Route 66 Root Beer (#26 - Rated 7.0 out of 12)

The beverage is new on the market compared to others.  It originated in 1996.  It is bottled in Mokena, Illinois.  Hard to find much history at all!  Underlined text is updated text!

Now for the official root beer review.  (Click here for information on the rating criteria and a table of all the root beer tested or to be tested.)

Ingredients: Carbonated water, cane sugar, caramel color, natural and artificial flavorings, citric acid and sodium benzoate.

Nutrition (12 oz from the bottle)

Calories  160

41 mg Sodium.

28g Sugar (12%) of Daily Carbohydrates

0 mg Caffeine

Aroma and Flavor – 1.00 out of 3 mugs

Is it possible to get a bad bottle of root beer.  Well, based on my second try, yes.  The second bottle is nothing like the first.  While it is still not GREAT, it is slightly above average.  Enough to up the score from the original 1 rot a 2 for this category.  The second bottle lacked the aroma and had a pleasing mix of spice.  Still lacked a little e in the Sarsaparilla but the caramel was noted.  The aroma is slight.  My first thought was this was going to have a medicinal taste.  I was right!  My first sip brought a quick realization there are no memorable qualities and little root beer enjoyment.  It is almost tolerable at first sip and then some unknown aftertaste arrives.  I can’t place it, but I do not like it.  I sense a slight vanilla taste with a caramel splash.  Still, the unknown aftertaste is a little more than I enjoyed.  Almost a rancid aftertaste.  Can root beer go bad/sour?

Head – 1.0 out of 3 mugs  

The head is a decent height, but fizzes away too quickly.

Zip – 1.25 out of 3 mugs  

The zip is tingles the tongue and the carbonation and spices is very odd. The Aftertaste is a sweet creamy vanilla.  The second bottle was much better in the Zip category.  It was even carbonation with no odd twang to it at all.  The score increase from 1.25 to 2.

Post Consumption Impression – 1.00 out of 3 mugs  

This brew is just not to my liking.  I am still trying to figure out the almost rancid aftertaste. The second brew was actually enjoyable.  While it had a commercial style carbonation, it was lacked in the preferred vanilla flavor, I was impressed by the second bottle to go from a 1 to a 2.

Would I recommend this at Second try a 7 - initial 4.25 out of 12 mugs?

I believe if you like Dad's Root Beer, you will like this brew as well.  Again, the first bottle must have been fermented as the score for the second bottle almost doubled the score.  Sure wish we had freshness dates on some of these bottle! I would not suggest this beverage, unless it is free and you want to try it.  While the sugar was relatively low, the sodium is very high.  The aftertaste was not pleasing at all and that was confirmed by two others in the household.   

Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer  3.5 out of 5

Cosmos Root Beer Review  1 out of 10

Root Beer Respect  8 out of 10