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