How to Have Root Beer Taste Test Party

Root Beer is not created equally. Have a root beer taste test party to taste all brands side-by-side and ultimately decide which is your favorite root beer.

Part of our “Ok-2-berfest” 2nd birthday party for my little girl was a Root Beer Taste Test. We love a good root beer every now and then.  And we’ve always wanted to figure out what is our very favorite kind. So a blind root beer taste test it was!

Select An Assortment of Root Beer

First, select a variety of root beer. I’d suggest choosing around 8. We chose to taste 8 which I felt was plenty. Any more would have been too much and since there are so many brands of root beer out there, any less would limit your sampling.

The brands of root beer we chose for our taste test included:

• Brigham’s Brew
• Barq’s
• Boylance
• Dad’s
• Frosty
• Mug
• A&W
• Teddy’s

Tips for Choosing Root Beer:

Depending on how much time you have to shop for root beer, you may just want to select your root beer from your favorite grocery store. You’d be surprised at how many varieties you’ll find!

Be sure to select a few national, well known brands like A&W. Barq’s, and Dad’s since those are the most popular, but if you can find some, choose some local brands as well.

Who knows, the lesser known types of root beer may become your favorite!

How To Set Up Your Root Beer Taste Test Party

First, make sure you chill all the root beer. No one wants a warm drink and using ice will alter the flavor and carbonation of the root beer. Throw the root beer in the fridge at least a day or two before the party so it’s nice and cool.

Next, pull out 8 mason jars.  Label 8 mason jars with the number labels and pour each brand in their own jar.

Tip: Keep a note of which brand is in each cup!

To recap what you’ll need:

• root beer chilled
• mason jars
• labels (below)
• score sheets and pens
• mini-shot glasses (like these cheap plastic ones from Amazon)

Keeping Score

I created score cards (download below) so that we could keep track of each type we tasted. Honestly though, after trying that many, it was hard to pick a favorite. Root beers are NOT created equal. They taste so different side-by-side. In fact, after trying half of them, I wasn’t even sure if I like root beer anymore. 🙂

But alas, as I’m typing this up, I’m drinking a root beer float, so I guess I still do like root beer after all. I think the key to picking your favorite is to drink them fast and make sure they are ice-cold.

Tip: Use disposable mini shot glasses for tasting.

And the winners are…

You’re going to have your own root beer taste test party to determine your very favorites, from our party, these were the winners:

• Teddy’s
• Barq’s
• A&W

Do a root beer taste test and let me know which one you love the most! I’d love to hear if our favorites are the same!

 Root Beer Taste Test Party Printables

Directions: print out a score card for each taste tester.

Root Beer Taste Test Score Card 

Root Beer Taste Test Mason Jar Number Labels