This Is What I Drink: 70

Margo's Bark Root Beer

This will be the first of seven new sodas that I bought at the wonderful Galco's while in Los Angeles in late July. As the Spinto Band, we've gone on and on about what an amazing soda shop Galco's is and how it's my dream to open an East coast shop just like it some day, but we've already established that. This was the first time in three years we've actually had enough free time to go there and despite the infuriating L.A traffic, we made it just before closing. I got a decent variety of stuff. Some colas, some fruity sodas, some flowery sodas, and of course some root beers. I'm not sure why I grabbed Margo's Bark, but being a fan of root beers, dogs, and puns, it seemed like a natural selection. While their "drink a bite" trademark might be a blatant rip-off of Barq's "the one with bite" slogan, I liked the idea that they donate all their profits to shelter dogs. Sappy stuff aside (enough with the puns, dick) let's get down to the ingredient list, always important in a root beer. We've got: Molasses, Vanilla, Clove, Cassia, Nutmeg, Wintergreen, and Yucca Extract, and of course it's got cane sugar (I actively refused to purchase any high fructose corn syrup sodas.) I'll admit I have no idea what cassia is, but I liked what I saw from the other bunch; some real classics in there. The final result didn't blow me away, but it was a pretty darn good root beer. It was very crisp and clean but still with the bold root flavors. Too bad I'll never be able to drink it again because I don't think I can get here. Time to find a warehouse to build up the soda shop around here...