While shopping recently at the Laurel, Maryland Dollar Tree store, I noticed they had 3 liter plastic bottles of various Stars & Stripes (made by Cott Beverages Inc in Tampa, Florida) soda for sale. Stars & Stripes calls their root beer Hoover's Barrel root beer. They claim it has "Great Taste!". I decided to try it for myself and see.
I found the root beer does taste good and isn't loaded with calories (each 8 ounce glass has 60 calories). It has another plus in that it doesn't have any caffeine unlike Barq's root beer. Also, it has a price plus. Like everything at Dollar Tree, the 3 liter bottles sell for $1. That said, I did discover some negatives in my opinion.
The soda has a fair amount of chemicals in it including potassium benzoate which it uses at a preservative and aspartame i.e. nutrasweet. One reason I suspect the soda tastes good is because they give you a double dose of sweetener in each glass. The soda also use high fructose corn syrup which is another negative in my book. I prefer cane sugar.
Overall, Hoover's Barrel root beer is decent tasting root beer at a great price though I am leery of the various chemicals they use in it. Personally, I'd prefer Virgil's root beer which is all natural over this even though you will pay a LOT more for Virgil's (a 12 ounce bottle will cost you a $1 or more). Still, if you want to save money, you might want to give this soda a try. It is good tasting stuff.
Source: information on this soda used in this blog entry came from the bottle of the soda I bought. I didn't receive any kind of remuneration for this article and don't have any connection with Cott Beverages.
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