Sprecher's Cream
16 fl. oz.
glass bottle
Sprecher's Brewery, Milwaukee, WI
cold, no ice

This soda smells delicious--like honey. And the first taste is equally great; it's not overpoweringly sweet, and very, very smooth. (As you might be noticing, I like my sodas chuggable. Just in case I'm overcome with a desire to chug, you understand.) What's interesting about Sprecher's Cream is that it tastes mostly like honey, but with a touch of vanilla. This is the opposite of most other cream sodas, which, if vanilla was poisonous, they'd be plutonium.

Final verdict: I'll give Kate the last word. "If I get hit on the head," she said,"and become someone who enjoys cream soda, you will have to bring me this." As you wish, my Queen.

KP: 10 of 10
MG: 10 of 10

Sprecher's Root Beer
16 fl. oz.
glass bottle
Sprecher's Brewery, Milwaukee, WI
cold, no ice

One thing you have to give Sprecher's: they give you a LOT of soda for the money. They come in 16 oz bottles, whereas most sodas are only twelve. That wouldn't be a good thing if the soda inside were crappy, but thankfully it's not.

I've been a fan of Sprecher's root beer for a long time; as I've said at other times during our Summer of Soda, it's my benchmark. Tasting it again, I'm happy to say it's as good as I remember. It's exceptionally smooth, has a predominantly vanilla flavor with tinges of honey, and it has a pleasing color and head. Kate calls it "excellent," but gives it a one point deduction for the use of high fructose corn syrup. I concur.

Final verdict: An excellent root beer, about as good as we can imagine--without the unique mojo of cane sugar, that is...

KP: 9 of 10
MG: 9 of 10

Sprecher's Orange Dream
16 fl. oz.
glass bottle
Sprecher's Brewery, Milwaukee, WI
cold, no ice

Sprecher's does a great root beer, and a great cream soda, but they fall down with their Orange Dream. Not much to say about this one. It's orangey, we'll give it that. And it's more drinkable than the other orange cream sodas we've tasted. But Kate found the flavor to be too emphemeral, and I didn't like the aftertaste--it seemed to "pile up" on my tongue, and not in a pleasant way. I liked the lunatic cow on the label.

Final verdict: Meh. Not awful--uncannily like baby aspirin, actually. We'd drink it again, but just barely.

KP: 5 of 10
MG: 6 of 10

Gale's Root Beer "Oh Rootie!"
12 fl. oz.
glass bottle
Dynamic Duo, Inc., Riverwoods, IL
lukewarm, no ice

First, the good news: this cinnamon/ginger/vanilla root beer created by a Chicago-area chef is, in Kate's words, "crazy good." Now, the bad news: it's only available around Chi-town, and even there it's hard to find. We found it at an Italian deli in the basement of the John Hancock building, right off Michigan Avenue, and boy were we glad we did!

It's truly an original take on root beer, powerfully cinnamon-y where most others let vanilla or licorice flavors dominate. It had a pretty good head on it, even luke warm (we were walking around with the bottle), and a nice rich brown color. Our only quibble was this: if you're going to micro-brew a root beer, why in God's name skimp and use high fructose corn syrup instead of cane sugar? The flavor evaporated too quickly.

Final verdict: Kate says, "Everything Frostop promised but wasn't"; I, less vindictive, confine myself to "An excellent, natural-tasting root beer." If Chef Gale had used real sugar instead of the fake stuff, it would be perfect.

KP: 9 of 10
MG: 9 of 10