Stewart’s is a brand of glass bottle sodas with a deep history and reputation as a “super premium” soda. Their website details the romantic journey of the Stewart’s brand from its roots in the 1920’s as a part-time root beer stand to the nationally recognized status it holds today. The danger of being as big and corporate as Stewart’s is that once other stakeholders are introduced the focus can shift from the quality of the product to cutting costs. That might be what happened here.
While this root beer uses cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, that might be the only thing to set it apart from grocery store generics. It has a pretty bottle and a premium appearance, but it’s a bland, watery, and overall weak brew. There were a couple moments of sharpness but they faded quickly. Looking at the ingredients I noticed that they use a bit of yucca root which gives the drink a bit of a foamy head. That wasn’t anywhere near enough to save it for me.
There’s a possibility that this was an old bottle. Maybe. I’m guessing that the brand has moved to more generic ingredients over the years while maintaining the appearance of a premium brand. It was fine, but boring. For me, that’s a 6 out of 10 on the rating scale.
I’ll probably review other Stewart’s beverages in the future. Click here for those reviews.
Catalog:
Purchased at Albertson’s grocery store for cheap. Sampled on 2/1/2017
The Sodafry 