Massive Root Beer Taste Test

Last year I had signed up to do a root beer taste test at Pop n Sweets, which included sampling 80 different root beers over about a 3 hour time period. They unfortunately don't do this anymore but it was super fun at the time.

The end result of taking "shots" of 80 different root beers is listed below. Also I found out what a "sugar high" was. 

During the taste test we wrote down our thoughts on each of the root beers gave them a score from 1 to 10 (listed below). After the taste test was all done, I decided to take all of the top two scores (which happened to be 7 and 8) and redo them for my own blind taste test. I was able to better compare them to each other and find a personal definitive root beer order.

Here is my blind taste test. Out of the 15 root beers with the top 2 scores, I could find 13 in stores. Apparently two of them weren't made or sold anymore in any stores I could find so they were left off the list. Below are the results.

 Here is my order of the top 13 root beers. I ended up breaking them into four distinct groups. The left group was Level A: Great!, middle was Level B: pretty good, and right was Level C: ok and the one to the far right was Level D: How the hell did you end up here?

Level A: Great!

1. Bulldog Root Beer
Thoughts: Slightly sugary taste but otherwise smooth.


















2. Empire Root Beer
Thoughts: Very similar to Bulldog. Hard to differentiate. Also a slightly sugary but smooth taste.
















3. Dang! Root Beer
Thoughts: Rich root beer taste that goes down smooth.
















4. Eli's Root Beer
Thoughts: Very similar to Dang!, couldn't really tell the difference. Same rich root beer taste that goes down smooth.

Level B: Very good

5. IBC Root Beer
Thoughts: Smooth, nice, soft flavor.

















6. Virgil's Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg Root Beer
Thoughts: Almost a licorishy flavor but not quite. Good on ice cream.














7. Hippo Size Root Beer
Thoughts: Strong sugary taste but not too bad.
















8. Joe's Root Beer
Thoughts: Slight tinge of the vinegary taste that Triple XXX has, but pretty smooth.

Level C: OK and 

Level D: How the hell did you end up here?

 Level C: OK

9. Cicero Salted Caramel Root Beer
Thoughts: Very butterscotchy flavor but not too strong a taste. Pretty smooth.

















10. O-So Root Beer
Thoughts: Almost identical to Cicero, a not too strong butterscotchy flavor. Pretty candy smooth.


















11. Chicago Root Beer
Thoughts: A sbit sharp with the carbonation but when it's flat the taste is pretty smooth.
















12. Kutztown Birch Beer
Thoughts: Nearly identical to Chicago. Sharp with carbonation but smooth when flat.

Level D: How the hell did you end up here?

13. Triple XXX Root Beer
Thoughts: Watery and vinegary taste. Pretty gross.

Those are the thoughts on my personal taste test. Below is the results of all the root beers that I tried with my individual thoughts on them. When trying 80 different root beers it's hard to come up with very good taste descriptions but I tried.

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Taste Test Drink Order	Name	Thoughts During Taste Test	Initial Score	Final Rank
74	Bulldog	Nice candy flavor	7	1
80	Empire	Nothing noted	7	2
33	Dang!	Smooth	7	3
72	Captain Eli's	Foamy and light	8	4
45	IBC	Pretty Good	7	5
25	Virgils Bavarian Nutmeg	Pretty Good	7	6
54	Hippo Size	Smooth	8	7
12	Joe's	Slight caramel taste	7	8
53	Cicero	Not bad	7	9
32	O-So Butterscotch	Toasted Marshmallow	7	10
11	Chicago	Smooth, nice	8	11
20	Kutz Town	Nice	7	12
27	Triple XXX	I like	8	13
4	Iron Horse	Smooth	7	NA
40	Big John Brewers	Nice	7	NA
10	Filbert's	Ok	6
21	Faygo	Kind of like a RB Float	6
22	Frostop	Smooth brown sugar	6
31	Foxon Park	Smooth sugary	6
67	Saranac	Nothing special, Ok	6
77	Bringham's Brew	Not too bad	6
79	Frostie	Not too bad, bit watery	6
1	Bedford's RB	Sugary, Okish	5
2	Speckher RB	Watery, not meh taste but smooth	5
7	Brownie Carmel Cream	Candy RB taste	5
14	Maine Root	Sugary light flavor	5
18	Red Arrow	Slight candy flavor	5
24	Frostie	Vanilla caramel	5
35	Ginseng Up	Slight sugar	5
38	Big Ben's	Light Flavor	5
48	Avery's	Smooth	5
52	The Pop Shoppe	Sugary	5
64	Anchor Ginger	Candyish	5
71	Route 66	Marshmallowy	5
76	Dang! Butterscotch	Candy - not too bad	5
78	Rocky Mt.	Flavored water	5
5	Dr. Brown	Watery, but better than 2	4
9	Barrel Brothers	Very fizzy. Don't taste much	4
13	Dog n Suds	Slight sugary taste	4
17	Crater Lake	Ok. A little sugary	4
19	Sparky's	Lingering candy flavor	4
34	Old Red Eye	Candy. Cheap	4
43	Polar	Eh	4
47	Caruso's	RB Candy	4
51	American	Brown Sugar water	4
58	Zuber Fizz	Nothing special	4
62	Dad's	Light candy	4
66	Thomas Kemper	Marshmallow aftertaste	4
69	Reading Draft	Weird flavor	4
8	Tower	Meh	3
26	Bawls	Meh sourish tatse	3
37	Hosmer	RB Candy	3
42	Boylan	Too Sugary	3
44	Ramlin	Fake	3
49	Death Valley	Too Sugary	3
55	Sioux City	Brown sugar	3
57	Fireman's Brew	Light flavor	3
60	AJ Stephans Butterscotch	Caramel flavoring	3
61	WBC	Meh	3
63	Capone	Not much flavor	3
68	Abita	Sugary candy	3
3	So-da RB	Butterscotchy	2
15	Waialua	Weird taste	2
28	Salted Caramel	Licorishy burnt brown sugar	2
30	Johnny Ryan	Watery sugar	2
41	River City	Fake Flavoring	2
56	Squamscot	Watery sugar, no flavor	2
65	Virgils	Caramel	2
70	Crooked Oak	Vinegary water	2
73	Bundaberg	Meh	2
6	Gale's	Weird Taste	1
16	Stewarts	Strong brown sugar aftertaste	1
23	Old Brooklyn	Too much candy taste	1
36	New York Seltzer	Clear. Not good.	1
50	Swamp Pop File	Vinegary	1
59	Jackson Hole Buckin	Licorice	1
29	Oogave	Oh god no	0
39	Fest Pecan	Burnt	0
75	Tommy Knockers	Strong cloves or something	0
46	Fenteman's Dandelion & Burdock	Awful	-1