Through my root beer experiences over the past few years, I've come to realize and believe in a spectrum of root beer flavor, or a root beer continuum if you will. I picture this as a line, similar to the continuum of real numbers, stretching from negative infinity at the left to positive infinity at the right. But instead of numbers there are two distinct flavors, Bitter on the left and Sweet on the right. It seems that all root beers are either heavily weighted to the Bitter side or Sweet side of the spectrum, not many have a good balance between the two. It also seems that most root beers fall on the Sweet side of the continuum, which I think is just the easier way out. I feel that the most complex and interesting flavors are the more Bitter type.
The low quality root beers that you might find in a two liter or aluminum cans almost all fall to the Sweet side, but even those root beers are watered down with a juvenile flavor. By the way I won't even bother discussing those root beers in this blog, only the high end elixirs! At least the higher quality Sweet root beers have a more full bodied taste. Going back to my two favorite drinks, Henry Weinhard's and Virgil's, these two without a doubt fall on opposite sides of the spectrum. Virgil's is by far the most Bitter root beer I've had, with a strong licorice flavor, while Henry Weinhard's is Sweet and complex enough to offer a rich foamy experience.
However, lately I'm beginning to rethink my continuum theory...there seems to be a flavor that I'm seeing in some root beers that is neither Bitter nor Sweet. It is rare, but there may be another axis to the world of root beer. As opposed to a one dimensional line spanning from Bitter to Sweet, there may actually be a two dimensional space defined by two axes. This second axis still needs to be explored, and hopefully I will learn more about it as I try more varieties out there.
This Manifesto may change as I discover more, but that's just a part of exploring the universe of root beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment