Zuberfizz Creamy Root Beer

hhhhmmm, well, to begin i am shocked i have not reviewed this yet! it has been in my house for months, i certainly hope it is still good. i went on a big soda ordering kick when i added all of that Availability info and really scoured the tubes of the internet to find all i could. this one must have been somewhat overlooked in the shuffle. quite a shame indeed.
but beyond that, i am not sure how to list it. see the company is the Durango Soda Company, but the product is Zuberfizz Creamy Root Beer. i think i will keep it this way, as “Zuberfizz” and not “Durango” but whatever, you don’t care I am sure, it is my own wacky organization/database stuff that i am trying to keep in line here.
although i quite like their color scheme and overall design here, i feel the “Creamy” is a bit off, i don’t like the font, it does not seem consistent with itself. oh well.
very small foam action on this brew but a high carbonation level. i guess this soda did not go bad yet, very cool! i suppose i usually associate fizziness with foaming action but in reality they are quite seperate things. many brands add in stuff like yucca to make the foam bigger and last longer which is mainly for visual appeal. while i don’t deny that i like the visual elements of a soda, it is not the main thing. (yes, this from a fellow who just complained about the “e” in “Creamy” not being italizied enough).
the taste is decent, not remarkable. the fizz kind of overwhelms one’s mouth so the flavor sneaks past without too much of a presense as it is not so strong on its own. i am enjoying it but it is predictable. a little more subtle than others though. the cane sugar is somewhat apparent and is appreciated, by me at least. sweetness is good, creaminess is decent. i would drink it more, just probably would not mail order it

Anthony’s Rating: 77
Your Rating: 0
# of ratings:0

new features

lately i got a couple of suggestions of things that people would like to see so i am trying to implement them.
first i added the ability to sort of the Rankings page by soda name and also by how many votes it has. click on the links at the top of the tables or on “Soda” or “# of Votes” to see it in action. it is only sortable A to Z or high to low, not the other directions as that seems less useful to me.
second i am trying to add more info to each soda, ingredients, plus exact calorie, sodium, carb and sugar content info. this will probably not happen for everything as it would entail taking many crates full of empty bottles down from my attic and typing it all in but perhaps one weekend i will be very bored and do it. the canned and plastic bottled sodas i (mostly) did not save at all, so unless someone wants to write me with their info, that will not happen at all. sorry folks.

any more suggestions of what you might want or are looking for, let me know!

Dang! That’s Good Root Beer

i just have to say, first off, that this is probably the most pretentiously named product i have ever reviewed. it reminds me of some sort of infomercial product like “the greatest chamois cloth ever!” or “the perfect pita toaster” or something. or else something like “i can’t believe it’s not butter” which always makes me ponder who THEY are to tell ME what i can and cannot believe?! especially since i definitely CAN believe that that slop is not butter. but back to the matter at hand, ok?
i have heard quite good things about this soda so i have slightly higher hopes than usual, which may or may not work in its favor. probably not i think.
the design leaves something to be desired, even beyond the name, it just sort of bores me. and slapping “The Original” in the corner there makes me wonder just who was claiming it is NOT the original and whether there are fake, bootleg version of this pop out there.
my first impression of the actual drink is that there is barely any gas escape upon cap removal. that makes me think i may have a bum bottle here. the carbonation seems way too low. i will try another one soon and update this if i find it different. this soda gets yet another superlative, as it is also probably the most syrupy soda i have ever had. that could be a direct result of the lack of carbonation making me notice such things more. being the crazy person that i am though i blame it on the high fructose corn sweetener instead. it just coats my mouth with sweet. that would normally be a great compliment coming from me but here it is just TOO much. too sweet. and that is a shame since the flavor is actually very good besides that. it is not so far from the root beer you would expect that you think it is not root beer yet it is different enough to be distinct. i really do hope this is just a bad bottle as i would like to like this more. i think more carbonation would help it a lot. i think i root (pun not intended) for most small brewers to make a really amazing soda and this one is very close. to me at least.
they make a butterscotch root beer too which i shall review soon i am sure but seeing as how sweet this one is, that scares me a bit. stay tuned…

Anthony’s Rating: 78
Your Rating: 63
# of ratings:8

NY Times and junk

ok, so i got interviewed last week for a NY Times article on root beer which should be out tomorrow (6/25/2008) in the Food section, so check it out and i hope it is actually good. very fun for me. keeping my fingers crossed that i actually don’t sound like a foolrod. we shall see. or at least i will. and my mom i bet.
if you are coming here from the article mentioned above, welcome! i am anthony, these are my reviews. i try to update a couple times a month at least, but it is getting quite hard to find new sodas so that is variable. look around, click on Reviews to see links to all of the brands i have reviewed so far, or Availability to see what sodas are supposedly available near you, or any of the other links in the top navigation bar or just jump around the site. write and say hello too! and if you can get any of the sodas in that right side bar deal, PLEASE let me know.
thanks!
and come back again soon!

oh, just to make this not totally worthless, this article is very funny to me:
High School Root Beer Party Raided. especially as someone who has had a root beer kegger or two.
ok, so maybe it was one birch beer kegger…
although i did have a birch beer keg at my wedding too.
i suppose this story was all over the news some time back but it seems i am out of the ole loop. i am not sure when that happened or if i ever actually was in said loop, but i am not now, rest assured.

UPDATE the article is live! check it out. it came out well i think although not a whole lot of the interview was used. but that is cool as site traffic is way up! woo hoo!

Mercury Brewing Company Root Beer

ah, at last, I have some of their root beer to review! not that i have actually looked all THAT hard for it, but just knowing it is somewhere in the general Boston area and the number of times i too have been there and probably less than 1/4 mile from said soda drove me crazy at times. but then my pal Craig came through and brought me a six pack of Mercury pop! woo hoo! go Craig! i do very much enjoy their graphic design. the old school “the Flash” comic book style mascot dude drinking a flagon of some (presumably) Mercury Pop is very cool. the general feel of it is cool too, the intersecting circles and font choices are excellent. anyway, on to the brew as they say in the business!
i admit i like this better than the birch beer. it has a more solid, identifiable taste. it is a morphing sort of taste at that. it develops from just a mild root beer on your tongue to a slightly bitter, full bodied, much more herbal root beer after the swallow. but then a moment later it repeats on you (as my grandma used to say) you get a sweeter version which slowly fades away with your saliva. to me, that bitterness is good and bad. it makes the soda a little more distinct but it also is not a trait i like in general. here is sort of does work, it is kind of kicks you, or maybe it is more of a “bite” if you will. so i suppose when i think about it, i quite like this beverage. i don’t love it but it is better than most. the sweetness is not overpowering or too long lasting, the flavor is identifiable as root beer but unique from most others and the carbonation is about right, there but not making your stomach expand intensely.
Anthony’s Rating: 86
Your Rating: 90
# of ratings:2

Foodtown Old Fashioned Diet Root Beer

ok, so i am back from a brief pause in the root beer action. i went and got married which took a good amount of time away from other endeavors. i am sure you can imagine. and then we honeymooned and i did my best to find new brews to review but came up empty in the caribbean. there was a lot of ginger beer, which i also love, but no root or birch. alas.
this is all irrelevant to the soda in my hand of course but i suppose i am delaying writing about it as it is diet and i am not a big fan of diet drinks in general. this one being no exception either.
both of my issues with diet sodas come into play with this beverage, one more than the other in this case. first i always feel like diet drinks have much less taste than their full-on sugared brethren. that is very much the case here, it barely tastes like anything. the second issue is the awful aftertaste. and actually this drink does not have that nearly as much as other diet sodas. not that having less of a bad thing equals a good thing of course, it is just a smaller bad thing, but that is something i suppose.
it is hardly recognizable as root beer but perhaps i like the sensitivity to pick it up in diet sodas for some reason…
if you must drink diet, you could do worse than this is the bottom line.

Anthony’s Rating: 33
Your Rating: 79
# of ratings:4

Killebrew Root Beer

when i was a kid i had a few of these books with all sorts of interesting and fun real baseball stories, mainly about players from the 1960s and earlier. Dizzy Dean, Willy Mays, Babe Ruth and so on. i very much enjoyed these books at the time although now i recall pretty much none of it. currently i play a pretty good amount of fantasy baseball, i think i have 8 teams this year. the point is i know that Harmon Killebrew played baseball but that is about the extent of my knowledge on the fellow. i have a feeling he was a catcher but that could be all wrong.
in any case, his son makes this stuff along with 2 other flavors that sound quite tasty indeed, honey cream and honey lemon. they all proudly display a big graphic on the label telling the consumer that they feature Wisconsin grown honey. now, i suppose honey must be grown, sort of, but it is more made i would think. although “grown” sounds much better and more natural than “made,” especially in regards to honey creation. yet the thing that bothers me more is that high fructose corn syrup is a higher ingredient than this honey they proclaim so proudly. i do taste a little bit of a honey thing happening here but it is quite subtle.
the taste of this soda is slightly bitter, alright on the whole but definitely not a great thing. i would not recommend this soda to someone visiting me or asking what to drink. it is mediocre. oh well.

Anthony’s Rating: 65
Your Rating: 82
# of ratings:8

Chuck Wagon Diet Root Beer

at last, the final offering from this company! well, besides their non-root/birch beer or sarsaparilla offerings, obviously.
i don’t think i should have reviewed this soda today though. my tummy was already feeling a little weird and diet soda causes such things to happen out of no where on its own anyway. oh well, too late to turn back now i guess! carry on anthony!
as with many diet sodas, this seems alright for about a second, but then it is vile and i must rinse my mouth out to get rid of the awful awful, terrible aftertaste. there must be a word for that taste but i don’t know it. it is not the metallic taste which i sometimes get, it is worse.
it seems that diet root beer has an entirely different flavor that it is shooting for for whatever reason as many of them taste similar but not very much at all like their full-sugar brethren. and i don’t like that diet root beer flavor, whatever it is supposed to be.
this is ok, if you must drink diet. if you can have regular soda, just do it and walk a little to burn those extra calories, this is not really worth it.
Anthony’s Rating: 27
Your Rating: 67
# of ratings:3

Chuck Wagon Birch Beer

and now it is time for the sampling of the birch beer! hooray! i do so enjoy a good red birch i must admit. probably not as much as a good clear birch, but still a very good amount. i hope this one lives up to the other sodas in their line which i have tried so far.
hhhhmmm, i do like it OK but it does fall a little short. the flavor has a hint of wintergreen but otherwise i don’t taste a lot here. it may be another case of the crazy amount of carbonation hiding the actual flavor of the beverage though. plus there is something weird about the taste that is there and an after taste, like it has an artificial sweetener. let me see… oh crap, there it is: sucralose! i assumed this had sugar like the other two varieties i have sampled. so i suppose this is a diet beverage. there is no nutrition information anywhere though to confirm calorie or carbohydrate content. isn’t that illegal or something? curious… well, anyway if it IS indeed a diet drink, it is not bad. but if it is not, it is just OK. i would think they would label it as diet if it was, or maybe they think it stacks up with full sugar brands of birch beer. it does not so much but is a valiant effort nonetheless.
i am a bit sad, i thought this would be the best yet in the Chuck Wagon line. alas.
i just can’t get past that aftertaste, it wrecks it for me. i take a swig, it is decent and then i type a little bit and the aftertaste kicks in and i go “bleeeeh” and people look at me funny and i pretend nothing happened.
Anthony’s Rating: 67
Your Rating: 1
# of ratings:2

Chuck Wagon Root Beer

ah, so i just had to review this one next as i was just oh so curious how this stacked up against their sarsaparilla. if i was really wise and had a good chunk of free time i should have done the reviews back to back i suppose. but i did not, so hopefully this will suffice. as it is only actually one day later, no matter when i actually post this review, i don’t think that is so bad really.
ok, yeh, this is definitely different. it is not nearly as strong and hearty and powerful of a presence in your mouth. instead they have upped the creaminess factor. i can definitely see how this is more of a “root beer” where the sarsaparilla is pushed more firmly into that camp. indeed. this soda i could just drink down, it is smooth, somewhat refreshing but still very good. the sarsaparilla is much more a soda i would drink slowly, taking my time with it. it commands your attention, this can be ignore somewhat, but if focused on you realize it is very tasty. i don’t like the root beer quite as much, but it is definitely better than the majority of sodas out there in the root beer realm. and i suppose i should know. well, at least i should know what i think, i have no real idea what others will think. another fine brew by the Chuck Wagon peoples! nice work on that.
Anthony’s Rating: 92
Your Rating: 85
# of ratings:9