Reading Draft Blueberry Birch
Lot’s of Reading brews that I haven’t tried yet, but I’ll mark the Reading Draft Blueberry Birch off my list. To be honest, I love blueberries and I love birch beer, but I haven’t had an overwhelming desire to try this brew. Maybe I’m wrong, but it just doesn’t seem like a combination that goes together.
The “kool-aid” blue color of this birch beer is a big turnoff as is the food coloring flavor that is slightly noticeable. All in all, it is not quite as bad as it could be – it’s flavor is mild, which in this case is a really good thing. The carbonation is low, which in this case may not be such a good thing – a higher carbonation level might mask some of the flavor.
It doesn’t really taste like blueberries either, again it’s more of an artificial “kool-aid” “food-coloring” taste. It’s not gross, but it’s simply something that you would drink at a birthday party for a six-year old . . . you know, the kind of birthday party with cupcakes, streamers and boogers that have been wiped on the couch by multiple, gross six year old boys.
Surprisingly, there is no nutritional information on the side of the bottle . . . maybe because they wanted to hide the extreme amount of sugar needed to make this soda . . .
The Professor’s Grade: D+
Dominion Root Beer
Dominion Root Beer is apparently a Washington football fan. Notice my “non-use” of the offensive team nickname. And because of my ever-so-sensitive conscious, I’ve decided to refrain from using several teams nicknames including the team in Miami (due to the offensive nature towards aquatic animals), Denver (out of respect to horses worldwide) and the Dallas team (not all Americans are Cowboys and it’s particularly offensive to equate as such). Regardless, Dominion was born and bred in the Washington D. C. area, and they still retain their affinity for Joe Gibbs and the Hogs long after they’ve moved to Delaware.
Back 20 years ago or so, Dominion Root Beer was one of the first specialty root beers I was exposed too – it helped create my life-long desire to be a Professor of Root Beer! For that I am eternally grateful to Dominion. Unfortunately, I’m not as keen on the taste today as I was back then. I really do like root beers flavored with honey, but I don’t think this brew has much special going for it beyond the honey. It had been a long time since I last tried this, and to be honest I was expecting a heck of a lot more!
There is a spicy bite at the end of each sip, but without that bite it would be like drinking colored water . . . minus the honey flavor that is.
This is still better than the A&Ws and the Mugs of the world . . . which is probably why I was so impressed 20 years ago, but after having a myriad of other root beers, this one falls a bit flat in the competition.
The Professor’s Grade: C +
