Root Beer Review #12 – Tower Root Beer

I stopped on my way home from hiking in Plymouth, NH to pick up this root beer. They also had Capt’n Eli’s ON TAP so I didn’t pass on that opportunity. I have a bottle of Capt’n Eli’s in the basement, so you’ll have to wait for that review, because this is about TOWER ROOT BEER!

Mary Driscoll recommended this root beer to try, but it wasn’t in the 48-pack order. The website has a store locator and I was waiting until the next doctor’s appointment to pick a bottle up in Burlington. But, on my hike up in the White Mountains I remembered there were a bunch of listings for places in the area. So a 5 minute diversion led me to Chase Street Market in downtown Plymouth, NH, where I picked up two bottles for a tasting.

I like the look of the label and am a sucker for the Old English font.  Nothing can compare to a Ye Olde Shoppe. This year is the 100th anniversary of the start of the company! There was a little hiatus, which I’m going to blame on the root beer prohibition era.

And here are the results from The Two Tower Tasting.

The first whiff of the root beer was extremely aromatic. Logan thought it was licorice; I couldn’t distinguish any single smell, but then again, I’m not good with remembering my spices. My first taste didn’t have much flavor – I think the frost brewed mug steals some of the flavor. I won’t be making this mistake again – refrigerator cooled is good enough. As the Tower Root Beer warmed up, I got a mouthful of flavors all at the same time. I feel like there’s 5 or 6 different flavors that are all combined into one, but again I’m not good at naming herbs or spices, so it’s not surprising that I can’t pick them out of this root beer. Logan says it’s licorice-y. That seems to be her word for this tasting. I once ate a whole bag of black jelly beans and THAT tasted licorice-y. This root beer doesn’t taste like a bag of black jelly beans to me. It’s more subtle and there’s not the same bellyache. It doesn’t leave an aftertaste. It’s got a good amount of fizz – it doesn’t tickle the tongue, but it’s also not syrupy. It still was bubbling many minutes after pouring. This root beer would make a great keg party purchase. I could drink a lot of it for sure.

I would definitely recommend going out and trying a bottle. Many of the other reviews I saw on the Tower website talk about the history and memories of this being the local brew. I preferred some of the other bottles we’ve tasted, but don’t take that as a slight against this root beer – I would definitely pick it up again.

Derek’s Rating: 8.8

Here are the rankings so far:

9.5 Sprecher Root Beer
9.1 River City Root Beer
9.0 Americana Root Beer
8.8 Tower Root Beer
8.1 maine root handcrafted rootbeer
8.0 Virgil’s Root Beer
7.7 Chicago Root Beer
7.2 O-So Butterscotch Root Beer
4.3 Triple “AAA” Root Beer
3.6 towne club root beer
3.4 Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer
2.5 Mug Old Fashioned Root Beer