Review - A&W Root Beer

Bottler: Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.

Calories per Ounce: 14.5

Caffeinated? No.

Aaron's Comments: Every journey has to begin somewhere, and this soda trek is starting with the most basic of root beer brands - A&W. Due to its almost ubiquitous nature, for most people, this is probably the "baseline" root beer with which they are familiar. The dominant flavor in A&W Root Beer is vanilla, which gives the soda a very smooth flavor. It also has a very sweet taste, probably because there is little in the vanilla-based mix of root flavors that offsets the sugar content. I think that this soda tastes better with ice, mostly because the ice breaks up the relentlessly sweet flavor. This sweet, smooth flavor does make for a superior root beer float as the vanilla flavor in the root beer enhances the vanilla flavor in the ice cream. The combination makes for a very intense level of vanilla flavor, so if one wasn't enthused by vanilla, then maybe it wouldn't be so good. I happen to like the vanilla-upon-vanilla flavor, so I find it to be an excellent combination.