Review - Virgil's Root Beer

Bottler: Reed's, Inc.

Calories per Ounce: 13.3

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: Virgil's Root Beer is one of the few root beers I have had in which the dominant flavor is not vanilla. Instead, it has an elusive spicy flavor that may be cinnamon or nutmeg, or possibly a combination of both over just a hint of vanilla flavor. The flavor is not appreciably changed when ice is added, although the somewhat tangy aftertaste becomes more prominent. Virgil's is very foamy, something that becomes even more apparent when it is combined with ice cream. As an ice cream float is is reasonably good, with the spiciness of the root beer complementing the vanilla of the ice cream fairly well. Overall, Virgil's Root Beer is unusual enough to be interesting, but not good enough to be memorable.

Review - Virgil's Black Cherry Cream Soda

Bottler: Reed's, Inc.

Calories per Ounce: 13.3

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: I love cherry sodas, and I'm partial to vanilla flavoring in soda, so I approached Virgil's Black Cherry Cream with high hopes. These hopes were, for the most part, met. The soda has a very strong cherry flavor which is quite good although it dominates and completely overshadows the cream portion of the soda. Drinking this soda with ice doesn't substantially change the flavor, which somewhat surprised me, as most sodas have a muted flavor when one drinks them with ice. Serving the soda with ice didn't even help bring out the cream flavor, and the black cherry flavor was still completely dominant. The soda pairs well with ice cream, forming an ice cream soda that tastes very much like cherry vanilla ice cream, although the cherry flavor in this concoction is more prominent than in a typical blend of cherry vanilla ice cream.

Review - Goya Pineapple Soda

Bottler: Goya

Calories per Ounce: 14.1

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: I don't usually go out of my way to obtain pineapple soda, so Goya Pineapple Soda is a new thing for me. On its own, this soda has a very strong, very sweet pineapple-like taste. It doesn't really taste exactly like a pineapple, or even like pineapple juice, but it is very close. When served over ice, as usual, the taste of the soda is muted, resulting in a somewhat watered down pineapple flavor. Vanilla ice cream goes fairly well with it as an ice cream soda, but I suspect that another ice cream flavor like coconut would be better.

Angela's Comment: It should be mixed with coconut rum.

Review - Reed's Ginger Beer

Bottler: Reed's Inc.

Calories per Ounce: 12

Caffeine: No

Aaron's Comments: Reed's Ginger Beer is a higher quality soda than I have reviewed before - the label claims that it contains 25% fruit juice, presumably the result of the 26 grams of fresh ginger per bottle that this beverage is supposed to contain, although I'm not sure that ginger qualifies as a fruit. When I brought home a four-pack of this, Angela tried some, and absolutely hated it. My friend Dave is a fan of ginger beer, and tried a bottle which he declared to be pretty good. I'm pretty much somewhere in the middle with respect to Reed's Ginger Beer. I don't find it terrible - the initial strong ginger flavor of the beer is fairly good, but I don't find it all that enjoyable either - the aftertaste it leaves behind is about what I'd imagine drinking muddy gravel would taste like. Over ice, Reed's Ginger Beer is worse, as the ginger flavor is muted while the aftertaste is not. Oddly, when used in an ice cream float, it is tolerable, mostly because the ice cream flavor overwhelms the gravelly aftertaste.