Taste Test Tuesday — Root Beer

By KariV on April 9, 2013 in Favorite Things, Taste Test Tuesday

The Root Beer Taste Test results are finally IN!

We had a little extra fun with this one by offering an online survey before we held the actual taste test. I wanted to see if the results of the survey matched the results of the taste test. Boy, was I SURPRISED!

ONLINE SURVEY RESULTS

The survey began the week before the taste test panel. Thanks to everyone who took our online survey!

And the winner of the survey, with 37% of the votes was A&W Root Beer.
Tied for second place was IBC, Henry Weinhard’s and Barq’s Root Beer.

I thought this was fun because we, as a society, are bombarded with marketing messages constantly. And A&W is a master at their marketing: “A&W Root Beer has that frosty mug taste!” Did A&W win the online survey because of marketing strategy, because it was the best recognized root beer out there? (I would not rest until I found out the answer to this with our live taste test! Yes, I am seriously dedicated to finding the truth for you, dear reader!)

Another interesting note: Barq’s must be working day and night to secure their place in restaurants and soda machines. I see Barq’s more than any other root beer as the choice at the soda fountain. (Although, today MUG was the root beer available at the pizzeria we tried.)

IBC is delicious, as I well know. But I had not heard of Henry Weinhard’s before the survey. In fact, IT WAS NOT EVEN AN OPTION on the survey, but was rather a write-in choice. AND…I had already gathered all the root beer for our taste test panelists, but this was NOT ONE of them! So, what did I do? I ran right out and found Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer to add as a contestant.

TASTE TEST RESULTS

Would our taste test provide the same results as the online survey? Drum Roll, please….

The Winner of our Taste Test was:

A&W Root Beer!! Yes, the taste test reflected the SAME #1 Root Beer as the online survey! A&W is well-loved and the results of both tests showed that.

Note: I searched all over the valley for A&W Root beer on tap. They used to offer it at both A&W restaurants AND at select KFC restaurants. My kids LOVED it when we brought home a gallon of A&W root beer on tap and then served it up in the frosty mugs we kept in the freezer. However, when I called to find it for our taste tests…it was not to be found! The contract with KFC must have ended, because they now serve only MUG rootbeer in their restaurants. 🙁

We had a TIE for SECOND PLACE:

Henry Weinhard’s & IBC Root Beer tied for second place. If you take a look at our online survey: BOTH also came in second place (together with Barq’s…but Barq’s did not place at all with our Taste Test Panelists.)

So far, we are pretty consistent with our choices!

We also had a TIE for THIRD PLACE: (I know, I know…I wanted to hold a tie breaker, but ran out of panelists!)

Mug & Teddy’s tied for Third place. I could not compare to the online survey, but Teddy’s did get ONE vote online.

Interestingly enough, Teddy’s also was one that many judges did not appreciate: They reported that it was “too sweet” or “too strong.”

But we definitely had a DEAD LAST root beer. It was one that was voted as last place by the MAJORITY of the panelists:

Panelists commented that it was “too strong” or had a “weird cherry taste.” So much for using this as a cute Father’s Day gift. (Crafty Bloggers everywhere will shed tears, I’m sure)!

Just look at all those cups! (I used over 100 cups for this challenge…but it was certainly worth it, don’t you think?)
A special thanks to all our judges…I could not do this without you. 🙂

THE WINNER SHALL MEET ANOTHER!

Now that we know A&W is the winning root beer…and we know the winner of our Vanilla Ice Cream Challenge (see the results here)…I think it might be time to introduce the two of them, don’t you agree?

We shall combine the two to make the BEST ROOT BEER FLOAT ever. And we’ll invite our panelists to come and see if they agree. And now, dear reader, I invite YOU to try these at your house and see if YOU think it is the best root beer float you’ve ever had! Then, report your findings back here on this blog post.

Another Successful Taste Test! (I can’t wait for the next one!)