April 17, 2019
White Rock Ginger Beer | A Review
Like a lot of olde soda companies White Rock originally got into the business of selling a product with supposed healing properties because people always have and always will believe in pseudoscience nonsense. (Alkaline water drinkers please stand up.) In 1952, the company’s president, Alfred Morgan, went ahead and bought the whole thing and in his family it has resided for the past five generations.
White Rock is perhaps best known for their cocktail mixers like tonic water and club soda so it stands to reason that ginger beer would eventually be on offer, especially now that Moscow Mules and Dark n’ Stormies have made a comeback. So, in 2016 that prophecy came true as the first ginger beers rolled off the line, into stores everywhere and eventually into my stomach.
The container is a green-tinted, one-liter plastic bottle of the type you might find holding a Sprite. Unless you’re sharing it, the large bottle might be too much to finish in one night and the quality suffers by the second or third day. Squat ten-ounce glass bottles, of the sort their club soda might be in, appeared at the store after writing this. They’re preferable.
The label design is dominated by an enormous White Rock logo floating over a mocha field adorned with symbols and wording evocative of fun and good times. A yellow band wraps the bottom of the label and features the words GINGER BEER in an attractive slab-serif typeface. It looks corporate and focus-grouped. The design won’t impress many graphic designers (what does?) but it’s better than a lot of other ginger beer labels and that’s something.
While reviewing Sioux City Ginger Beer I noticed it was distributed by White Rock so I immediately wondered if perhaps they were the same drink in different bottles. Both have calorie counts of 190; both have practically the same ingredient list, just the wording is a bit different: purified carbonated water in Sioux City versus triple-filtered carbonated water in White Rock.
So, during my Sioux City tasting I popped open a bottle of White Rock as a comparison. Same ginger flavor, same level of sweetness, same level of heat, same exact thing.
That means you can read the Sioux City review as a review of White Rock too. In short, White Rock is a balanced, workmanlike ginger beer that takes no chances but presents few flaws.
I feel like this double bottling is a bit of a savvy move. It expands their audience considerably. Instead of having to choose which market to focus on, craft soda or mixer, they can drop the product into two different bottles and reach both.
Plus, Sioux City isn’t a bad ginger beer yet it’s impossible to find in my area. White Rock, however, is in grocery stores and liquor stores all over town, giving access to a drink I wouldn’t have otherwise.
So buy Sioux City or buy White Rock. Either way you’re getting a quality product that’s a competent craft soda and a capable mixer. The choice is up to you.
Final Decision: Third Tier – Enjoyable
Purchased locally at: HEB | Also available locally at: Spec’s
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