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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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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