Capone Family Secret root beer

Background information: (from the website) "During the 1920's Capone's warehouses were raided by the police 137 times, eager to seize their inventory of illegal alcohol. There were only a few items found on every single raid and it was not alcohol. It was cases of the "Capone Family Secret" Soda. After 80+ years the "Secret" Soda was finally made public, so families can enjoy great sodas, while experiencing a piece of history."


Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Distributed by Capone Family Secret, Inc., Chicago, IL 60607. 160 calories, 41g sugar.  Glass bottle with twist off top.  http://www.cfsbeverages.com/


Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Caramel Color, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Natural Flavor, and Citric Acid.


My thoughts: Al Capone, famous gangster who was a rotten guy. Well, this root beer lives up to his namesake, being a rotten root beer.

The first thing I notice about this root beer is that it has sort of sour taste to it and almost no sassafras flavor. Not in a sour gummy worm kind of way, but more in a sour milk kind of way. After that, it reminds me a bit of the time I made some root beer and used yeast to carbonate it and left it in the sun too long. It tasted terrible, in a yeasty manner. The aftertaste doesn't offer any reprieve from this, with the main flavor just slowly fading away and a mild minty taste lingering behind. Ughhh.

Sweetness is all right. The carbonation is pretty good; slightly aggressive without being over the top. This root beer isn't particularly smooth or creamy, so it doesn't do down as nice as it could, but perhaps it's partly the terrible flavor that makes me not want to drink it down.

I'd write more, but this root beer doesn't deserve it. Al Capone was an awful man and the root beer with his namesake is equally awful. Stay away.


Rating: F+
flavor: F
aftertaste: F+
sweetness: B
smoothness: C
carbonation: B+