GOURMETROOTBEER.COM

Eric's Gourmet Root Beer Site

My root beer reviews and ratings, loads of ratings. As you can see I rate every root beer that I try. The higher they are on the page, the better the rating. Click on the link at the bottom of the page for more ratings.

Bad Root Beers

Picture of Bottle	Name	Review	Rating	Where I got it
	Berghoff Root Beer	This was almost drinkable on acount of a very sweet Body. It also had a nice Bite to it. The Head however was awful, almost none. The After Taste started out nice, but then turned icky and left a bad flavor in my mouth for quite some time.		I ordered this online
	Barrle Brother's Root Beer	The Body was good at first but then a strange herbal flavor surfaced that was not the tastiest one to have in my mouth. It was creamy though. The tingly herbal Bite attacks you with the first drink. The Head is excellent and frothy, just as the bottle boasts and the After Taste is herbal and of vanilla. In reviewing the ingredients I found Yucca extract to which I attribute the awful herbal flavor. It just ruins everything.		I found this at BYU.
	Abita Root Beer	Abita was a tough one to judge. The Body was strong rooty flavor, yet lacking in that there was no honey and it wasn't very creamy. There was also a hint of icky in the Body after the initial contact. The Bite was solid, though not overly pleasureable. The Head was fair. The After Taste was that same icky though not really strong. When it finally came down to it I had to ask myself if given the opportunity to drink this again, would I? After much deliberation and a few bottles, I must answer no.		I ordered this online
	Virgil's Root Beer	This has a very complex flavor with all sorts of things that in my opinion have no business being in root beer. However it has an all right Body but the absence of honey is very noticeable. The After Taste is of anise (one ingredient that I feel has no business in root beer). The Head could be much better, and there is not much Bite.		This can be obtained by the ordering online, or you can look at stores but it is hard to find.
	Pallino Root Beer	The sweet Body was light on everything else though the anise was noticeable. The Bite was light as well, giving a smooth brew. The Head was rather large but fizzed away quickly. The After Taste was a sticky anise and vanilla flavor. The anise ruins what would otherwise be a pleasurable experience.		I found this in Sea-Tac Airport.
	Triple XXX Root Beer	I drank more bottles of this root beer than normal and every time I got something different. The Body was sometimes sweet and full, sometimes watery and lacking. The Bite was sometimes harsh, sometimes smooth. The Head was never very frothy but ranged between nonexistent and not bad. It always fizzed away quickly though. The After Taste was sometimes (see a pattern here?) very nice and of vanilla, and sometimes very weak. The inconsistency of it all was appalling, though, sometimes the root beer was really good.		I ordered this online.
	Pirate's Keg Root Beer	This root beer has an ok Body a weak Bite and the Head is nothing special. The After Taste leaves something to be desired. The bottle and name are cool but all around It is just not good enough to be drinkable.		I found this in the Mystic Land of the North......... Canada.
	Mendocino Taubold's private reserve Root Beer	This is a very mild root beer. It has no real Bite to speak of and it also has a weak Body and Head. The After Taste is fruity. But it does have a nice tale on the back of the bottle.		I got this from my Grandma who got it in in Menocino, CA
	Waialua Root Beer	The Body was weak and not very flavorful, you could taste the right stuff but you had to look very hard to find it. The Bite was nothing special. The Head was large but not frothy at all. It fizzed away in several seconds. The After Taste was a very weak vanilla flavor that was almost instantly gone after it appeared. Maybe if they put two to three times the flavor it would be something worth talking about, however, as it was, when I finished drinking it, I looked down at my empty glass asking myself, what did I just drink? If it hadn't said root beer on the label, I wouldn't have known.		I ordered it online.
	Napa Valley Root Beer	The Body is ok, very sweet but fruity and kind of weak. The bite is really not there at all. The Head is awful; it fizzes away in like 2 seconds. the After Taste is fruity as well, but luckily it goes away quickly. It is an organic root beer with such organic ingredients like caramel color, and natural flavor. It has a hint of the right stuff, but not enough. Most likely because natural flavor is the last ingredient. Like other root beers from the Napa Valley area, they wrote some spiel about Napa Valley and quality and what not, but once again, the product does not live up to the "tradition of excellence."		I found this in Provo at Macey's.
	Mad River Root Beer	Fabolous Bite. But the Head is terrible, the Body is weak and the After Taste is strange.		You can order this online.
	A J Stephan's Root Beer	The Body is not very sweet and "dark" tasting if you know what I mean. There is lots of "flavor" (one of the ingredients) but I wouldn't say that that is necessarily a good thing. There is not much Bite at all. The Head is nice though it could be frothier. The After Taste is sticky, almost cola-ish, and with more of the "flavor." I think that I caught a hint of anise in there too. My reaction when I finished it, "Yeah, it's a root beer."		You can order this online.
	Natural Brew Root Beer	I am not too fond of this one. It starts out with a full Body and good Bite. But then a strong licorice flavor surfaces that grows stronger the more you drink. The After Taste is very strong licorice.		I have found this all across the west coast in the health food section of the supermarkets
	Old Fashioned Root Beer	This is all right at first but an absence of vanilla ruins the Body and the After Taste. The After Taste is a strange herbal flavor and there is not much Bite at all. Head is mediocre at best.		I have found this all across the west coast in the health food section of the supermarkets
	Red Jammer Root Beer	The Body is weak and indistinct, not very sweet and has a hint of anise flavor in it. It is kind of gross if you ask me. The Bite is alright. The Head is bad. The After Taste is kind of gross with a mild anise flavor. All in all it tastes like Flathead Lake Monster Root Beer that some one stuck a licorice stick in it over night which is actually an improvement over normal FLM. I wonder if that is because they are both made by the same brewery ...		This is the official root beer of Glacier National Park. If you want it I do suggest to take a trip there and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
	Flathead Lake Monster Root Beer	The Body is weak, hollow and fruity which I attribute to the citric acid. The Bite is medium. The Head lives up to its name in that it is a flat head. The After Taste is fruity as well. It says on the bottle that the rootbeer is fresh. If this is true I wonder why they needed two preservatives (Citric Acid and Sodium Benzoate). It also says "Fight Corporate Rootbeer." My suggestion to them is that if this is their objective a good battle plan would be to make a better rootbeer. Finally, the bottle says "Rootbeer we make from the bottom of the lake." I must say that the taste of the rootbeer validates this claim.		I found this in Montana.
	Americana Root Beer	At first this was ok but the anise in the After Taste became overpowering so I could barely choke it down. If you are someone who likes licorice in your root beer I am sure you will love this. I, however, dispise it. The Body isn't that good and the Head is lacking. Bite is too much with the anise.		I got this in Seattle but I don't know why you would want it.
	Rutherford Root Beer	Yuk! The Body is weak, watery, fruity, and tastes kind of like a cola or maybe medicine. There only a very little Head. The Bite, however, is good. The After Taste is fruity and medicine like that left a bad taste in my mouth long after I was finished drinking it. It says on the bottle that Napa Valley is synonymous with quality, good taste and natural beauty. If this is true, I don't know how this root beer slipped by them.		I got this in Sacramento CA. I believe that it can be found in Napa Valley
	Journey Shenandoah Root Beer	Oh this is awful. The Body is weird, the Head is weak, the After Taste made me almost vomit, and the Bite has nothing notable. It does have pretty bottle though.		I got this in Seattle.
	X Root Beer Riot	This stuff is plain awful. The Body is weak at best but the Head is good. The Bite if any can only be described as weird. The After Taste is a strange combination of ginseng and other herbal stuff that tastes like medicine.	The bottle is not that pretty	My friend got this in Seattle.
	Journey Desert Sage Root Beer	Ew! The Body has a gross fruity medicine like flavor which is painful to drink. It is thankfully rather watery for if it were stronger I would probably have puked. It doesn't really have a Bite, and there is no Head to speak of whatsoever. In all honesty it is the worst root beer head I have ever seen. There is not much After Taste but what is there is bad. How they can even pretend that this is root beer?	The bottle is pretty but it was so awful in so many other aspects as to negate half of the keg awarded for the prettiness of the bottle.	I ordered this online but would never do so again.
	Rat Bastard Root Beer	I think that for this one I will only use the expletives that appear on the bottle. The Body was gross, strange, kinda fruity with a dash of cola? The Head was near nonexistent. There was a harsh Bite, but it was from many strange herbs and things that should NEVER be put in root beer. It made me stick my tongue out of my mouth repeatedly after each swallow (I guess that my tongue was trying to wipe the flavor off or something.) But then came the After Taste which was the same rancid flavor that made me stick my tongue out in the first place. In short it was as the bottle boasts in that it "tastes like a son of a bitch." To top it all off, it has an ugly and offensive bottle.		I ordered this online, but I do not recommend it to anyone.