maine root Ginger Brew

Ever heard of ginger beer? I know many have not. It's not like ginger ale, it's far more potent and lets you know that there's ginger in it. Most who've heard of and had ginger beer have had Reed's, but maine root's ginger brew leaves that in the dust for intensity.

A hint to this is concentration can be seen because of its opaque appearance like a greenish orange juice. For those not prepared your first smell might repulse you, and the first sip will as well. But the experienced of this is unique with ginger on the palate (duh), but it's a crisp-spicy somehow that's not like the raw root. Once past your tongue there is no aftertaste but a retaining tingle on it that lingers for quite some time. Besides the taste, I've found this to be a nice tonic to settle your stomach.

Despite being somewhat simple I give this an A (excellent) because it's been a favorite of mine that I've returned to many times. I warn you though, I'm sure people's opinions on this will be polarized.

maine root Sarsaparilla

My first thought when I saw this, looking for a soda to review, was: "What's sarsaparilla?" But I brought it home because I'd had products from maine root before, (I think they make the best ginger beer out there!) Once I came home I opened a bottle, poured it in a glass, and did a google search on sarsaparilla.

My search found out that sarsaparilla is the name of a plant that root beer was originally made from. My tasting found a "lighter root beer" though. It didn't create any head when poured and smelled of sweet birch (yes the tree). Upon entering the mouth I found the carbonation to have far less sizzle than any Pepsi or Coke products. The taste had another tree to it, evergreen, but I also found vanilla. It was not your typical vanilla extract though, vanilla root is the way to describe this. I think it works better with the birch and evergreen tree sweetness as well. Sarsaparilla ends with a light sweetness for an aftertaste, and you can tell it's not most soda's processed sugar. Upon visiting maine root's website I found out they use unprocessed cane sugar, and I believe it makes a difference.

I gave maine root's Sarsaparilla a solid B (good) due to not being too sweet and a rather unique tree palate. As I stated before I've had maine root's ginger beer as well and I'm a fan. That will probably be the next product of theirs I'll visit.