Jack Black's Dead Red Root Beer

       Jack Black's Dead Red Root Beer

 www.realsoda.com

From: Gardena, CA

Started: Apparently 420 years ago

Tagline: Better Dead Red than just plain dead!

Tagline 2: Once you've had Jack Black, you'll never go back.

Tagline 3: Third time available in 420 years.

Steve-o-Meter: 3 out of 10

Review: I was actually really disappointed in this root beer.  I was really excited about this one from the presentation of it.  I mean, come on, who doesn't want to drink a root beer from a pirate bottle?  My initial thought after reading the label was "Wow, this recipe is 420 years old, it must be really good."  And of course with the pirate theme, I thought about Pirates of the Caribbean and captain Jack Sparrow's tag line "Why is the rum gone?"  I had high expectations...until I cracked this baby open.  

The taste was bland for a root beer.  It was almost bitter and there was no aftertaste.  The drink was pretty low on the carbonation spectrum so the belch-o-meter was also pretty low as well.  The ingredients list Caffeine and Brazilian Guarana.  (I guess the fact that it's Brazilian Guarana vs. normal Guarana makes it more fancy?)  Either way, I don't like drinking either of those ingredients and the taste definitely does not tempt me to come back from seconds.  Ingredients also list Red #40 which is I guess why they call it "Dead Red" root beer, but it wasn't even red so again, I think it's a wasted ingredient.

I tried to do some research on the recipe or origin and all I could find was several vendors that will sell it and the website www.realsoda.com that is apparently the bottling company for it.  I was hoping to find some good history behind it with the whole pirate theme but again was left wanting....

Overall, I would not suggest this beverage. I would recommend banking the calories and eating a piece of chocolate cake instead.