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- Manufacturer:
- distributed by Journey Food and Beverage Company Route 5 near Town
Farm Road, Putney, VT. 05346
- The Pitch:
- (From side of carton): Journey's Question: Why not search the globe
to make a better product? Folk recipes and unique whole food ingredients
are there to be found in the world's great regions and cultures of antiquity.
Journey's finds are combined with the best of modern food and craft.
Our hope is that those who try Journey softbrews will find a whole new
intensity in natural beverage. A sincere appreciation awaits your feedback
and ideas: http://www.journeyfood.com/beverage/
1-800-468-2095
(From other side of carton): By carefully blending natural sassafras
with "balancing" roots and spices, we craft a truly unique
root beer. Inspired by recipes for beverage teas of the sassafras
plant, prized for their refreshing and healthful properties by Native
Americans of the Ojibwa, Iroquois, and Micmac nations. Journey's softbrew
is a steeping of whole, botanical herbs, roots, and spices by a unique
time and temperature method. This uniquely steeped "botanical
tea" is then folded into a fine balance of natural sweeteners
and cold pure sparkling water. Every drop is worth the Journey.
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The Ingredients:
- Sparkling purified water, natural sweetener blend (unrefined cane
sugar, brown rice syrup, honey, barley malt), root and spice brew (water,
sassafras root bark*, star anise, mixed herb blend), phosphoric acid,
natural flavors
*safrole free (Spike says: safrole is the carcinogen found in
sassafras)
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The box:
- 43kb jpg
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Spike says:
- A very dark root beer, pours with no head except
for a rim of ominously colored brown foam. Lightly carbonated. Slight
aftertaste. Smells a little like whiskey, which may be why the box reassuringly
reads "No alcohol soft drink". An excellent root beer, if
you like cough syrup. Cough syrup isn't quite right; this has more of
an industrial flavor. Perhaps someone added gear oil to the still pictured
on the box. When I drank my first one, I swear it gave me a headache.
In fact, the next two also gave me headaches. It couldn't be a coincidence
because I rarely get headaches and I drank them at different times (even
took one to work). Interesting bottle caps, but unfortunately for Journey
that doesn't count in my score. Completely undrinkable (well, almost
completely - I did choke down a 4-pack), it doesn't even taste anything
like root beer. They say they found "folk recipes" from "cultures
of antiquity". Got news for you, Journey, there's a reason those
"cultures of antiquity" aren't here any more. Perhaps this
stuff is what killed off the Maya. This liquid is so bad, even the BevNet
lap dogs didn't review it. How could you make a drink that tastes like
this and call it root beer? Don't they taste their own creation, or
is the shop foreman filling bottles with Henry Weinhard's and sending
those up to the CEO? I was going to give it an F,
but then I discovered I could put out small fires with it so I give
it an F+.
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