Trader Joe's Vintage Root Beer

Just like all the hybrids parked outside of Trader Joe's, their own root beer is a hybrid of its own. Now in the past I have been known to speak out against birch beer, and being from Pennsylvania, I feel like I'm allowed to do that as we know our birch beer. Verdict: all birch beer is bad. Well, at least I think so. 

Trader Joe's Vintage Root Beer is like a car, but it wouldn't be a vintage, it would be a hybrid. Oh, I already used that comparison. What I mean is it would be a hybrid of root and birch beer. That's not necessarily a bad thing in this case. In fact, I actually quite like it. You know I do too cause you peeked at the score below. Shame on you.

While I'm the type to prefer a light carbonation, this has a slightly heavier one, but it feels foamier, which is more appropriate for root beer, so I'm okay with that too. Ingredients include wintergreen, birch, anise, sassafras, and tahitian vanilla extract. Cane sugar too, of course. You can certainly taste all those flavors. Although the wintergreen comes before the birch, as I said, the birch really stands out the most.

Unlike their cola, Trader Joe's Vintage Root Beer is worth more than a try. Although in their stores it is on price parity with Virgil's, it's unique enough to give it a shot. If you're a huge fan of birch beer, you may even like it better than I did, considering my disdain for birch.

-Mike