Okay, so this past month I went on a root beer quest. I seached C’ville far and wide for the best bottled root beer. Probably because I’m a homer (d’oh!), I liked Dominion best.
So, here’s my list of root beers available in C’ville, in order of how much I liked them. I highly recommend the top three. If anyone knows of any other root beer available in the area, I’d love to hear about it.
Dominion Root Beer (Ashburn, VA)
Taste: Excellent mix of sweet flavors, with a strong (Virginia) honey taste. (A-)
Available: Foods of All Nations, Giant Supermarkets, Monticello
Natural Brew Root Beer (Chico, CA)
Taste: My favorite non-fructose root beer. A very full combination of flavors. (B+)
Available: Harris Teeter, Whole Foods
Gale’s Root Beer (Chicago, IL)
Taste: Very strong cinammon flavoring, almost overpowering. Unique! (B+)
Available: Foods of All Nations (single bottle only)
IBC Root Beer (Dallas, TX)
Taste: A solid old-school root beer. No gimmacks. There’s a reason why this is such a popular root beer. (B)
Available: Wal-Mart, Kroger, Foods of All Nations
Sprecher (Glendale, WI)
Taste: Good not-too-sweet flavor, but with an unpleasant bitter aftertaste. (C+)
Available: From Scratch Bakery (single bottle only)
Boylan’s (Moonachie, NJ)
Taste: Low carbination makes it taste like it’s been open for a few days. (C-)
Available: Whole Foods, World Market
Virgil’s Root Beer (Los Angeles, CA)
Taste: Too many flavors thrown in, especially the licorice. (C-)
Available: World Market (small keg available)
Stewart’s Root Beer (Rye Brook, NY)
Taste: Imagine a root beer candy floating in a mud puddle. (D+)
Available: Foods of All Nations (single bottle), Kroger
Extra Credit:
Cally’s Homemade Root Beer (Harrisonburg, VA)
Taste: Brain-bogglingly vanilla sweet with low carbination. (C+)
Available: Cally’s Restaurant and Brewing in downtown Harrisonburg.
Popularity: 33% [?]
Tagged as: Charlottesville, Root Beer, Round Up, Soda, sweet
What happened to Root 66? Are they still around?
ooh Root 66 was my favorite, I haven’t seen any for a long time though
@1: I had the same question. I think it was a local C’ville operation. At one point they offered some other flavors, as well. What happened?
Great post Tank - I didn’t realize there was so much variety in the ville. Must check these out.
Thanks
I love Virgil’s.. I’m surprised you didn’t like it.
Does anyone know if you can get sasparilla anywhere around here? I haven’t had the beverage since I was a kid, so I’m sure nostalgia accounts for 80% of my recollection, but man do I recall that stuff being fantastic.
@3: Local’ish as I recall… I think they were actually in Culpepper. But yeah, they were great, though a tiny bit to sweet to be the perfect root beer for my taste. Oh well, there’s always real beer
Root Beer is on my list of Dispreferred Things from My Youth That I One Day Hope to Come to Appreciate (along with onions and mustard). I’m hoping this post will help me toward that end. Thanks for the round-up, TANK.
i LOVE root beer but strangely enough, MY GLORIOUS SLAVES, i HATE anything “root-beer flavored”
this is great! IBC was crucial to looking cool as a kid at family picnics. Everyone had a beer, and so did I.
I’ve heard a rumor recently that birch beer kicks rootbeer’s ass. True?
@10
I don’t know where to get it around here. But Philly Connection back home had birch beer and it was pretty kickass.
Root 66 was based in Gordonsville. It was discontinued about 2 years ago. It’s a shame, because it was good stuff.
Root 66 was based in Charlottesville, it was started by one of the partners in Starlight Express (a service that deserves its own post) who fell in love with the taste of some home-brewed root beer he tried at a civil war re-enactment (if memory serves me correctly) then started the company to produce a comparable product. It used to be based out of the linen building down on market street, and if you caught him (David New?) there you could buy it by the case pretty cheaply. They had at one point Root Beer, Vanilla Creme (both deeelish), Key Lime (also very tasty) and Black Cherry (that one was nasty). I think David sold out to PBM in Gordonsville, a company that makes baby formula, with the hopes of going national, but that never happened. Shame, it was great stuff.
The owner of Route 66 verbally assaulted me and my then wife (seriously, screaming coniption fits) on the downtown mall and it became an anathema to me at that instant. The memory is poison.
I only drink alcoholic beer.
it’s not bottled, but there’s Abita root beer on draft at Mellow Mushroom. that shizs damn gooooood fresh out of a keg.
I think they have it at Blue Moon too!
Do they have Abita Turbodog on draft?
Add vanilla vodka and you have a grown up float. SO good.
@13 yes Doof you’re right, David New owned Root 66 (his wife owns Cha-cha’s) He now co-owns Starlight Express with Oliver Kuttner and Starlight Express runs a bus service to NYC from Charlottesville and the awesome Starlight Cafe Coffeeshop (yeah I own it, what?!) out of Lynchburg.
/don’t beat me up thor
“REAL Root Beer
5 quarts water
1/4 ounce hops
1/2 ounce dried burdock root
1/2 ounce dried yellow dock root
1/2 ounce dried sarsaparilla root
1/2 ounce dried sassafras root
1/2 ounce dried spikenard root
1 1 /2 cups sugar
1/8 tsp granulated yeast
Simmer herbs for 30 minutes. Add sugar, stir to dissolve. Cool to lukewarm, add yeast and stir well. Cover and let sit for 1 hour. Bottle as above.”
YUMM.
@ 20 Sorry to disparage your business partner caroline. Time heals all wounds, and it was a long time ago.
thanks b’yo, you know I luh you babycakes.
B’yo babycakes…..I like it.
i luh you too lolo
C, I just saw that post where you said there were no more hot chicks left on cVillain, so I don’t lub you anymore.
awww - I lube you too.
extra e …whoops
lube hahahahaa!
Shen, don’t fight it baby, you know you luhs me and i luhs you too. You’ve just been so busy flirting with Bacon, Jay and Gobbler I was jealous. Hott baby, you are hott, and I’m going to make out with you when I see you next. That goes for you too lolo.
Bring Your Own babycakes? Im lost…
wait - this is a root beer post, damn I did it again. so sorry.
Not root beer, but…
If you like root beer, and want something with a little more punch, check out Reed’s Ginger Beer. Avail all over the place. Really nice, spicy soda. Will make your nostrils burn. Also mixes well with rum.
And when you want something smoother, IBC’s cream soda is about as smooth as it gets. Enough sugar to kill you, but that’s good every once in a while. Also avail everywhere.
@Dan… have you had the extra spicy one they make? It’s a killer.
spicybeer.
Thomas Kemper Root Beer, from Seattle!!! Look it up, order it and enjoy. I wish they sold this stuff nearby.
Ginger Beer and Cream Soda. Gud!
Blue Ridge Country Store has Maine Root Sarsaparilla in bottles. It’s tasty.
http://maineroot.com/
Not local, but good.