Sampled: Birch Beer

Last fall I went down to the candy store on the square in Monroe to buy some candy for a friend's daughter. My Frau and I had dined with my friend and her family the previous month when we were in Milwaukee and I decided that I'd send her daughter a stocking for Saint Nicholas Day full of candy. I walked out of the store having spent a lot of money and later found that Christmas stockings can hold a lot of candy.

I also walked out of there with a bottle of Boulder Birch Beer from the Rocky Mountain Soda Co. It sounded like something kids in the Old West drank. Like in an episode of Deadwood. A father and young son walk into a saloon...

Dad: Gimme three fingers of whiskey and a water for the boy

Boy: God dammit, pa! I want a fucking birch beer!

Dad: Don't let yer ma hear you talk that way, you little shit.

It was brown and fizzy. The label revealed only "natural flavoring extracts" and I found that it tasted a lot like root beer with that sassafras, anise, and whatever else is in root beer taste. I assume there was also some birch extract too but I am unsure that tastes like. However, I presume it's birch sap that's been extractized. Plus a healthy dose of vanilla. So much that the stuff tasted like a mix of root beer and cream soda.

Tasty.