Last April (2021 - two Aprils now woah) my wife and I decided to rate and review every single root beer we came across. It’s an ongoing adventure to find the best tasting (or maybe even worst tasting) root beers and it’s filled our lives with a tiny bit more whimsy! We’ve noticed different cans and bottles in cafes, corner stores and grocery stores wherever we go and it’s been really fun to taste each one and compare.

We decided on a metric where the basic root beer, the one of both of our childhood’s was A&W and it ranked a solid 3/5. We compared for taste and bubbliness - how was the balance of spices? Too much sarsaparilla or too much vanilla? Not enough smooth caramel taste? And the carbonation?

Our results were as follows: (this table will be updated as we try more!)

Root Beer
Henri Soda	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Real Brew	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
Cott	🍺	🍺🍺
Faygo	🍺🍺	🍺🍺
Mug	🍺	🍺
Stewart's	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
Boylan's	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Jones	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Bull's Head	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
Marco's	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Fentimans	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Barqs	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Bundaberg	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Dad's	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Harvey and Vern's	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
The Pop Shoppe	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
Babbling Brook's	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
A&W	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Compliments	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Mill St	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Farmery	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺
Western Family Road Trip	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Brownie's Caramel Cream	🍺🍺	🍺🍺
Bull Dog	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Earp's Sarsaparilla	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
Pic-a-pop	🍺	🍺
Phillip's Soda Work	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
Virgil's Sugar Free	🍺
Virgil's (Sugared)	🍺🍺	🍺🍺
Americana	🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺
Dr. Brown's	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺
O-So	🍺🍺🍺🍺	🍺🍺🍺🍺

And our final decision for the rankings came out to be:

• Honourable Mention: Bundaberg
• Best root beer: Boylans or Fentimans
• Best budget root beer: Stewarts
• Best local: Marco's
• Coolest label: Phillip's Soda Works
• Root beer to try: tbd...

I'll add some individual root beer reviews soon, to fully discuss the highlights of some of these as we taste (or re-taste) sodas!