Ginger Beer vs Root Beer

Ginger beer is a non-alcoholic beige-colored carbonated fizzy drink that consists of, you guessed it, ginger! It's basically the English equivalent (wannabe, really) of America's root beer. I hear it's pretty popular in Australia too.

Root beer and ginger beer are unmistakably similar as they both have ingredients that derive from the root of a plant and both have a strong distinctive bite to their taste but at the same time they taste dramatically different. I find root beer is much sweeter while ginger is more bitter. I think it really comes down to which beer you grow up with though. I'm a fan of the root, and my English friends, of course, fans of the ginger. I do NOT like ginger beer. And they do NOT like root beer.

I had never heard of ginger beer before. And I actually thought for the longest time that it was alcoholic. My friend Chaz kept coming over with cases of little glass bottles of it that the guys in the house would all guzzle down together. Later, Ashley would ask me if I wanted anything from the offie down the street since he was craving ginger beer and I would ask for cider. "You know ginger beer is non-alcoholic, right, love?" -"Ooooh, get me a sprite instead please."

The thing is, I love EATING ginger, just not drinking it. I think it taste like a bunch of ginger, an Atomic Fireball (you know the round red candy ball) mixed with root beer. The guys, on the other hand, came up with the unanimous decision that root beer taste like Deep Heat smells. Deep Heat is basically the English version of Icy Hot, both being medical ointments used to relieve muscle pain. Whatever. To each their own.







♡ - Kristen