Kutztown Sarsaparilla

Kutztown Sarsaparilla

Website: http://www.kutztownbottlingworks.com/

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar

Bottled at: Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Purchase Location: Galco’s Soda Pop Stop

Kutztown Sarsaparilla is the third, and perhaps last, Kutztown soda to be reviewed in this site.  In addition to Kutztown Root Beer, Kutztown Birch Beer, and Kutztown Sarsaparilla, Kutztown makes a white birch beer and a diet birch beer.  However, Kutztown White Root Beer is sold only in  plastic bottles, and Kutztown Diet Birch Beer is, well, a diet soda.

I must say that even though all three Kutztown beverages have the same label, albeit in a different color for each soda, I still really like the label.  The German tone set by the lettering and overall look of the label just makes sense for root beer, birch beer, and sarsaparilla.  Moreover, using the German phrase “Nix Besser,”  translated to “Nothing Better” or “None Better,” on the label was a brilliant decision, regardless of whether the phrase is accurate.  Like the other two Kutztown soda’s reviewed here, there is a short poem or jingle found on Kutztown Sarsaparilla’s label which states:

Ward off your thirst with an ice cold mug of Kutztown Sarsaparilla…always a sign of good luck and good taste anytime it’s enjoyed.  Ach now, don’t that drink good?

Does it drink good?  Kutztown Sarsaparilla tastes like root beer.  It has a strong herbal root beer bite.  The root beer bite is capped of with a cola flavor.  The result is a soda that tastes more like root beer than sarsaparilla.  Like other Kutztown sodas, Kutztown Sarsaparilla is satisfactory, but is nothing to write home about.

Overall Score: 6 of 10.

Kutztown Birch Beer

Kutztown Birch Beer

Website: http://www.kutztownbottlingworks.com/

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar

Bottled at: Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Purchase Location: Galco’s Soda Pop Stop

Perhaps the most pleasing part of my quest to find the world’s best root soda is that I have become familiar with the delicious beverage that is birch beer.  I was hopeful, then, that Kutztown Birch Beer would be the next in the list of excellent birch beers added to my blog.  Kutztown Birch Beer has the same presentation as the rest of the Kutztown sodas, displaying a fine German theme.  As always, Kutztown’s label includes a poem.  Unlike the Kutztown Root Beer poem which to me is intelligible, Kutztown Birch Beer’s makes sense and sings the praises of the soda.  It states:

Say now, no one can resist the spell of Kutztown Birch Beer, Pennsylvania’s finest. Share a frosty mug with your special someone and just watch them fall in love. Drink to your health!

Kutztown Birch Beer was traditionally made from birch oil distilled from the sap of the black birch tree.  Today it is made “from the finest birch oil available.”  It could be that the other birch beers I have tasted are frauds, not made with the finest birch oil.  However, for some reason, this soda using the finest birch oil available just did not live up to the standard set by some of the other sodas.  Kutztown Birch Beer tastes more like a root beer than a birch beer.  It has a strong root bite.  There is a slight birch flavor, but it is overcome by the strong root bite.  Those who like strong root beer should enjoy this brew, but it was not what I was expecting.

Overall Score: 6 of 10.

Kutztown Root Beer

Kutztown Root Beer

 

 

Website: http://www.kutztownbottlingworks.com/

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar

Bottled at: Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Purchase Location: World Market

Kutztown Root Beer comes to us thanks to Kutztown Bottling Works which has been bottling beverages since 1851 in the small town – population 5,012 as of the 2010 census – of Kutztown Pennsylvania.  The Kutztown label is eye-catching, due in large part to its German influence.  The bottle advertises, in a very German font, that it is made with the “Original Premium Recipe.”  The label further states, not only in a very German font but also in actual German, “Nix Besser” – “Nothing Better” or “None Better.”  This German influence makes sense, since, according to Wikipedia, 91.6% of Kutztownians have German ancestry.  This German influence also bodes well for my expectations of Kutztown Root Beer.  It feels like Germans should be expert root beer brewers.  I do not know if that is actually the case.  Germans may hate root beer, but it just seems like they should be adept in the craft of producing large amounts of frothy, exquisite root beer.

Although not the exquisite root beer I believe German-Americans are capable of making, Kutztown is a good root beer.  The root beer initially has a fairly strong bite with vanilla and anise flavors.  Subsequent sips are not as strong as the first, but the soda did not taste watered down.  This soda lacks a little bit of direction, but is worth a drink.  Oh, by the way let me know if you can decipher the meaning of the following message found on the back of the label:

– When you’re bad for something mighty good reach for a foamy mug of Kutztown Root Beer! Tastes chust like old-fashioned, ’cause you know we make it that way. Drink ’til you ouch, there’s more back!

Overall Score: 6 of 10.