Ramblin' Butterscotch root beer

Background information: (from the Monarch website) "A quick history of Ramblin' Root Beer. Following its introduction in 1979 Ramblin' became one of the most popular root beers in America.

The vintage brand's first commercial featured a cameo by a young Sarah Jessica Parker, and the accompanying jingle, "Ramblin' Root Beer's something more!" would be in the minds of Americans for years to come.

Today, with a lineup of new flavors and fresh, new package designs, the best root beer is back and brought friends along to remind the passionate fans what they've been missing."

So yeah, the website is pretty light on information. Not the worst I've seen (there have been some extremely sparse websites), but very basic.


Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Bottled by Rocket Fizz under the authority of The Monarch Beverage Co., Inc. Atlanta, GA 30326. 150 calories, 37g sugar.  Glass bottle with twist off top. www.rocketfizz.com


Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Caramel Color, Potassium Benzoate (as preservative), Natural Flavor, Quillaia Extract, and Phosphoric Acid.

My thoughts: Having reviewed the regular Ramblin' root beer as well as the Ramblin' Maple root beer, I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from this one. Ramblin' has never been strong on the rootiness, with a thin, watery sensation to the root beer flavor. So we'll see if the tradition continues.

Whereas the Maple variation had a very strong scent to it, there is only a subtle hint of butterscotch to the smell of this one. I like butterscotch, so expect this to be good and it's... *UGGH!* It's terrible! The butterscotch tastes like chemicals. I can't quite identify what it is, but it's awful. There is a slight butterscotch taste to it, but it's overwhelmed by the chemical taste. Gross. The aftertaste isn't much better, but a hint of rooty sassafras taste comes through.

Like it's predecessors, sweetness is pretty good, but it's hard to get a great grasp on it as I can't get past the horrible taste. Carbonation is good, with small, moderately aggressive bubbles. I don't know how well that carbonation sticks around through the bottle as I couldn't get more than about a quarter of the way through this one. While it does have quillaia extract, it isn't as smooth or creamy as I would expect and continues the streak of disappointment with this drink.

I'm pretty sure I've finished all the bottles of root beer I've tested except for one or two. This one gets the great distinction of being added to the list. I would, under no circumstance, recommend this one. Major fail.


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

Ramblin' Maple root beer

Background information: (from the Monarch website) "A quick history of Ramblin' Root Beer. Following its introduction in 1979 Ramblin' became one of the most popular root beers in America.

The vintage brand's first commercial featured a cameo by a young Sarah Jessica Parker, and the accompanying jingle, "Ramblin' Root Beer's something more!" would be in the minds of Americans for years to come.

Today, with a lineup of new flavors and fresh, new package designs, the best root beer is back and brought friends along to remind the passionate fans what they've been missing."

So yeah, the website is pretty light on information. Not the worst I've seen (there have been some extremely sparse websites), but very basic.


Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Bottled by Rocket Fizz under the authority of The Monarch Beverage Co., Inc. Atlanta, GA 30326. 150 calories, 37g sugar.  Glass bottle with twist off top. www.rocketfizz.com


Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Caramel Color, Potassium Benzoate (as preservative), Natural Flavor, Quillaia Extract, and Phosphoric Acid.


My thoughts: Having reviewed the regular Ramblin' root beer in the past, I'm curious to see if any of the basic traits remain, as that one had a very strong vanilla, but slightly watered down sassafras rootiness. This one, however, adds maple and is bottled by Rocket Fizz, rather than directly by Monarch Beverage.

Well, in the place of vanilla this one has an extremely strong maple taste to it, just like maple syrup. Following in the footsteps of the regular Ramblin' root beer, the sassafras flavor is fairly weak, perhaps exacerbated by the overwhelming strength of the maple. The flavors are somewhat complimentary, so it's not like the two are battling out in the flavor arena with two completely different taste directions in mind, so it works, but I'd call this a maple flavored soda first and a root beer second. There still is vanilla in there, with it being noticeable both in the initial taste as well as the aftertaste. The rootiness becomes pretty thin feeling in the aftertaste, again, just like the original Ramblin'.

I'm going to be lazy with this next part, as my previous review holds true for this one as well: Sweetness is pretty good, though perhaps a tad on the sugary side, as it leaves a moderately stronger than usual sugary feel in my mouth. That sensation is odd, seeing as how it has less sugar (37g) than the average root beer (generally 40-45g). Carbonation is decent, with a very fine bubble structure that doesn't prick the tongue. I wouldn't mind a slightly more aggressive effervescence to it, but it certainly isn't flat. As for smoothness, this is one of the creamier root beers, likely aided by the inclusion of quillaia extract, which usually lends a hand in this regard. It goes down nice and smooth.

So, my final thoughts. It's pretty good (better than I had anticipated after catching my first whiff of the super-maple scent) and an interesting flavor addition, but as a root beer, it feels like it's more of a maple soda than a root beer, so my scoring takes that into account with it tasting good, but not necessarily being a great root beer. I'd certainly drink it again and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it if you're in the mood for maple. If you are really craving root beer, perhaps look elsewhere.


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

Ramblin' root beer

Background information: (from the website) "A quick history of Ramblin' Root Beer. Following its introduction in 1979 Ramblin' became one of the most popular root beers in America.

The vintage brand's first commercial featured a cameo by a young Sarah Jessica Parker, and the accompanying jingle, "Ramblin' Root Beer's something more!" would be in the minds of Americans for years to come.

Today, with a lineup of new flavors and fresh, new package designs, the best root beer is back and brought friends along to remind the passionate fans what they've been missing."

So yeah, the website is pretty light on information. Not the worst I've seen (there have been some extremely sparse websites), but very basic.


Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Bottled under the authority of The Monarch Beverage Company, Inc., Atlanta, GA 30326, USA 800-241-3732. 150 calories, 37g sugar.  Glass bottle with twist off top.  https://drinkramblin.com/


Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Natural Flavors, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Quillaja Extract, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Potassium Sorbate (Preservative).


My thoughts: Speaking of Ramblin', sometimes I enjoy prefacing my review with a bit of a ramble on a semi-related topic, usually related to the name of the root beer. Now, it might seem questionable to be so verbose when all people are looking for is a simple review about the beverage. I'd like to think that I'm whimsical and charming in my approach, but real life has revealed to me that I'm not quite so appealing and that I mostly come off as annoying in the real world. But what is the real world? Are we a simulation? A three dimensional projection from the two dimensional surface of a black hole? Perhaps we are part of the multiverse, where every possible version of ourselves exists somewhere out in the infinite cosmos. Science has a lot to say about that and...wait...what was I talking about before I started to ramble on about other stuff? Oh yeah, the root beer. So here are my thoughts.

This root beer has a very strong vanilla presence, which I like. It is certainly rooty, with a bit of the classic sassafras flavor root beer is known for, but falls a bit short on strength as that rootiness feels slightly watered down. Are there other flavors in there? Maybe, but the power of the vanilla overwhelms whatever else might be going on. Aftertaste is also dominated by the same.

Sweetness is pretty good, though perhaps a tad on the sugary side, as it leaves a moderately stronger than usual sugary feel in my mouth. That sensation is odd, seeing as how it has less sugar (37g) than the average root beer (generally 40-45g). Carbonation is decent, with a very fine bubble structure that doesn't prick the tongue. I wouldn't mind a slightly more aggressive effervescence to it, but it certainly isn't flat. As for smoothness, this is one of the creamier root beers, likely aided by the inclusion of quillaia extract, which usually lends a hand in this regard. It goes down nice and smooth.

Overall, this is a solid drink. It bests the generic store shelf cans of root beer, even if it does fall short of being one of the better ones. The vanilla makes a good showing, but the rest of the flavors don't pack quite enough punch. I'm sure that somewhere in the multiverse, this is the best root beer there is, and that isn't necessarily a bad place. In this part of the multiverse, however, there is stiff competition and plenty of alternative root beer options I could reach for when choosing a drink.


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