Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A semi-unhealthy obession

Ben has an obsession not many people know about: he likes root beer, not like normal root beer, but fancy glass bottle root beer. It's not as into it as this guy, but let's just say that one Christmas at my parents' house in Washington my brother introduced Ben to a brand called Henry Weinhard's, made in Portland. Ben was hooked. 18 bottles of Henry Weinhard's finest accompanied us home that year. Ben was travelling by himself because I was staying longer and brought them all on as his carryon in a grocery bag (obviously before the liquid taboo). He had a layover in LA and the bag he was using fell apart and he had to carry them, hugging them to his chest, as he raced to his gate. Those 18 bottles of root beer, and cream soda, lasted all year. He horded them and brought them out on select occasions. The next year we were in Washington, we weren't allowed to bring liquids as carryons and I thought that would be the end of that. But no. Ben had planned all along to carefully wrap several bottles and stick them in the middle of our checked bags, with all our clothes (granted most of them were dirty) and our presents. I was not pleased.

But for all Ben's careful planning, eventually the supply of Henry's ran dry and Ben was left without his favorite cold drink. He tried others but they all fell short. My family came to visit at the beginning of August. There was much tasting of different root beers, much discussion of flavors and tastes. There was even a visit to Dr. Root Beer's Hall of Foam (a little overrated). No clear root beer "winner" emerged from all this, but a seed was planted. When they got home my sister sent around this guy's review of a ton of root beers. One in particular got high honors and is available at World Market, a store we actually knew.

I am happy to announce that Ben has found a successor to Henry Weinhard's. I give you "Bulldog." And it's even on sale this week! Go buy some if you have a World Market near you. If you don't like root beer yourself but have to go there to get more root beer for your husband, check out the nice selection of Haribo gummies for yourself. I recommend the "Twin Cherries." But don't tell your running coach about it. :)

Triumphant Ben

7 comments:

Summer Owens said...

Tom is super picky about his root beer too. He's tried all sorts of obscure brands in hope of finding the perfect one.

jendw said...

Hah! I'm not sure whether to say "Sorry!" or "Your Welcome!".

It is a dang good root beer though, and I'll have to check out those gummies. I've never heard of them before.

JD said...

i can't believe you encouraged others to get "haribo" gummies. You mean the one's that are designed to look like burgers?

i will have to start a root beer hunt of my own.

Juli said...

Haribo is the best kind of gummy candy. Sometimes you can just find it in your grocery store in the kosher candy section. The happy colas are very good as well. I debated between those and the twin cherries. The burger haribos are just a gimmick. The other ones are the good stuff.

jendw said...

Well, we know that we all like gummy candy stuff. I wonder why that is? Genetically predisposed?

Lys said...

The extended Powers household recently had a blind Root Beer taste test. We tested 6 different kinds of root beer. Henry Weinharts was not one of them or I'm sure it would have placed highly. My personal favorite is Thomas Kemper. However, the winner of our taste test - good old A & W.

Christa said...

As assistant coach (or assistant to the coach, depending on who you ask), I feel obligated to inform my superior about these gummies...