Dr. Brown’s Root Beer

Dr. Brown’s  Root Beer

Website: ?????

Sweetener: Sugar and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup

Bottled at: College Point, New York

Purchase Location: Galco’s Soda Pop Stop

Dr. Brown’s is a New York soda company with a long history.  The brand was created in 1869 and sold its tonic in New York delicatessens and door to door in Jewish neighborhoods.  Nearly two decades later, in 1886, the company began bottling its soda.  Dr. Brown’s has made a celery flavored drink since the company’s inception.  Initially it was called Dr. Brown’s Celery Tonic.  Today the soda, which I would never have guessed existed, is sold as Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray.

Dr. Brown’s Root Beer is made with sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup.  I am unsure whether I taste-tested an all sugar version, an all HFCS version, or a mixture of the two.  I do find the and/or ingredient listing to be interesting.  As I imagine it, Dr. Brown’s had a big pile of sugar that it mixed into its root beer batches until the pile ran low.  The root beer brewers looked around and found some containers of corn syrup.  Happy that they didn’t have to drive to the local grocery store to buy more sugar, they dumped the corn syrup in the pot and added an “and/or” to the label.

Dr. Brown’s Root Beer is a middle of the road soda.  It is good enough, but not outstanding.  It has a typical, although slightly mild root beer taste.  There is nothing off-putting about Dr. Brown’s, but no element of the soda really stands out either.  You can probably count on Dr. Brown’s not to offend anyone at a friendly gathering.  However, if you are looking to impress with a top of the line root beer, there are certainly better drinks out there.

Overall Score: 6 of 10.