Once Again

Once again I have tried to find the nectar of the Gods and failed.  Three more that don't make the mark.

We'll start with River City Root Beer, bottled by Blue Dog Beverages located in Sacramento, California.  This company is similar to a bottling company we have here locally in that they bottle sodas for several different companies.  I have a couple of others in my assortment that are bottled by this company.  I am not impressed.

Brewed and bottled by J.M. Smucker Co in Ohio, Natural Brew Draft Root Beer is an interesting combination different flavors.  It was definitely different and likely is an acquired taste.  Without another bottle, I am not sure what I think.  Sorry.

Gale's Root Beer is bottled by Gale's Bread & Butter in Illinois.  It is a combination of many normal root beer flavors and one I haven't seen in any others, cinnamon.  Can't say I care for the addition and I don't need another bottle to confirm my thoughts.

Mia and I are planning another trip and I am planning to visit places that make root beer in many of our stops along the way.  I suspect my beer belly will be even larger.

Hope you're having as much fun as we are.

I Know, it's Crazy

More root beer has come my way.

Located in Branson, Missouri, Ozark Mountain Bottleworks was founded in 2009.  While they have several different flavors their Root Beer is pretty damned good.  Using 100% pure cane sugar, combined with a full sassafras flavor and a touch of vanilla. 

Next on the list:

Tommyknockers Root Beer...sorry won't be doing this one again.

Didn't care for the Olde Rhode Island Molasses Root Beer.  This left me with an unpleasant aftertaste.
I wasn't impressed.

 Hank's is the one I am drinking as I type out the blog.  Hank's Beverage Company is a family owned operation from Philadelphia.  Made from pure cane sugar combined with supposedly gourmet ingredients.  I didn't see them on the list of contents but there is a great flavor and it tastes really good.  Is Philadelphia the birthplace of Root Beer as stated on the website?

Yep, the first commercial brand of Root Beer made its appearance at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.  Developed from sassafras in 1875 but Pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires.  We all recognize that name.  Being a teetotaler, Hires originally called it Root Tea but while marketing to coal miners he changed it to Root Beer.

Have a great week.

January 2nd

Being off for the first time in many years and able to watch the college bowl games was a real treat especially the Rose Ball.  Did I, a UW Husky, Pac 12 fan want USC to win?  Not particularly but it appears they had different intentions and after watching the game I have to say it was without a doubt one of my top five games ever.  101 points and several Rose Bowl records fell to the wayside and the game ended with a spectacular come from behind finish.

I drank some more Root Beer of the course of the past couple of days.  The first was Rocky Mountain Root Beer.  All natural ingredients, fresh Colorado water, and small batch creation make this Root Beer one of the better that I have tasted so far.  They have done a wonderful job of combining the ingredients to get a fresh old time Root Beer flavor.

You would think that something with Gene Autry's face on it would be outstanding given that it would likely be considered All-American.  Bottled by Rocket Fizz who also bottles many other celebrity brands as well as sells them in franchise stores bottles this brand finds itself competing with the same product with a different face on the label.  Unfortunately, the flavor is weak and doesn't live up to the life and times of Gene Autry.  Not one of my favorites, sorry Gene.

My final selection over the New Years Holiday was Jackson Hole Buckin Root Beer.   Bottled by Jackson Hole Soda Company in Jackson, Wyoming they claim to have the taste that won the West.  Batch brewed they try to remind us of the stuff Grandma used to make us.  (Did I give away my age with that fact).  It is one of the darkest brews I have experienced and had no foamy head but the flavor was great and of the three I drank over the holiday this one gets my highest vote.  Probably not easy to find unless you go online to order.

 That is all for this trip through Root Beer tasting.  I am sure we will have more reasons to lift a tall one.

Brownie Caramel Creme Root Beer

My order of 48 bottles of Root Beer from the Root Beer Store in Sand Point, Idaho has arrived.  Two large cases were on my porch this afternoon as Honey made a fuss over the delivery person.

Inside the four boxes taped together to make two larger cases are the 48 individual bottles of various Root Beers that I ordered this past Tuesday.  Of course, I could not contain my excitement and open one that sounded like it might be tasty.





Brownie Caramel Creme Root Beer sounds like a wonderful thing.  The first thing you notice is the lack of foamy head when pouring into a glass.  The second thing you notice is the strong vanilla smell when you raise the glass to your lips.  What sounds like a good thing really isn't if you are a lover of old style Root Beers.  Attempts to add other flavors to the base Root Beer usually doesn't impress my palette.  This one is no exception.  While I finished it, I cannot strongly recommend it.  Mia loves caramel but she agrees, don't put it in Root Beer, at least not this much.  This one is bottled by my recently discovered bottler in Mukilteo, Washington, Orca Bottling.

More Root Beer

Here is another Root Beer, Red Arrow

Bottled locally by Orca Beverages in Mukilteo, Washington it is a good Root Beer.  Not overly sweet with an aroma of licorice and wintergreen.  It pours fairly flat with very little head foam.  Flavor is good.

Also bottled by Orca Beverages in Mukilteo, is Anchor Ginger Root Beer.  "As a tribute to all the Sea Dogs and Scallywags looking for adventure on the high seas".  A tasty, foamy root beer that first fills your taste buds with a strong Ginger taste.  Midway through the drink, your taste buds find some of the other flavors.  Alongside the Red Arrow I like the Anchor better.

More root beers are on the way.  Forty-nine to be precise.  I will try to review each as I drink them.

Since We Aren't Traveling

We'll do Root Beer evaluations.

Today is a brand out of Abita Springs, Louisiana called Abita Root Beer.  Bottled by Abita Brewing Company formed in 1986 just 30 miles north of New Orleans.  We might have to visit on our way to Orleans.  Anyway this root beer is full of flavor but it is also full of sugar.  I don't like my root beer overly sweet and this one is one I likely won't buy again.  I will, however, visit the brewery if I remember as I pass by on the way south.

Down Memory Lane

As some rather wet snow falls out of the sky this morning and Christmas music is playing on Pandora, I find myself reminded of years gone past.  Days, when I didn't have a care in the world outside of trying to stay in my parents good graces.  Back to the days when dirt was invented; well, maybe not that far.

Painting by Terry Redlin
I only wish I could live there

As a young child, Christmas was always an exciting part of the year.  While we did go to church and I did understand the true meaning of the day I found myself enjoying the anticipation, food, decorations, food and trips to visit family and friends, oh, and more food.

My mother was a very capable baker.  She usually started Christmas preparations sometime in October by making a batch of fruit bread for the holidays and gifts.  She would combine candied fruit, nuts and rum with her homemade, for lack of a better word, dough.  She would put the ingredients in little tin bread pans.  I can't remember if she baked them before she froze them or not.  I suspect not because her sole reason for starting so early was to allow the rum to infuse itself with the other ingredients.  Sometime after Thanksgiving, she would begin the process of deicing the cakes and baking them.

Being a baker mom couldn't help herself around the holidays.  The kitchen was usually the warmest room in the house because the oven was going constantly.  She would prepare and bake all kinds of cookies.  Candies were one of her favorite things to make and she usually had two or three different ones.  What she called butter horns, breads and something called a Christmas wreath were always welcome additions to our holiday food fair.  I especially waited with baited breath for the Christmas wreath.  It was bread like dough with candied fruit and nuts inside formed to look like a wreath and the inside edges were cut with a knife.  Baked in the oven until golden brown and drizzled with homemade icing and I was pretty sure that I had died and gone to Heaven every single Christmas.

I can see the house in my mind, the kitchen lay out and mom kneading bread on the table as something bakes in the oven.  I remember the smells and all the dirty pots and pans she had to clean after each round of baking but the thing I remember the most is the love of what she was doing.  She spent so many hours working dough to make it just right.  She put a lot of love in all that she did and I am truly sorry I didn't recognize that until after she passed away.  One thing we never lacked during the holidays was goodies made by a woman who obviously enjoyed bringing joy to others.

I will head back down this lane later but for now, I hope all is well with you and yours.