Saturday, January 2, 2016

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.


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.

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