You know what makes me excited?  If you said “soda” then you took the easy way out.  If you said “alternate sweeteners” then you’re in my mind right now.  What the fine folks at Hosmer Mountain have done in their Root Beer is use brown sugar in the formula.  That’s pretty dang exciting in my book.  They also use HFCS, but just the fact that brown sugar is incorporated makes me excited to taste it.