Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Maine Root root beer

Background information: (from the website): "Handcrafted soda made with Fair Trade Certified organic evaporated cane juice.  Open a bottle and taste the flavor of extracts of wintergreen, clove and anise.  Our recipe combines these ingredients with FAIR TRADE CERTIFIED ORGANIC SUGAR to allow the flavor of each of these extracts to come through.  This is the one that started it all.  Pop a top off and see why. CAFFEINE FREE."

"For 6 years now, Maine Root's FAIR TRADE CERTIFIED organically sweetened sodas have been thrilling fans from New England to Texas. This all started when younger brother Matt, a boat builder and former fishing guide, was helping a friend, Bobby Morgan, build the oven at Flatbread Pizza Company in Portland, Maine. Finding the restaurant's current root beer less than palate pleasing, he brewed his own. Praises and orders flowed and soon brother Mark quit his software sales job to expand their distribution."


Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Maine Root Handcrafted Beverages, Portland, Maine 04101. 160 calories, 41g sugar.  Glass bottle with twist off top.  http://maineroot.com/


Ingredients: Carbonated pure water, Fair Trade Certified organic cane juice and spices.


My thoughts: Natural and organic, how could you go wrong? Well, the first way to go wrong is to have a very weak and short-lived rootiness. While the sassafras seems to be nice and natural, it unfortunately doesn't make enough impact, quickly dissipating into a mild aftertaste of spices, with vanilla being the predominate one. Now, the taste isn't bad. In fact, it's quite good and refreshing. So it's too bad that it fades so quickly.

Carbonation levels are great. This is a nice crispy drink that maintains a good carbonation until the end. It isn't one of the smoothest drinks, however, as the carbonation doesn't exactly translate into froth, falling a bit short in creaminess. Sweetness seems to be in line with what I expect from a root beer, so I have no complaints there.

This is a root beer that I wished I liked more. It doesn't have anything particularly wrong with it other than the flavor is too weak. What flavor is there is pretty decent, tasting nice and natural. I would certainly drink this root beer again, but given a selection of root beers, I can't say this one makes a compelling enough case to beat out many of the others.


Rating: C+
flavor: C
aftertaste: C-
sweetness: B
smoothness: C
carbonation: A-


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