It started more than a year ago. I’d be going through some specialty boutique cheese store in Kansas City and, “Oh, look! A ginger beer I’ve never seen!” You can see where that gets me. Over the next couple of months I will be rounding these up in posts and explaining my taste-testing results and rating them on a scale of abysmal-to-glorious. And, trust me, some of them are bloody abysmal.

As you may guess from the photo I will be reviewing, at the very least, the 3 Reed’s products (Regular, Premium, and Extra), Stewart’s, Goya, Fentiman’s, Sioux City, Capt’n Eli’s33 , Maine Root, Regatta, Barritt’s, Cock-n-Bull, and Buderim. I’m also in the process of acquiring several others over the next month or so33 , so those may make a special guest appearance in a future episode of “Ginger Beer Extravaganza”. For now, let’s talk process:

Tasting Process: To my mind, there’s no simpler and consistent way to measure the quality of a ginger beer except in a Moscow Mule. So, I, and a friend of mine who has a predilection for Mules, will try each of them straight from their respective bottles (and can), and then in a Moscow Mule33 .

What I’m Looking For: I don’t drink this stuff on its own except for the purposes of this tasting, and can’t imagine doing so33 . So, in a Moscow Mule, I’m looking for a nice ginger bite that, hopefully, has something else to bring along to the party. A little surprise at the door, if you will. And then I’m looking for a relatively light body and a clean finish. After all, guests who linger too long are often worse than those uninvited. The last thing I’m looking for is it to play well with others. In this case, lime and vodka. If it’s unmixable, it’s mostly useless to me.

We will review Capt’n Eli’s, Goya, and Regatta in Part I, Fentiman’s, Cock n’ Bull, and Reed’s Regular in Part II, and Stewart’s, Maine Root, and Reed’s Premium in Part III. Beyond that, I may just shoot myself out of boredom or decide to go with homemade and never speak of this enterprise again. We shall see. So, “Capt’n Eli”, did you and Aquaman ever hang?

Capt’n Eli’s Ginger Beer:

And, if so, did he kick your ass for making such a horrible product? Despite having only 5 ingredients: water, cane sugar, natural ginger flavor, citric acid, and sodium benzoate, it manages to go horribly wrong. There is a nice crisp and sharp ginger bite at the front that makes one hopeful and then it breaks your heart by devolving into a muddled mass of musty cellulose-flavoring. All the woodsy funk of Fernet Branca without the charm or the cache’.

Also, this shit lingers. Terrible on its own, it manages to ruin a a Moscow Mule. And listen, I abhor sinking33 drinks. To avoid sinking the drink I let it sit, my mood darkened, on my coffeetable for an interminable amount of time. My pal-in-testing took another sip of the orphaned beverage on the table, his face puckering, and said, “It’s not as bad when it’s been sitting out awhile.” Glancing at the clock I quickly mentioned that it no longer completely sucked because all the ice had melted and our good friend water had come to our rescue. I had another sip after its languorous 10-minute stretch on the table, and then sinked it.

I’m not sure what branch of the service Capt’n Eli was in, but it’s certainly been decommissioned if its standards were so low as to admit him. One of the worst of the lot. Stay away.
Goya Ginger Beer:


Please, Goya, please treat me better than that maniacal clash of manga and bad-60s comics, Capt’n Eli. And treat me better, it does. A slightly less austere recipe than Capt’n Eli’s, Goya’s includes: carbonated water, HFCS33 5533 , ginger flavorings, oil of ginger, caramel color, capsicum, citric acid. This is a light-bodied version that hits the palate with a strong bite of ginger and then, that’s odd, something else…something…burny… OMGWTFDIDIBITEINTOABELLPEPPER?! But, it’s not unpleasant; you just have to be ready for it and the capsicum33 it brings. While it’s not something I would drink on its own as my tastes don’t run that direction, I do find myself occasionally wanting a Moscow Mule with just this additional touch. A “Burro” perhaps.

You will find this next to the religious candles and Jarritos hyper-sweet sodas in the ethnic food aisle of your grocery stores. I recommend it, not as a traditional ginger beer, but as a great twist on it and an unexpected surprise in a Moscow Mule. As one reviewer noted, “…hotter than Blenheim’s red cap – guaranteed cough with first sip!”33 .
Regatta Ginger Beer:


This, along with Barritt’s, is one of the “Bermuda Stone”-style ginger beers available on the market. The primary difference being in the fermentation process where the ginger ferments in stone containers. Traditionally, it is considered less sharp and to have less “bite” than the Jamaican-style ginger brews. Whether this is a good or bad thing, we shall see.

Regatta’s ingredients are our first foray into thickening and “mouthfeel” agents in the ginger beer line-up. Numbering among its constituent parts are: sparkling water, fructose, natural ginger flavor extracts and other flavors, citric acid, quillaia bark extract, caramel color, gum arabic, ester gum, and guar gum. This litany of tongue-twisting ingredients gives Regatta a smoother and richer feel while, at the same time, clamps down a bit on the harsh bite of Jamaican ginger beers. It also provides a cloudiness that encourages you to tilt the bottle once or twice to makes sure the perceived sediment is incorporated.

Simply put, this beats Barritt’s hands-down33 . It’s a bit simple in its approach, “one-note”, if you will, but it doesn’t finish in a funky collapse like some or leave you smacking your lips with a tacky “need a chaser of water, STAT!” feeling from being overly sweet. So, if you’re looking for a milder ginger beer that doesn’t bowl you over from ginger33 and/or kill you with sweet, you could do far worse than Regatta though it has more body than I like for a Mule. The packaging is underwhelming but the product is quite clean and quite tasty.
Capt’n Eli’s Rating: ★½☆☆☆

Goya Rating: ★★★½☆33

Regatta Rating: ★★★★☆

Things you should also read:

cocktailnerd’s Ginger Beer Extravaganza Part II and Part III

From Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink?”

Wikipedia’s entry on Ginger Beer

Scottes’ Rum Rundown of Ginger Ales and Brews

A nice discussion at Ministry of Rum3

  1. they really love their apostrophes apparently333
  2. Ginger People, Blenheim’s, Bundaberg, Barritt’s Bermuda and others333
  3. 2oz Vodka, squeeze of half-lime, top with ginger beer for those too lazy to click the link above333
  4. but I don’t drink sugared sodas anyway so that may have a lot to do with my aversion333
  5. verb: to pour down the sink with a grotesque expression of disgust, abject horror, and sadness clashing on your face all-at-once333
  6. yes, the “dreaded” HFCS. I think the case against it is more than a little overstated, but that’s for another time333
  7. whatever “55″ means333
  8. the essence of the pepper family of plants333
  9. note to self, double your efforts on acquiring Blenheim’s333
  10. at least the stuff not produced in Bermuda, I’m looking to get my hands on a Bermuda-produced can for comparison333
  11. or capsicum333
  12. just be sure you know what you’re getting into. This is not a “starter” ginger beer nor representative of the classic style333

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