Gene Simmons Moneybag root beer

Background information: (from the website): "My Moneybag sodas are made only with the most elite of ingredients. This is soda royalty!!! If you have expensive taste, drink Moneybag!"

Aside from this short blurb, the website seems to be quite light on actual information.


Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Gene Simmons Company. 180 calories, 45g sugar (bottle says "45mg" but I'm pretty certain that's a typo).  Glass bottle with twist off top. www.http://www.genesimmonsmoneybag.com/


Ingredients: Carbonated water, cane sugar, citric acid, sodium benzoate (used as a preservative), natural flavour and caramel color.


My thoughts: A root beer brought to us from legendary KISS rock and roller Gene Simmons? Sure, I'll give it a try. I can only hope it rocks my mouth like KISS rocked the Popcorn Club on January 30, 1973.

After my last root beer, it was nice to once again have a strong, rooty sassafras taste. It leans a little more towards the candy root beer flavor, with less emphasis on subtle notes of other spices, but there is wintergreen in there. It's not necessarily doing anything special, but it has the basics down. The aftertaste is pleasant, with the wintergreen growing a little more noticeable, but never too strong, and the rooty taste slowly fading.

It is a little on the sugary side from the ingredient list, but not any more so than any other average root beer. I do like how strong the carbonation is, with fairly aggressive bubbles initially though they fade to average by the last third of the bottle. It's not super smooth up front due to the strong carbonation, but become smoother as the bottle empties. Strong carbonation is generally a tradeoff with smoothness, and this does a decent job. It's not super creamy, but good.

Well, it didn't quite rock my face off the way KISS was known to rock their concerts, but it is a solid, just above average root beer. And some days that's all I need. It doesn't quite compete with the best out there, but I wouldn't hesitate to grab one of these out of the fridge. I also have to note that I find it interesting that Gene made his own root beer, seeing as how there's already a KISS Army branded root beer in existence (and one that seems to have similar flavor characteristics).
Rating: C+
flavor: C+
aftertaste: C
sweetness: B-
smoothness: B-
carbonation: B+