Empire Diet Root Beer

I cracked into this the other afternoon:

Brand: Empire Diet Root Beer.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Aspartame.

Review: Empire seems to do everything right. Except root beer or diet root beer. I really didn't care for their root beer (it was one of the first sodas that I reviewed on this blog), and I really don't care for this either. I don't mind diet sodas, but this tasted horribly fake. There is a strong anise flavor (which I know many root beers have, and that's fine), and there's a "sharpness" to this with no smoothness or drinkability at all. No thanks.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Empire Bottling Works Banana

After having the best root beer of my life, I was leery of trying such a strange-sounding pee-colored soda.

This was my 3rd Empire soda, and they've just been getting better - their root beer was pretty bad, their orange was average, and this was pretty good.

Brand: Empire Banana.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, Burnsville, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: The first sniff was strong of banana. And it tasted sweet and good. It was like drinking liquified banana Runt candies (remember those?). The flavor was sharp, but right on. It had a strong banana flavor with a slight pear aftertaste - which was just fine. For being slightly a "novelty" flavor, it was quite refreshing.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Empire Orange Soda

I had Empire Soda one other time, and it was pretty crappy. This one was a bit better...

Brand: Empire Orange.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was a pretty "sharp" for orange soda - I tend to prefer my orange drink to be smoother. My wife interpreted the sharpness as a chemically flavor, and she didn't care for the soda at all. I thought the orange flavor was good, and overall, I'd say it was pretty average.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Empire Root Beer

Rhode Island makes shitty root beer.  Or so I found out on Wednesday night when I tried this:

Brand: Empire Root Beer.

Origin: Bristol, Rhode Island.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: It wasn't smooth, but it didn't really have bite either.  It was like it was trying to be both, but it failed at both - it needed to pick a team and stick with it.  I didn't care for the taste.  It wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't purchase this again.

Score: 3 out of 10.