Lakefront Brewery Golden Maple Root Beer

I opened this while cooking last night:

 

Brand: Lakefront Brewery Golden Maple Root Beer

Origin: Milwaukee, WI.

Purchase Place: Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Pure cane sugar and pure Wisconsin maple syrup.

Review: I didn't get a TON of maple flavor from this. I'd could say I'm disappointed a little, but the flavor wasn't bad, so I'm not too upset. It's less "maple" and more like "if a root beer and a cream soda had a baby" which is NOT a bad thing. It was a bit like a creamy root beer. The flavor wasn't amazing, but it was good for what it was. I'll rank this just a bit above average.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Sprecher Maple Root Beer

In "honor" of the Packers losing this past weekend (YASSSS!!!!), I cracked into this 2nd soda that my wife picked up for me recently at Menards: 

Brand: Sprecher Maple Root Beer.

Origin: Glendale, WI.

Purchase Place: Menards, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and WI Maple Syrup.

Review: I was ready for this to have a weird funk, but it didn't. It didn't really smell of maple or maple syrup, and it just had a SLIGHT flavor of it, which paired well with a normal root beer flavor. It was so subtle that it seemed to just have a slight butterscotch flavor. The root beer was slightly smooth and pretty decent, and the maple flavor just gave it a little something extra.

Score: 8 out of 10.

CideRoad Organic Blueberry Switchel

I was walking through Lunds earlier today, and I saw these:

So I grabbed the blueberry one.

First of all, what is this? I had to look up "Switchel." Apparently, it's this:

Switchel, also switzel, swizzle, ginger-water, haymaker's punch or switchy, is a drink made of water mixed with vinegar, and often seasoned with ginger. Honey, sugar, brown sugar, or maple syrup were sometimes used to sweeten the drink instead of molasses.

This one has water, sugar, vinegar, maple syrup, and some fruit juices (including some ginger). It's not a soda, but it's not a traditional "healthy" drink because it only has 2% of your daily allowance of Vitamin C and Calcium. It is labeled as 14% juice. So what the heck is it? Well... it's switchel, I guess.


Brand: CideRoad Organic Blueberry Switchel.

Origin: Mendham, NJ.

Purchase Place: Lunds Grocery Store, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Syrup and Maple Syrup.

Review: I don't think I've mentioned this here before, but I'm not a fan of kombucha. I can't stand it. My wife loves it, so it's around a lot. Well, this is a bit like a "tame" kombucha. The "tang" that this CideRoad drink has is kombucha-like, but not as overly harsh. I can taste the ginger, but it's not overwhelming. The blueberry is nice. If a "tame" kombucha sounds good to you, give this a try. It would be refreshing for the right person. I just thought it was OK.

Score: 5 out of 10.
 

Golden Maple Root Beer

Wisconsin root beer with Wisconsin maple syrup in it? This was something I just had to try:

Brand: Golden Maple Root Beer.

Origin: Milwaukee, WI.

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

Sweetener: Cane Sugar and Maple Syrup.

Review: The first sip was all I had hoped: it was a pretty smooth root beer flavor that was extra sweet because of a maple syrup flavor on top of it. It was good! The first 3 ingredients (in order) are carbonated water, pure cane sugar, and pure Wisconsin maple syrup. If you like a strong sugary flavor, then you need to try this.

The only downside to this was that it got really TOO sweet after the first 10 sips or so. I'd rate the first sips as an 8.5, but overall, the score will be lower because it just gets to be a bit too much. (At least it comes in a resealable bottle so it doesn't all have to be consumed at once.)

Score: 6.5 out of 10.