stick. Fortunately, the aftertaste is not bitter like Dad’s, but rather speaks softly of licorice. There is a slightly empty flavor that’s inherent in using HFCS – real sugar generally has a deeper, richer flavor (Sprecher compensates by adding honey for the depth of flavor) – but I’m no mugwump when it comes to HFCS, so I don’t really mind. Actually, were I to postulate on what old fashioned root beer candies are supposed to taste like, I would postulate that they are supposed to taste like Teddy’s Root Beer!

Yet I’m having a hard time squaring the deal on what rating to give Teddy’s – since I liked Teddy’s enough to certainly buy more in the future, I’m inclined to give it a 4. If a 3 is just above mass market brand names (amongst which I would give Mug a 1-ish, A&W a 3-minus, and Barq’s a slightly higher 3-minus as my preferred mass-market brand name**), then Teddy’s is definitely better than a 3.5. Having said that though, it’s not as good as Sprecher, which I also gave a 4. For clarity’s sake, I’m not going to go down to quarter-points and give it a 3.75, so thus Teddy’s gets a 4 – a low 4, but a 4 nonetheless.

* Based on the artist’s rendering on the label, I’m assuming the “Teddy” in Teddy’s is none other than our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt. And we all know what assuming does: it makes me drop obscure historical references in everything written from here on out.

** These mass-market brand name rankings actually hint towards my root beer flavor preferences, and thus my biases as far as my rating goes. Since I don’t like Mug, one can surmise I don’t like my root beer too sweet. While I think A&W is quite tasty and quite smooth, if I had to choose between A&W and Barq’s, I would choose Barq’s, indicating that I like having a little “bite,” as they call it. That is, I prefer a slightly sharper flavor to my root beers – not to the point of bitterness or tree bark, but definitely more on the herby side. You can take this into account when evaluating my tastes/ratings compared to yours. Basically, if I’d rather have a Barq’s over the root beer being rated, it gets a 1 or 2, depending on how much I didn’t like it. If I’d rather have the root beer being rated instead of a Barq’s, but am not likely to seek it out again in the future, it gets a 3. If I do plan on seeking it out again, it gets a 4. If I plan on seeking it out in large quantities, it gets a 5.

Relaunch and Root Beer!

Webpage redesign……………….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I never thought I’d ever step onto the oft-tread food blogger path, but the missus had a good idea – and while I don’t know much, I know that when the missus has a good idea, I should do it. So I’m going to start cataloguing all the different root beers I try from here on out, and review them based on my subjective preferences (Just face it, fellow bloggers – even though you have a blog, rate things on your blog, and people read your blog, you’re not as objective as you like to think you are).

This should result it, at the very least, a list that I can refer back to prior to making a root beer run so I can remind myself what I liked and what I didn’t. This should also make it easier for me to remember, when I see an unfamiliar label, whether or not I’ve tried that particular brew before.

Or perhaps the missus only wants me to digitally catalogue my root beer conquests so that the physical catalogue of my root beer conquests (i.e., the bottle collection sitting on the shelf above the stove and on the windowsill) doesn’t overwhelm her kitchen… Hmmm…

Ahem…

To begin, I need to set up some sort of rating system so that I can rank my favorite root beers. For now, let’s use the following:

5 – Where have you been all my life?!? (God, my wife, this root beer – in that order.)

4 – Thank you sir, may I have another. (I like it; I will buy more in the future.)

3 – Meh. (I’ll drink it, but it’s nothing special; a step above mass-market brands.)

2 – Charlatan! (Maybe good soda, but not really root beer; lacks root beer flavor.)

1 – Dear God, is this durian juice?!? (Umm, I didn’t like it.)

Onto my first beverage!

Gale’s

The Pooj gazes upon the beverage hopefully, expectantly.

(Rocket Fizz, June 2010)

The label boasts “cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla” as ingredients, which piqued my curiosity. As a disclaimer, I should note that I usually prefer my root beers fairly traditional in the sense that I don’t typically like it when there’s a whole lot of extra stuff added to it. That may explain why I don’t particularly like Virgil’s, which is probably tantamount to root beer sacrilege. The overly herb-y flavor leaves an unpleasant aftertaste, like I just chewed on some bark. And while I generally prefer root beers that have a more traditional root-y flavor, I don’t generally like beverages that are too bitter, hence why I’m also not a big fan of Dad’s – I like that flavor in old-fashioned root beer candy, but not so much in a drink, where it can come off slightly medicinal. It’s got to be sweet enough to not taste like cold fizzy black coffee.

But I digress….

So as I was saying, the label states that Gale’s Root Beer is cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla flavored. Unfortunately that’s at the expense of being root beer flavored. The first taste has a slightly-better-than-mass-market-root-beer flavor to it, better in part because of a nice vanilla richness, followed by a ginger aftertaste similar to that of a good ginger ale. There’s heat there, probably from the combination of ginger and cinnamon, like Reed’s Ginger Brew, but it’s not overwhelming and fades quickly. As I got further down the bottle, there was more of a cinnamon scent, but the cinnamon taste was never really that noticeable. On the whole, it’s a pleasant drink – good balance of sweetness (real sugar) and spice.

But since Gale’s calls it root beer, and it doesn’t really have much of a root beer flavor – more of a ginger ale with slightly rooty taste – as nice as I found Gale’s as a soda, I’m going to have to give it a 2.5.