Death Valley root beer

Background information: (from the website): "Start with ice cold, pure artesian spring water from the historic Indian Wells Spring. Then, we use a blend of fresh sarsaparilla, birch root, natural vanilla, clean wintergreen, raw ginger, fresh licorice, pure cane sugar and a secret ingredient that gives this soda our signature Old West root beer taste."

Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Brewed by Indian Wells Brewing Co..  180 calories, 45g sugar. Glass bottle with twist off top. http://www.mojavered.com/


Ingredients: Indian wells artisan spring water, cane sugar, caramel color, natural flavor, real vanilla, citric acid.


My thoughts: After an initial hearty root beer flavor, the aftertaste is somewhat similar to this root beer's name, in that it dies off quickly.  This ends up leaving a bland flavor in my mouth.  Despite the ingredients list saying "real vanilla", there isn't much hint of this flavor.  The website claims all sorts of spices as well, but I can't seem to detect anything except maybe the vaguest hint of wintergreen.

Just like the aftertaste, the carbonation is dead on arrival.  There are very few bubbles here and it quickly feels flat.  Without any real creaminess, the smoothness factor suffers.  Sure, it feels moderately smooth since there's no carbonation, but it's not very impressive either.  Sweetness is mediocre, leaving my mouth feeling a bit more sugary than I care for.

If this is what the old west tastes like (according to the bottle, it's "A taste of the old west."), then I'm glad that we have moved on to the "new" west.  Extremely disappointing, I can't recommend this root beer.

Rating: D-
flavor: D
aftertaste: D-
sweetness: C-
smoothness: C
carbonation: F+