Old Keg root beer

Background information: (from the website) "We’ve traced the Old Keg root beer back to 1941. The Excelsior Bottling Company in Reading, PA bottled beer, porter, brown stout, ginger ale, seltzer, and carbonated drinks. including root beers. The company was owned by T. J. Fessler and S. G. Dunkelberger. Not much is known of the distribution or other brand names and flavors. The Old Keg root beer is often praised for its classic, nostalgic taste, featuring a smooth, creamy texture with a good amount of carbonation, making it a beloved choice for those seeking a traditional root beer experience. Our Old Keg Root Beer, made with honey and brewed to have a full, smooth, rich flavor, will surely be one of your favorite root beers."

Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Old Keg is a trademark of Orca Beverage Inc., Mukilteo, WA 98275. 170 calories, 45g sugar. Glass bottle with pry-off top. https://www.orcabeverage.com

Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Caramel Colors, Brewed Natural & Artificial Flavors, Honey, Phosphoric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (A Preservative).

My thoughts: Orca beverages has been slowly acquiring various brands of soda under their manufacturing roof. It's hard to say if this is good or bad, as Orca has a pretty good distributor reach that smaller labels would struggle to achieve, making many of these available in places they otherwise wouldn't have. Bottling all at one bottler may remove some of the uniqueness, however, as processes are more corporatized. Whatever small changes may have been made, I hope these root beers are able to retain most of their core identities. Okay, enough of my corporate observations, you're here for the root beer itself.

Old Keg opens up with the smell of vanilla wafting out. It has a good rooty sassafras flavor up front with vanilla undertones. As those two basic flavors fade into the aftertaste, the honey flavor makes itself known, adding a little bit of complex sweetness that I find quite pleasant. I can't say I really detect any other spices hiding underneath the somewhat basic root beer flavor, so they're not swinging for the fences in flavor profile, but it is a solid root beer taste.

Carbonation is moderate, with bubbles that are both moderate in aggressiveness as well as quantity. This mellow level of carbonation is fine, even if I am a fan of slightly higher levels. Sweetness is excellent, combining both cane sugar and honey for an added benefit that shows up in the flavor, as mentioned above. I like what honey does in my root beers. Even though the sugar content is on the slightly high side at 45g, it never feels syrupy or like it's leaving an unpleasantly thick coating in my mouth. The moderate carbonation lends itself to a smooth drinking experience, though I do with it had a little more of a creamy froth to it.

For being such a basic root beer flavor with a simple spice profile, I think it's fairly good. The honey does a lot of the heavy lifting to add some flavor variation to this recipe and I think it pays off, even if it can't quite elevate the whole profile in a way that more spices can. That said, it's quite enjoyable a little better than a basic level, mid-tier root beer.

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

carbonation: C+

Deadworld Creeper root beer

Background information: (from the website) "Dead World Premium Zombie Soda is a premium craft soda beverage line conceived and marketed by Caliber Entertainment LLC, located in Michigan. Based on the Dead World comic book series published by Caliber Comics.

Currently, the Dead World Premium Zombie Soda beverages are available in FIVE flavors. What makes the zombie sodas unique is our partnership with various comic book artists who have provided their own creative spin to the bottle labels with depictions of various zombie images. Primarily based on the characters and events that take place in the Dead World comic book universe."

Deadworld used to be produced by Intrastate Distributors (who also made Frostie and Towne Club root beers) and came in 12 different flavors. Fast forward to today and they are now made by Orca Beverage and only come in 5 flavors. Orca is a pretty large conglomerate that houses many sub-brands under its roof.


Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Produced and bottled by Orca Beverages Inc., Mukilteo, WA 98275. 170 calories, 43g sugar.  Glass bottle with twist off top. http://www.deadworldzombiesoda.com/


Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Pure Cane Sugar, Natural & Artificial Flavors, Phosphoric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (A Preservative), Caramel Color & Blue #1.

My thoughts: This is the third Deadworld root beer I've tried, having already reviewed their Twilight Shuffler and Slow Decay vanilla root beers, both of which I liked. It appears both of those root beers have met their doom, however, and this new Creeper root beer has risen from their worm-infested corpses to live again.

This is a very strongly flavored root beer, though the actual sassafras rootiness isn't super prevalent, with a sweet vanilla and butterscotch-like flavor dominating the flavor profile. In a way, it reminds me a bit of a root beer vanilla ice cream bar. The vanilla/butterscotch taste holds over into the aftertaste, where there is little "root beer" to be be found. If you really like butterbeers, butterscotch, and vanilla profiles, then this hits all those notes.

As mentioned above, there's a sweet vanilla butterscotch flavor that gives this a kind of candied sweetness. Perhaps a touch sweeter and sugary feeling that I prefer, but it's not syrupy at all. The carbonation is good, with a fair amount of bubbling and it persists throughout the duration of drinking the whole bottle. I'm a big fan of super aggressive carbonation, which this is not aggressive, but I was still pleased with it. With the vanilla/butterscotch flavor comes the sensation of a creamy smoothness. It doesn't quite froth up as much as my very top tier rankings for smoothness do, but it offers a pleasant drinking experience.

With the old version of Deadworld root beers (produced by Intrastate Distributors) having been put in their graves, and this new one risen in their place, Creeper root beer, like its human zombie counterpart, has lost something in this death and zombification process, rising as a lesser version of its former self. While I still like it, it's a bit less of a "root beer" and more of a "sweet vanilla butterscotch treat" drink, so I have to knock the flavor score down a bit as this is a "root beer" review. But if I'm not confining it to just root beer, then it's a fine soda on it's own and one I would certainly not mind enjoying again.

edit: I went back and looked at my Slow Decay vanilla review from a decade ago and I see almost identical thoughts on the flavor, so I suspect this "Creeper" version is just a rebranding of the "Slow Decay vanilla" flavor they offered before, with very minor changes in formula (such as the 5g sugar increase). You may notice I gave Slow Decay vanilla an "A" at the time while this is getting a "B". While I'm guessing there isn't a big change in taste, I suppose the score drop reflects a change in philosophy that an "A" flavor drink doesn't necessarily make for an "A" level root beer, so consider my scores in that context.

Rating: B
flavor: B
aftertaste: B-
sweetness: B-
smoothness: B
carbonation: B