Sassy Lil' Lass (#29 - Rated 1.5 out of 12)

Before I even start the official review, I have a few issues. First, the label (seen below) lists this as 2.5 servings per bottle. Each serving is 8 ounces, and it is a 12-ounce bottle. I hope they are better at making root beer than proofreading. They also must be sensitive about the words used. Most manufacturers are just calling High Fructose Corn Syrup just that, although this maker stated “sweetener” as opposed to “syrup.”  

I could not find any information on this brew on the web. There is no history or background. The bottle says established 2014. I also only found one other review. Before I start, let me say I have had this twice (there is an extra bottle around), and each time, I dumped it. Not for the review. I will do my best not to be swayed by the past two strikes.  I am not looking forward to this!

Click here for the rating criteria and a table of all the root beers tested.

Ingredients: Water, Sugar, High-Fructose Corn Sweetener, Caramel Color, Sodium Benzoate (preservative), and Natural Flavors.

Nutrition 8 oz serving (from the bottle)

120 Calories

30 mg Sodium.

29g (15%) of Daily Carbohydrates

0 mg Caffeine

Aroma and Flavor – 0 out of 3 mugs

Right at the start, it smelled like a fermented mess. I took one drink, and three-week-old spoiled milk came to mind. I tried to get others in the house to take a sip, but they refused once they smelled the beverage. 

Head – 1 out of 3 mugs   

It has a head, an inferior head, but it deserved a score.

Zip – 0.5 out of 3 mugs  

I gave this 0.5 as the taste is so bad that it only gives a slight nod for that reason.  Rancid is a taste, right?

Post Consumption Impression – 0 out of 3 mugs

Run, forest, run!  I do not wish any root beer lover the miserable experience I have after just one ounce.   

Would I recommend this at 1.5 out of 12 mugs?

No way!  Never!  I am unsure how anyone could feel good about selling this product as root beer.

           

Other Reviews

Steve’s Root Beer Journal 3 out of 10 (Started the review with “This was not good.”)

Dad's (#28 - Rated 7.0 out of 12)

Dad's Root Beer is one of America's most popular soft drinks.  It was developed in the 1930s by partners Barney Berns and Ely Klapman in the basement of Klapman's Chicago-area home. Dad's flavor earned a loyal following. The Dad's Root Beer brand was famous throughout the Midwest and, by the late 1940s, was one of the most consumed brands of root beer throughout the United States.

Dad's Root Beer distinguished itself as a brand and industry innovator when it became the first product to use the six-pack format invented by the Atlanta Paper Company in the 1940s. Dad's also introduced the half-gallon bottle, becoming the first brand to market this size. Dad's was marketed as a family. The "Junior" bottle size was the smallest, 7, 10, or 12 ounces. Mama was a quart bottle, and Papa was a half-gallon bottle.

The Klapman and Berns families sold all rights to the Dad's name and logo to IC Industries in the 1970s.  During the 1970s, Chicago-based television advertising for Dad's featured a different jingle sung by an ensemble with the following lyrics:

If it foams up to meet you

It's gotta be Dad's, it's gotta be Dad's

If it foams up to treat you

It's gotta be Dad's, it's gotta be Dad's

(The announcer would read the ad copy while a short instrumental section of the jingle played, and then the song continued)

So ask for Dad's, it's good old-fashioned

With the taste of yesteryear

If you don't ask for Dad's

All you're gonna get is,

All you're gonna get is,

All you're gonna get is,

...root beer!

The Monarch Beverage Company of Atlanta acquired Dad's from IC Industries of Chicago in 1986. At that time, Dad's was distributed by the Coca-Cola bottler network sold 12 million cases annually and held the second-largest share of the root beer category behind A & W.

In 2007, Hedinger Brands, LLC purchased Dad's Root Beer from Monarch, along with the Bubble Up, Dr. Wells, and Sun Crest brands, and licensed them to The Dad's Root Beer Company, LLC. The company headquarters is now located in Jasper, Indiana.

Click here for the rating criteria and a summary table of all the root beers tested.

Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Caramel Color, Natural and Artificial Flavors, and Sodium Benzoate (preservative).

Nutrition 12 oz (from the bottle)

230 Calories 

35 mg Sodium.

44g (15%) of Daily Carbohydrates

0 mg Caffeine

Aroma and Flavor – 2 out of 3 mugs

When opening the bottle, the aroma was commercial.  That means it had a more sugar-coated wintergreen aroma and a hint of an unknown spice.  At first drink, it really was overly carbonated, and wintergreen was the dominant flavor. The aftertaste is metallic.

Head – 2 out of 3 mugs

The head is not the best yet, but it does foam up well.  It is much like I would anticipate from a higher carbonated, heavy sugar drink.

Zip -- 1 out of 3 mugs

This could have been more uneventful.  While not bad, it is just a sugar beverage. 

Post Consumption Impression – 2 out of 3 mugs

Dad’s is above average but not much more than average.   

Would I recommend this at 7 out of 12 mugs?

While it has some allure, it is also the highest-calorie (almost twice that of Rocky Mountain Root Beer), and I have no idea what sugar they use. It sure has a corn syrup taste. This would rank very high if only used for a root beer.

Other Reviews

Anthony’s Root Beer Barrel – 67 out of 100

Cosmo’s – 6 out of 10 IBC’s

Robs Root Beer Review – 6 out of 10

Rootbeer Reviews – B-

Root Beer Respect – 5 out of 10

Saw-Whet Root Beers – 8 out of 10