On Saturday, August 20, 2005, the Great Root Beer Taste Test went down.  Drew and I were the tasters; Alma kindly assisted us by administering the test so as to make sure it was blind.  She also took pictures and was generally awesome.  Without further ado, here's how the test went.

Phase One: The Obtaining of the Root Beer

This seemed way easier than it ended up being.  Drew and I went to the corner store first because I knew they had Berghoff, but they really didn't have anything else.  7-11 didn't assist much by only having A&W.  And few sodas can be found in individual 20-ouncers outside of convenience stores.  Thus we ended up having to shell out for four- and six-packs of glass bottles once we got to Jewel, and then there were far more brands than I was even expecting.  As we left Jewel with eight brands of root beer between us, the cashier asked, "You guys doing a root beer tasting?"  He seemed far more nonplussed by this than some; the woman in front of us kept giving us sideways glances until Alma explained what we were doing.

Phase Two: Deciding on Ratings Criteria

This also ended up being harder than just saying it makes it sound.  What exactly does one rate root beer on?  Color?  ("Yup, they're all brown.")  We ended up choosing five: aroma, fizz, saltiness, spiciness, and overall flavor.  Then it became a matter of arguing over what exactly those meant.  Was a top grade in saltiness indicative of a very salty root beer, or one that the taster considered to have a pleasing salt level?  Ditto for spiciness.  Did high grades everywhere else mean that overall flavor had to be high, or was it less reliant on those factors?  We ended up playing it fairly by ear, I think.  We also included a "value" category, but it won't be discussed with the rest of the test since it couldn't be included in the blind portion.

Phase Three: Let's Do This Thing

To read on for the full results, click here.