Red Ribbon Home Brewed Style Root Beer

Weird Soda doesn't have to come from others. It is entirely possible to make Weird Soda oneself. In fact, one can buy kits for this very purpose; for a small fee, a company will send you the appropriate equipment and materials to brew your very own beer or soda. It's my impression that most of the sodas which one brews with this sort of equipment are of the root beer variety.
It is my further impression that successfully brewing anything more drinkable than sludge dragged up from a river bottom is difficult at best. This impression is based on an unpleasant experience I had involving someone attempting to brew beer in such a contraption. It did not go well.
In the same way that a vacation which ends in paying too much for your airline fare, having to sit next to two sumo champions fresh out of a match, the in-flight movie being "Dennis the Menace", and finally having your airplane shot down over waters teeming with voracious giant squid could also be considered to have gone badly.

Given that, the fact that Red Ribbon has made what claims to be "Home Brewed Style" root beer does not make me tremble with joyous anticipation. On the other hand, Red Ribbon makes a darned fine Cherry Supreme soda. Let's give this a shot.

Where and when: purchased April 2009 at Galco's, Los Angeles
Color: dark caramel brown. Maybe slightly more orange than some.
Scent: Interesting. Spicy, with a sweet/tart scent, not too dissimilar from candy orange slices. The Kibbitzer says she smells a lot of vanilla, "good Bourbon vanilla". I don't taste it much.
Taste: The initial taste has a bit of cinnamon, but sweet and oddly faint. The root beer is mild, and fades quickly, replaced by...not much. There's very little aftertaste, just a bit of sugar.
K-i-C: "It tastes like the dentist."
I'm assuming she means like a visit to the dentist. Of course, we are watching Angel right now...
K-i-C: "I can still taste dentist."
Quaffmaster: (edges away from K-i-C on the couch)

This is all right--the initial taste is pleasant and mellow. But I'm disappointed at how quickly it fades--I'd be interested in seeing what else might be in there.
There is a faint aftertaste of wintergreen, like birch beer.

Quaff rating: 3.0. Meh. Enjoyable enough, but surprisingly bland.
Cough rating: 0.5. Nothing wrong with it, but not impressive.