What does root beer taste like?

[Sleepyskull]

Ugh... If that creepy baby is a root beer mascot, maybe root beer is overrated after all...

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Fine... a scene from an Annette Funicello film.

[trekgeezer]

Here's the Ferengi  take on Root Beer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hdiuRMK3UQ

[Fausto]

Reading this page is making me thirsty. I might have to stop at the store and get some RB soon.

I honestly don't drink root beer all that often, but more because I usually just drink whatever's available, usually pepsi or coke, its just not something I think to buy.

I live on the edge of south jersey, near Pennsylvania, and we have Penn. Dutch Birch beer, which is a variant of RB, and quite delicious in its own right (I think I might be related to the Penn. Dutch myself, I know I have German ancestry on my mother's side, and I was raised Lutheran).

For some people, RB is serious business, this site for instance:
http://www.lukecole.com/Root%20Beer/lukes_root_beer_home.htm

[wickednick]

Root Beer has a honey taste to it, along with Vanilla and a little bit of Coke. Its very good.
I honestly didn't like Root Beer when I was a kid but have learned to enjoy it as I got older. I think it was because it reminded me of its horrible red headed bastard cousin Cream Soda. God I hate that stuff.

Also getting off topic but I have noticed there are a variety of soft drinks that are purely local, what are some odd ones around where you live. I always wanted to know what Moxy tastes like, but you can't find it here in Wisconsin.

[Oscar]

Trying AGAIN to post a picture

[Oscar]

Looks like I finally held my mouth right...

[AndyC]

I don't mind commercial root beer, but after trying some of the real stuff, there's no comparison.

I occasionally pick this up from the health food store. Natural sarsparilla, licorice and vanilla extracts, sweetened with cane juice, rich and creamy feel, not too fizzy. Delicious.

[Jim H]

A lot of non-Americans don't like it, but the large majority of Americans do.  It's a very difficult to describe flavor, but the people in the thread here so far have done a good job.

I might also add that there's a pretty big variance in quality.  It's not like cola, where any variant of it is fairly similar.  Higher end root beer actually is much better.  I can't remember the brand, but there's some local variant here in St. Louis I had once that was around $3 a bottle (looked like a beer bottle) and was the best root beer I've ever had.

If you like it, remember to try floating a few big hunks of quality vanilla ice cream in it.  Root beer floats are god damn delicious.

[Flick James]

I brought up Sioux City Sarsaparilla in an earlier post. That's the best I've ever had.

[AndyC]

The only problem I have is that premium root beer almost always seems to come in long-necked brown bottles. I get self-conscious driving down the highway sipping on one of those. 

[Saucerman]

I could have sworn I'd posted in this thread...According to wikipedia, the first "root beer" was made and drank on the same day I was born -- May 16th.  So I kind of have a bond to this Prince of Beverages. 

I freakin' love Root Beer.  I've largely given up drinking pop/soda (I'm from a geographic area of America that refers to carbonated sugary beverages as pop, as opposed to those who call it soda or worse, "Coke"), but I still have a soft spot for Root Beer. 

[Paquita]

Has the Root Beer arrived in South Africa yet?  Do you have Cream Soda there?  I prefer Cream Soda over Root Beer.

[Mofo Rising]

I used to love root beer when I was a kid, at least the mass produced stuff, but as I grew older I lost all fascination with sweet food in general.

Then I was at a restaurant in Colorado that brewed their own root beer, which I thought was great. The other people I was with did not like it because it tasted too much like real beer. Probably the very reason I liked it.

One thing I have noticed about soft drinks, when I grew up in Alaska, I drank regular soda. Then I moved to the desert, Arizona, and I started drinking Dr Pepper, which most everybody else here did too. I don't know if it has to do with climate, or just general taste, but here in the desert, Dr Pepper reigns supreme.

[Oscar]

Hey Trevor, did you ever get to taste root beer?