The brewery obtained the very first license in the nation to produce beer after Prohibition and saw much success as it was passed down from generation to generation of Matts throughout the years.  In 1995, with Nick and Fred in control, the Matt Brewing Company made a return to soft drink production and today hosts a line of nine varieties including this Saranac Ginger Beer.

Green stands out as the primary color of the label on this 12-ounce brown-glass longneck bottle.  The sharp-serifed logo dances at the top while “ginger beer” floats over a barrel illustration in flashy yellow type.  Wrapped around the neck clings another small label where a short paragraph description promises “tons of ginger.”

High fructose corn syrup sweetens this beverage built on filtered water.  Citric acid plays a part as taste ambiguously rises out of natural and artificial flavors.  Also present are the preservative sodium benzoate as well as caramel color.  The entire bottle counts for 160 calories.

The liquid appears as pale gold, devoid of sediment.  Its rich carbonation materializes as a thick blanket of foam floating near the rim of the glass.  There’s a sharp ginger on the nose with unexpected floral undertones. 

Sweetness emerges in a gradual crescendo joined quickly by a shy ginger which never reaches an equilibrium.  The texture surprises with a cottony creaminess and vanilla graces the finish.  Heat is absent.

It’s best described as a ginger cream soda rather than a ginger beer, a bold direction that could burrow a successful niche with just some tuning.  The creaminess is pleasant but can be off-putting to some palettes while the ample fizz is welcome.  Unfortunately the problems are significant.  The ginger refuses to come forward and since heat is eschewed it would make for a poor choice of mixer and ultimately stands as a below average example of a ginger beer.

Final Decision: Fourth Tier – Passable

Purchased online at: Beverages Direct | Available locally at: Total Wine | Also available online at: Soda4U, Soda Emporium, Specialty Sodas

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Today Stoli is a stalwart in the American world of fine spirits having been fully embraced by people who, in another time, might have scorned it.  The flavors of Stoli vodka seem innumerable but also in their portfolio appears a ginger beer.  A year after its introduction, a bold, new, limited-edition flavor entered the market, this Fire and Spice Ginger Beer.

The can design aims to be a variation of the standard ginger beer, black where the original is red and with a flaming “Fire & Spice” front and center.  The only other major difference is size.  Instead of the normal 12oz can, this one is a smaller 8.4 ounces (248ml).

Those 8.4 ounces count as a single serving with 100 calories which pro-rates to 143 calories for 12 ounces, almost exactly what the regular ginger beer holds.  Cane sugar sweetens the drink while flavor comes from ginger extract and “other natural flavors.”  Citric acid and salt contribute a little and a couple preservatives keep it fresh.

The liquid is perfectly clear and, unlike its counterpart, generates little fizz.  The nose offers ginger and sweet cinnamon, smelling almost exactly like Big Red gum.  The taste experience begins pretty much as usual with sweetness preceding the arrival of ginger.  The two build to a climax where the fireworks start to fly.  The cinnamon bursts in, sweet and feisty, reminiscent of a Hot Tamale, a candy tough to find outside of a movie theater.  Heat from the ginger prickles a bit and the cinnamon launches a quick salvo of spice as it washes over the tongue.  The cinnamon then glides away on the finish, leaving a cottony sweet feeling after it’s gone.

It’s a one-of-a-kind sensation, this cinnamon ginger beer.  Balance is well-executed with the cinnamon never suffocating out the ginger even though it should be counted as the forward flavor.  While most flavored ginger beers intend to elevate the drink, dress it up a little, this one could be considered a bit unsophisticated or even gimmicky.  But that doesn’t mean it’s bad.  Some people love the taste of cinnamon candy and would find a place for Fire and Spice in their heart.  Others could find it distasteful.  Ultimately, it’s a well-crafted ginger beer, more skillfully done than the slew of overpoweringly flavored ginger beers out there and whether or not it’s good will most likely come down to personal preference.

Final Decision: Third Tier – Enjoyable

Purchased online at: Soda Pop Shop | Available there in singles and 4-packs

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The small green bottle contains seven ounces and is wrapped in a label looking like textured paper torn across the bottom to reveal a bright orange region.  The logo gives the impression of a stencil and features a cluster of tightly-packed buildings and a squared-off typeface.  A fair amount of negative space surrounds it, drawing and steadying the eye.  It all looks hand-crafted, a positive impression.

In addition to the typical carbonated water: cane sugar, ginger, ginger extract and citric acid.  Not many ingredients and no fluff.  70 calories lurk within, translating to 120 for 12 ounces.

The instructions sent by Shaker and Spoon guided the creation of a cocktail called a Bajan Kiss, an elevated version of a beloved Barbados drink, the Corn ‘n Oil.  Dreamed up by Paul Yellin, it calls for:

2oz aged rum
1oz falernum syrup
1/2oz scotch bonnet-sea salt syrup
1/2oz lime juice
1/2oz ginger beer
1 dash Angostura bitters
coconut water

After the drinks stood prepared on the bar, plenty of ginger beer remained for sampling.  The cloudy liquid smells of sweet, earthy ginger as a healthy dose of sediment drifts beneath the surface.  The flavor development happens quickly.  A swift note of sweetness arrives followed closely by an ascending earthy ginger.  Then at the end of the progression, the heat hits hard right in the back of the throat and underscores, nearly but not quite shouting down, a finish of sweet ginger.  The heat is formidable, and lasting, and could scare off some unsuspecting drinkers but it never reaches a scalding level and plays well with the ginger and sweetness.

Brooklyn Crafted has brewed a well-tuned ginger beer for those seeking a fiery twist on the drink.  The heat is regulated, set to thrill without overwhelming, to accentuate the primary duo of ginger and sweetness without hogging the spotlight for itself.  Indeed, that’s not an easy task but it’s been well sorted here.

Final Decision: Second Tier – Alluring

Purchased at: It came in a Shaker & Spoon box. | Available online at: Brooklyn Food & Beverage in 7oz and 12oz bottles.

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Newly released is their line of premium mixers, aimed squarely at the upscale market where Fever-Tree and Q reign.  Like those competitors, they eschew artificial ingredients such as sweeteners and preservatives.  The line includes a tonic water with a light version, a club soda and this premium ginger beer.

The elegant clear-glass bottle holding 8.45oz (250ml) of ginger beer resembles some vintage White Rock bottles with its conical funnel shape and allows the liquid itself to become part of the color palette.  It complements nicely the rosy beige of the background field with its slightly more saturated ornamentation around the edges.  For the Premium line the logo has seen a complete overhaul.  While the usual logo looks accessible and established, it does say “mass-produced soft drink” pretty clearly.  This new one presents as upscale with its angular serifs and swooping strokes.  This effect is magnified by the pleasant amount of negative space on each side, giving the design room to breathe and emphasizing the elegance of it all.  The fairy girl who normally sits upon the white rock found above the logo instead perches on the bottle cap, looking closer to renaissance art than the 50’s-style of the classic line.  The final effect looks the part: elegant and upscale and ready to battle it out with Fever-Tree.

There are only four ingredients listed on the label: carbonated water, sugar, citric acid and natural flavor.  It’s a far cry from the oils, gums and starches listed on their standard ginger beer. The 250ml amounts to 110 calories.  That would be 156 for 12oz, just for comparison’s sake.

A soft haze graces the liquid with a nose of strong ginger and a tart zing.  There’s first the gentle rise of a mild sweetness tugging along an enthusiastic inflation of ginger.  Tartness zips about, rising to meet the ginger before ebbing away in step.  Heat sneaks in for the climax, typical in its intensity, leaving prickly footprints tip-tapping upon the tongue.  As the flavor falls away, sweetness and tart are the last to go.

With layered flavor and great-tasting ginger, this is a much better ginger beer than the standard version.  The tart elevates it, hitting just the right pitch to make the ginger sing.  While there’s nothing really ground-breaking or exotic here like Fever-Tree’s three gingers sourced from two continents, this really is a ginger beer done very well.  With it, White Rock now seems poised to wedge into that juicy upscale battle fought on store shelves every day.

Final Decision: Second Tier – Alluring

Purchased locally at Spec’s

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With the relatively recent rediscovery of the Moscow Mule and resulting resurgence of its signature mixer, a window of opportunity opened and the company leapt through it, releasing Stoli Ginger Beer in 2014.  They unleashed a huge PR push across America and social media, encouraging fans to put down their current favorites and pick up a Stoli Mule.  More than 300 bar events were held, handing out samples of the cocktail in branded copper mugs to nearly twenty thousand people.

Look for Stoli in a slim 12-ounce can, mostly can-colored with a wide, red slash striking across it.  Copper accents a centered, white diamond where most of the type is located.  Four of these come wrapped in cardboard printed with similar design language.  Overall, it’s a success.  Wander down the mixers aisle of the grocery store and this stands out from the competition, looking both unique and upscale.

Some pretty standard ingredients lurk within: carbonated water, cane sugar, natural flavors, a couple preservatives. Calories total 70 for a six-ounce serving, so a perfectly reasonable 140 for the whole thing.

From the can, transparent liquid pours into the glass, crowned with a layer of fizz.  Presaged by the nose, cane sugar first lays down a thick foundation of sweetness.  The moderate ginger follows quickly, riding on bubbles with a touch of salt, building in flavor intensity but not heat.  It peaks without prickling then diminuendos, leaving sugar and citrus to handle the finish, which tastes almost like a candy.  It goes down easy, very drinkable.

Aspects that some could consider flaws in their drink, like too generous carbonation or sweetness, could also be considered assets in a mixer, reaching perfect levels once mildly diluted. So while the list of complaints remains short, it doesn’t do much to set itself apart either, running dangerously close to forgettable. Nevertheless, the formula here is well-conceived. It tastes good alone but better as a mixer, definitely worthy of the Stoli name.

Final Decision: Third Tier – Enjoyable

Purchased at: HEB | Wide availability

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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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Cowboys kicking their way through those twin swinging doors were most surely watching their calorie counts so they’d be interested to know this one carries 190 of them.  It’s mostly purified carbonated water and now, hopping on the trend of abandoning high fructose corn syrup, pure cane sugar.  Further down the list lie food starch modified (a thickener), ester gum and brominated soybean oil (which together keep the liquid from separating).  Ginger is presumably included under “natural flavor.”

The 12-ounce, darkly brown-tinted, heritage-style glass bottle is slightly heavy and features “SIOUX CITY” in raised lettering, a wonderful touch.  While older bottles from the company were intricately designed and delightfully antique-appearing, this modern one is adorned by a clear label with on-brand design inspired by the Old West.  An eagle, no doubt about to grasp a tasty beverage, features prominently and is done in negative space.  There’s only three colors here, giving a bit of a muted appearance, but it works for what it is.

Carbonation is light for a soda but typical for a ginger beer.  Pouring the liquid into a glass reveals no sediment.  In the mouth, sweetness appears just before the ginger rises to meet you, draping over the sides of the tongue and moving to the back of the throat, leaving gentle prickles behind.  It’s pleasantly sweet without being sugary and balances well with the mild heat. 

Sioux City deserves a repeat buy but it doesn’t deserve to be called special.  It takes no chances, breaks no new ground. There are no surprises, no unusual ingredients. The mission here is to create a classic and pure ginger beer and, operating strictly within that mold, it’s a success. Therefore, it’s a great starter ginger beer, perfect as an introduction to the drink, establishing a baseline with plenty of room above and below to explore.

Interestingly, buying this again doesn’t have to mean buying Sioux City brand ginger beer.  This tidbit is something I’ll get into in a later installment.

Final Decision: Third Tier – Enjoyable

Purchased at: Beverages Direct (in 6-packs and 12-packs) |  Also available at: Soda4u, Soda Emporium

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