Please Mr. Kemper?

Looks like my favorite Root Beer company has a few new flavors out. I wonder if the good old folks at Thomas Kemper will send me some... I'd be happy to give them my opinion. I'm not holding my breath, though. They've been pretty nice to me already. Hopefully they'll have some of he stuff when I head back home for the annual summer visit.

More NYTimes Related Root Beer News

Back when I posted about my trip to DC, there was one thing that I forgot to mention. I was introduced to a new Root Beer. After posting a bit about my favorite root beers, my faithful tour guide and friend, Jared, began telling me about Sprecher. It's from Wisconsin, but apparently you can get it at just one place in the DC area, and he was nice enough to stock the fridge with it (as well as buying me some Thomas Kemper - he's really a good guy). Anyway, I was surprised to find this morning that the NYTimes wine gurus had taste tested some root beers, and good 'ol Sprecher was at the top of their list.

So, what do I think of it? Well, I liked it enough to try and take a fancy picture of the bottle (and fail). It's smooth and full bodied, and comes in a larger-than-normal bottle, which is nice. I'll definitely ask again for this one next time I'm in DC. And how did my beloved TK rank? Well, it got 2 out of 4 stars, which insn't bad considering the wine tasters only gave Sprecher three. All in all, a good turn out for some very tasty concoctions.

Another Root Beer Related Review

So, I'm trying to get back in to the swing of regular blogging. For some reason, this Finals session really took it out of me. Probably just a bad case of super-super senior-itis. But, last Wednesday I took my last final exam ever and to celebrate, I opened up the bottle of root beer that the kind folks over at Thomas Kemper sent to me. Seriously guys, this is good stuff.

So, as I mentioned before, they've got a new line of cane sugar sweetened sodas coming out (or perhaps they've come out - it's taken me a bit longer to get this review up. Sorry, TK). After living in Mexico and having been treated to 2 years of cane sugared Coke, I realized just how syrupy sodas made with corn sugar really are. So, as soon as I heard they were making the switch, I was raring to try it. After greedily devouring the sample bottles they sent to me (one each of Root Beer, Ginger Ale, and Black Cherry), I can say that this was a step in the right direction.

Thomas Kemper makes the best black cherry soda I've tried, and every time I'm at my local jazz club throwing back a Boylans black cherry, I wish it was a TK. The major advantage that the Thomas Kemper black cherry has had over the Boylans is body. Too many black cherry sodas have good flavor, but not enough body. It's like biting into a cherry that's half-filled with water. I'll admit that I was afraid that in switching to sugar, the TK was going to end up like the Boylans (also cane sugared) - and it kind of did. The flavor is amazing. I still prefer it to any other black cherry soda around, but it seems to have lost something. Smoothness maybe. Roundness. I don't know. But, what it has picked up is a bit of a tart afterbite that wasn't there before. It's this great little reminder that this is a cherry soda right before you move to your next swig. I wasn't expecting that, and it was a nice surprise. So, all in all, I'd have to say that the new black cherry is only marginally better than the old, which is to say it's still pretty dang good.

The second soda I sampled was the ginger ale. Thomas Kemper ginger ale was something of an acquired taste for me. When I bought the big variety packs at Costco, this was always the last flavor to go. It had way too much kick for my liking. It was the only soda I'd ever drank that burned going down. I'm not sure if I've gotten used to it or if the change in formula also took out some of the burn, but this is a REALLY good ginger ale. It's definitely moving up on my priority list. All of the three sodas I tried were lighter tasting, but the ginger ale benefited the most from it. It's not heavy at all. You get this initial ginger bite, and once you swallow, your mouth is free to move on to the next taste. It went really well with the curry I was eating that night.

And finally, the root beer. This stuff is just great. It's just as smooth and tasty as the original recipe, but unlike so many other sodas, it doesn't leave your mouth feeling like the inside of a Slurpee cup. I'd have to say that it did lose some body, but at this point I'm just guessing that's part of kicking out the corn syrup. I loved how it was so much easier to taste the vanilla, which really made me wish I had another bottle to devote to a good float. Oh well. I hear it can be had down in DC, but maybe that's just a rumor to lure me down there...

All in all, I'd have to say that my expectations were happily met. I'm not sure if the switch has some economic back story or if it was purely for the taste, but it's a step in the right direction. With all these changes that keep popping up about one of my favorite products, I've worried that the quality was headed downhill. You know, corporate expansion at the cost of product quality. Well, so far so good. Keep it up TK. And please start distributing to New York. Please?

More Root Beer Related News

So, I got another email from the folks over at Thomas Kemper Soda with a pretty cool announcement (including some more free samples!). Turns out they're dropping high fructose corn syrup in favor of the much tastier cane sugar. I can't wait.

For some reason, I can't seem to upload the photo they sent me, but if I could, you wouldn't be able to taste the difference, so perhaps you should just check out their much improved web site. Don't forget to check out some of these recipes. Man, I really wish I could get this stuff in NYC.

Stay tuned for a taste test coming at you real soon.

Mmmm... root beer.

Here's the scoop on that new diet root beer from the folks over at Thomas Kemper: it's pretty darn good.

I have to admit something here: I'm biased against diet sodas. So, using a free meal as bait, I lured a couple of diet soda experts over to my place so I could get their opinions as well. Phrases like, "20 calories, really?" and "I'd drink this" were thrown about. No joke. Apparently, the root beer also puts Michelle "in the mood" (see photo), but in the mood for what the world may never know.

We all agreed that there was a definite diet aftertaste to it, but it wasn't that strong. The girls, neither one of which had ever had an original TK, both told me that they liked the flavor of the root beer quite a bit. I've had hundreds of bottles of the original over the years, and though it was pretty easy to tell that this one wasn't, it was still most definitely a Thomas Kemper.

For me, one of the biggest surprises was how light it was. I wasn't the only one to mention that. If you've ever tried an original, you'll know that it's pretty rich. I usually save mine for dessert and skip the cookies. With the diet, you get a lot of the flavor without feeling like it's one of the courses, which is nice.

So, what's the verdict? Well, while I still think I'd reach for an original for my after-dinner treat, I wouldn't be ashamed of bringing a case of the diet to any respectable barbecue or using it in a lower-cal root beer float.