Root Beer Review #29 – Judge Wapner Root Beer

Judge Wapner is still alive and 95 years old. This root beer was crafted by Real Soda and RocketFizz, not the aforementioned nonagenarian. I’m not sure if you can still find it out in the wild. We’ve tasted some other named root beers, like Henry Weinhard, Jack Black, and Frostie and now we get to judge Judge Wapner’s root beer. I don’t think he had anything to do with the bottling or flavor, but let the People’s Court decide the taste verdict!

It’s guilty. Guilty of being very bubbly and effervescent. My first sip had an aftertaste that had lingering notes like a fireball candy EXCEPT it didn’t burn. The aftertaste was more like a pretaste that never continued on. It’s good and bad. I wanted some distinguishing flavor. Logan didn’t have the same sensation and couldn’t find anything exciting about the flavor. I’d say she thought it was uninspiring and dark colored sugar water. I would tend to agree. There wasn’t anything specific that would scream “root beer”.

After warming up a little, the root beer had less carbonation and turned into a syrupy mess. I kept trying to smell something , and a few times asked Logan’s expert nose to confirm that I was smelling something, and she would reply with: “Smells like sugar water to me.”

If you’re a hummingbird, this is the soda for you. If you’re a People’s Court aficionado, you get some kudos from us. If you want some good root beer, look elsewhere.

[Logan’s note: This is my favorite root beer review so far. “It’s guilty.” “If you’re a hummingbird, this is the soda for you.” Comedy gold.]

Derek’s Rating: 2.0

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
8.5 Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer
8.1 maine root handcrafted rootbeer
8.0 Virgil’s Root Beer
7.7 Chicago Root Beer
7.4 Bulldog Root Beer
7.3 Thunder Beast
7.2 Cicero Salted Caramel Root Beer
7.2 O-So Butterscotch Root Beer
6.8 J.J. Stewart Root Beer
6.6 Frostie Root Beer
6.2 Bedford’s Root Beer
5.9 Red Arrow Root Beer
5.1 Saranac Root Beer
4.8 Jack Black’s Dead Red Root Beer
4.7 Filbert’s Root Beer
4.3 Triple “AAA” Root Beer
4.0 Trader Joe’s Vintage Root Beer
3.9 Avery’s Root Beer
3.6 towne club root beer
3.4 Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer
3.2 Rocky Mountain Root Beer
2.5 Mug Old Fashioned Root Beer
2.0 Judge Wapner Root Beer
0.4 The Pop Shoppe
0.1 GuS Dry Root Beer