Diet Stewart’s Fountain Classics Root Beer

Recognizing our limitations in the world of diet sodas, Haatem and I turned to our friend Louise for her connoisseurship of diet root beers. What follows is her first review:

Like its caloric cousin, diet Stewart’s Root Beer features the image of a froth-filled mug on its label. You will not encounter such foamy head on the diet product itself, although the finely-carbonated texture is pleasing to the tongue and makes for easy drinkability. Diet Stewart’s may be consumed quickly and needn’t be savored; it is a good choice for warm weather, when a desire for rapid thirst-quenching surpasses the need for a protracted gustatory experience.

The flavor is sweet and mild, with a hint of vanilla (think cream soda) and overtones of quillaia and yucca (or so one might surmise, in comparing the unique taste with the listed ingredients). This brew must be consumed ice-cold; as with most diet products, the essence of artificial sweetener (strongest in the aftertaste) is increased at warmer temperatures, and the subtle flavors are easily overwhelmed by the intrusive tang of aspartame as the product warms to room-temperature.

Regular consumers of diet beverages will not find fault with this blend, although to the uninitiated the “diet” taste is readily apparent and mars the pureness of the flavor. Nonetheless, for those who count calories or limit caffeine (diet Stewart’s is caffeine free), this root beer makes for a palatable alternative to a naturally sweetened beverage.

Grade: 5d

0 calories per 12 ounce bottle

Artificial sweetener: aspartame

IBC

Many years ago I worked on an Off-Off-Broadway show. We were reviewed in Backstage, a trade newspaper, and the review wasn't exactly flattering. However, as someone pointed out, they did review us, which meant that we had met a certain standard - we were good enough to review, even if the review wasn't particularly good. My review of IBC falls into this same, paradoxical category.

Simply put, IBC lacks personality. It's decently sweet, a bit creamy (though only a bit), and there is a bit of earthiness to it, but that's it. No licorice, no mint, no anise This is an uninteresting root beer. It has decent body, a little too much carbonation, and that's it, really. There's nothing else.

IBC's bottles do deserve note, though, as their labeling is molded into them. Until recently, this made returning them difficult (you can't mold a bar code into glass), but I see that they have started to affix a bar code sticker to their bottles. Aside from this sticker, however, all of the fine print is only on the bottle cap and the six-pack cardboard, leaving the bottles with a distinctive, slightly peculiar, slighlty old fashioned look.

But it doesn't make thre root beer any better.

Grade: 4

160 calories per 12 ounce bottle = 13.3 Calories per ounce (normal)
http://www.ibcrootbeer.com/

Virgil's Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg

This root beer vanished for so long that I thought it was no longer made, in spite of what it says on the Virgil's website. You will imagine my surprise and glee, then, when I discovered, on entering a Mrs Green's Natural market, that familiar half-liter swing-top bottle. I almost bought out the entire stock right there, but then it occurred to me - what if the recipe had changed? What if it wasn't as good as I remembered? Then I might have a lot of expensive, uninspiring soda ($5.49 plus tax per 500mL bottle) in cool bottles. So I only bought three (One for myself, one for my fellow reviewer, and one for - uh, in case of emergency).

Well, the product remains good, though I don't think it's quite as good as I remembered. The product I remembered would have rated an eleven. But, it's still good. It is similar to their general issue root beer - smooth, creamy, full bodied - but sweeter. Like the standard product, the Special Edition brew is sweetened with cane sugar, instead of corn syrup. Honey is also clearly present, and vanilla. I can make out some licorice, too, or perhaps anise. I think I can make out the nutmeg, but it's been a while since I tasted nutmeg, so I can't really be sure.

But nutmeg or no, this is a great product.

Grade: 10

120 calories per 8 ounce serving; 2.1 servings per bottle = 15 Calories per ounce (high)
Unlike their standard product, this does not appear to be Kosher
www.Virgils.com

Santa Cruz Organic Root Beer Beverage

I found Santa Cruz Organic in a Mrs Green's store on my way home from work one day. I'm always on the look out for a new root beer, so of course I bought it, but the idea of an organic root beer is particularly appealing. Organic and soda aren't typically words that one finds in the same sentence.

At the same time, I was also a bit taken aback. Santa Cruz Organic comes in an aluminum can. Even IBC comes in glass bottles, but this comes in a can? What's the deal? Isn't glass supposed to be more environmentally friendly? Or maybe not, being heavier and all. But I digress - my real point here is that aluminum seems to interfere with the flavor of its contents, whereas glass doesn't. And what's with a root beer beverage?

That said, Santa Cruz Organic's root beer is a pretty good beverage. The drink is light and crisp, pleasantly sweet, and appropriately carbonated. On the other hand, it lacks the taste and personality of root beer, and tastes a lot like cream soda, or maybe a root-beer-cream-soda blend. Vanilla and sugar are the most prominent tastes, with maybe a bit of licorice at the end, but very little of the earthiness of a root beer.

So, while this is a pretty good soda, it's not very successful as a root beer.

Grade: 5 (grade 7 or 8 when simply considered as a soda)

150 calories per 12 ounce can = 12.5 Calories per ounce (moderately low)
Organic (USDA, Organic Trade Association, Quality Assurance International)
www.scojuice.com
made with 100% certified renewable energy (according to the label)

Thomas Kemper Low Calorie Root Beer

NOTE: the Thomas Kemper Company, or one of their representatives, sent us samples of this product for our opinion.

I normally eschew diet products; there is something about artificial sweeteners that always seems to taste like chemicals. Normal, non-diet products just taste both more natural and more appropriate, and - well, better.

Thomas Kemper's Low Calorie Root Beer falls somewhere between these extremes in terms of construction, calorie content, and taste. It is sweetened with SPLENDA(R), but also with honey (indeed, the company symbol appears to be a honey bee). Honey is a sweetener that I've encountered in some other high-quality root beers, and it does a good job here, but it is battling against two things - one, the Splenda, whose taste does come through, and two, the carbonation. I may have been unlucky with my bottle, but after the first sip most of what I tasted was the carbonation.

The first sip was pretty good though. Creamy, sweet but not syrupy, slightly complex. After decarbonating the soda (through an ancient process including abrupt changes in soda velocity, and perhaps I did it a bit too much) I was able to recapture some of that initial taste, but the soda also lost some of its complexity. That said, I could taste honey, vanilla, perhaps licorice or anise. In any event, the soda was good enough that I'm interested in trying the normal, Splenda-free version, but Thomas Kemper is primarily a West Coast phenomenon at present and I haven't yet been successful in finding it in this area.

Grade: 6d (d for diet); those who enjoy low calorie sodas may well rate it higher.

20 calories per 12 ounce bottle = 1.67 Calories per ounce (very low)
Kosher (Vaad Harabanim of Greater Seattle)
www.tksoda.com

Thomas Kemper Low Calorie Root Beer

Disclosure: We were contacted recently by an individual from Thomas Kemper's PR firm who offered to send us samples of their new low calorie root beer. We received three free bottles and I am reviewing it here.

I had never heard of Thomas Kemper before this, since they apparently don't distribute much on the east coast. I must also say that I'm not a fan of diet sodas but I understand that there is a market for them and, as someone who--in his other life--is a healthcare professional, I support efforts to reduce our caloric intake as a nation.

This diet soda is a little unique I think in that it's not totally artifically sweetened. Rather, they've used a combination of honey and sucralose (Splenda) for a total of 20 calories. I've never seen this approach before.

When the bottle is opened, it smells like vanilla, caramel, and a subtle spice, maybe anise ("natural flavor" says the label). The head is very creamy and surprisingly sweet with an excellent bite. Everything about this initial experience is good, but there is no escaping the aftertaste of sucralose. Though it typically lingers as a sickly aura at the back of one's tongue, I think that's been attenuated in this soda somewhat by the addition of honey.

This is a good root beer as far as low calorie sodas go. I wouldn't reach for it myself because I'm not a fan of Splenda, but I am certainly keeping my eyes open now for Thomas Kemper's regular root beer because if it's anything like this sans the aftertaste, it's going to be worth trying.

Grade: 7d*

* d is for diet I guess.

Jones Pure Cane Soda

I've always liked Jones (Sooper Dooper) sodas, especially their cream soda. They're a little company who will put photos that customers send them on their clear glass bottles. I decided to try their root beer.

It's made with cane sugar, and as such it smells like cotton candy. It's also made with "artificial flavors" not otherwise specified.

The consistency is totally devoid of creaminess. The flavor is good, if overwhlemingly sweet, and the carbonation just right. The aftertaste is pleasant, but it's not that of root beer. Nowhere is any part of the earthy spectrum I would expect. Note that I don't describe much else of the flavor because there isn't much else. It's a sweet soda that tastes kind of like root beer. I suppose it would be unfair to compare it to Boylan's or Virgil's, as it doesn't compare, especially since it's not that much cheaper.

If you like sweet, thin root beer, this isn't a bad one. Otherwise, you might want to try their cream soda. It's very good. But this is not Cream Soda Eval is it?

(Jones also makes a sugar-free root beer which is absolutely abominable and I will not rate it.)

Grade: 5

Steaz Green Tea Soda

It seems conundrums abound in the world of root beers. Obviously, I'm about to discuss one of them.

I like green tea. I like root beer. I like soda sweetened with cane sugar. The combination is not compelling, though, and I can't imagine why anyone thought it would be. I can think of a few combinations that might make sense--root beer plus vanilla, root beer plus licorice, maybe even root beer plus chocolate (hmm...)--but I kept an open mind about this one and I really thought that if they're selling it, somebody must be buying it, or at least before it left the factory somebody must've tasted it and said, "Yeah, I'd drink that. Let's sell it."

After twisting off the cap, it doesn't smell like root beer at all. In fact, it smells more like cream soda. It is appetizing anyway. The head distinctly lacks bite, however, perhaps because of the soft carbonation and intrusive flavor of fresh-cut grass. The root beer taste is conspicuously weak. Still, the first few sips are interesting. I wasn't put off.

After a while the mildly bitter aftertaste of oversweetened green tea and the light carbonation hardly recalls root beer. It's not a bad soda, it's just not root beer, and as such it may have a place in my fridge next to the lemonade and the V8. All the same, I applaud the effort to craft an organic soda with the benefits of green tea and will probably try their other flavors.

Grade: 5