Root Beer Review #4 – maine root handcrafted rootbeer

maine root handcrafted root beer is this week’s choice, and it’s a local choice – only one state away.  The label is mostly brown like a paper bag so you don’t have to conceal your root beer habits – the bottle has already done that for you.  The company prides itself on their Fair Trade Certified status, they use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, and their root beer is handcrafted. They have a link from their website to a ‘grassroots’ (I’m not sure how grassroots) campaign called FreeRangeRootBeer.com touting that all root beer should be “free from chemicals, artificial sweeteners and confined spaces.” I agree, the 47 bottles waiting in my basement have plenty of room to move around as they see fit.

Logan and I have had this root beer before and even on tap! It’s served at b’good restaurants which was the source of a few frappes while I was in the hospital. But, in the interest of fairness, we are only reviewing the bottle variety. The maine root company says that it has flavors of wintergreen, clove, and anise. I’m not very good at picking out herbs and spices, and would’ve never thought these would be root beer flavors.  Don’t ask me what I think goes into root beer, because I don’t know. I’m just a consumer. Here’s how our experience went:

Logan: Root Beer?!  Is there another one in the fridge?

Derek: Yes.

Logan: Would you like a glass?

Derek: Yes.

Logan: How about ice?

Derek: No thanks.

<Individual Root Beers are opened>

Logan: I like this root beer.

Derek: Hmmm… It’s pretty good, and doesn’t have much kick at the end.

Logan: That’s what I like about it.

Derek: Do you like it better than Virgils Root Beer?

Logan: Yes. Not a lot, but I do.

There you have it. We both agree it’s better than Virgil’s. I’ve given it 0.1 points higher.

Derek’s Rating: 8.1

Here are the rankings so far. Feel free to copy and paste into excel to make your own chart. I suggest you import using first column fixed width of 3 characters.

8.1 maine root handcrafted rootbeer
8.0 Virgil’s Root Beer
7.2 O-So Butterscotch Root Beer
3.6 towne club root beer