While I don't drink it often, I am a certifiable root beer junkie. When I lived in England I would go with my American friend to his American school and watch baseball games and eat cheeseburgers and drink either Dr. Pepper or root beer. Root beer, as a result, is etched into my mind as the iconic American drink. Moreso than Coke which seems more international.
And when I moved to the states one of the first things I did was go to an A&W and get a root beer float which I thought was dessert perfection. I'm happy to say that the current culinary trend in New York of reviving and gourmet-ifying comfort food (think high end hamburgers and donuts) has extended to the root beer float which I've spotted on many a restaurant menu.
Anyway. There's a nice piece on rootbeer in the NY Times today which put into words what I like about the drink so much - it's variability. Colas all kind of taste the same. Root beer is more like real beer and as a result there are a lot of 'microbreweries' putting out really good root beer. The article goes on to recommend some but I'll just put the plug in for my favorite - Bulldog Root Beer (no corn syrup either).
It also highlighted a great blog that reviews rootbeers - Root Beer Barrel. Awesome.
And it also confirmed something else I suspected; some people really don't like root beer. Friggin savages.
3 comments:
while i like root beer myself, and also love a great root beer float, i have found a number of my friends who HATE root beer. they think it's the most disgusting beverage on the planet...the common denominator? they are all French. there's just something about the taste of root beer that's unique and that offends their palate.
i've found this to be true of many cultures when it comes to delicacies. take the japanese and natto, or the chinese and [insert disgusting food here]. some tastes just don't seem to work well across cultures.
Like I said. Savages :)
very true, some people hate it with a passion. i personally only hate certain root beers and i have actually come to enjoy a couple that i gave bad reviews to many years before. oh well.
but i also feel it is much more American than pretty much any drink. perhaps since it is just so hard to find it anywhere else and since there is such a huge, thriving underground of microbrews here. good stuff.
thanks for the link and the visit! come back again soon.
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