Henry Weinhard's root beer (redux)

Background information: (from the website) "In 1851, Henry journeyed from Germany to Portland with a love of beer. He loved it so much, he got a job in a brewery and began concocting his own recipes before deciding to go out on his own.

He was an eccentric man with an unmatched passion for bringing people together. He once offered to pump free beer through Skidmore Fountain to celebrate its unveiling, only to be turned down by the people in charge of the town who feared for rowdy horses.

It’s a story we love, and we often use it to remember to take a moment every now and then and be a little less like those in charge of Skidmore, and a bit more like Henry.

In 1920, Prohibition happened. Instead of giving up, as was expected, we spun our situation, switching from suds to sodas to stay afloat. We briefly left alcohol behind to carefully craft bottles of bubbles filled with flavor. It was the Henry thing to do, and we wouldn’t be where we are without him."

Note: While the bottles used to list "honey essence" as an ingredient, it's no longer mentioned. The website does say, however, that "Out root beer is a truly great American original and has stayed the same since forever. We mix the finest sassafras, vanilla and honey to create a soda that's anything but ordinary." A couple thoughts on that: honey is supposedly still used but removed as a separate ingredient from the label and their claim that it's "stayed the same since forever" is categorically false, as they not only changed over from high fructose corn syrup sometime in the past 10 years to cane sugar (an upgrade, IMO), but sassafras -which was originally used in root beers- was banned in food in the 1960's, so they would have also changed over from real sassafras in the original Prohibition-era recipe to artificial sassafras (or possibly safrole-free sassafras, I haven't seen anybody making that distinction in their ingredients or ad copy).

Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Blitz-Weinhard Gourmet Soda Company, Fort Worth, TX 76134. 180 calories, 42g sugar. Glass bottle with twist off top. https://www.henryweinhards.com/

Ingredients: Carbonated water, cane sugar, natural and artificial flavor (caramel color, acacia gum, potassium sorbate (preservative)), sodium benzoate (preserves freshness), phosphoric acid.


My thoughts: Having first discovered Henry Weinhard's root beer over 25 years ago, it quickly became my go-to, A-grade root beer by which all others were judged and was the subject of my very first root beer review over a decade ago. For a good portion of that time, their "sweetened (partially) by honey" was one of the things that stood out in the crowded root beer market, but recently I noticed they had changed the formulation and it no longer claims "honey" in any form on the ingredients label (though I notice they still claim honey on their website), but has also swapped high fructose corn syrup for cane sugar. In the light of these changes from their older formulation, I thought I would give it another review and see if it's held up and if they had improved on the slightly less than average carbonation.

I like the blend of spices that they use in this root beer. It has an immediate, rooty sassafras taste, but the other flavors come through nicely, with some wintergreen and vanilla coming through. This isn't the most complex root beer profile, lacking hints of things like clove, cinnamon, and anise that I've come to enjoy over the years, but it's still a solid root beer. The aftertaste doesn't reveal anything hiding underneath the initial flavor.

The carbonation is a bit on the weak side, though it doesn't necessarily feel like it's flat. Remember, I'm a fan of the big, aggressive bubbles and this has a smoother, calmer effervescence. It's not bad, but like the original, is lacking a little over what a "C" average root beer should be doing. Speaking of smooth, I like how this one has a pretty creamy texture to it. I wasn't expecting it as usually the creamier root beers list yucca root as an ingredient, something this one doesn't have listed. While this has dropped honey extract, it did replace the high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar. I haven't had the older formulation for some time, so I can't make an assessment as to how it's changed, but I will say that it never felt overly syrupy and felt appropriately sweet.

I don't know why "honey" has been taken off the labeling since the website still claims they "mix the finest sassafras, vanilla and honey...", but whatever they've changed Henry Weinhard's root beer still holds up decently well. Even back before I had tested all these root beers, I knew it wasn't the most complex flavor profile, though now in hindsight that's even more obvious. But fortunately, what it does do flavor-wise it still gets right. It may be slightly on the simpler side, but it's still deserving of finding a place on your buy list. In retrospect, it maybe didn't quite deserve the straight "A" I originally awarded it, so I'm knocking it down slightly to an "A-" here in this review.

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