Birch beer
Boylan Original Birch Beer
Boylan Bottling Co. · Brown birch beer (cane sugar, wintergreen-forward)
New York, New York, USA (originally Paterson, New Jersey)
This is the brown, wintergreen-forward school of birch beer rather than the sweet red-cream style. A bright, almost minty methyl-salicylate lift sits on top of a darker, rooty birch-and-bark base, with cane sugar pushing it firmly to the sweet side and a whisper of vanillin keeping it from going austere. The carbonation runs assertive and the finish is clean and a touch sharp rather than smooth or creamy, which makes it a crisp, traditional benchmark for the category but slightly polarizing for drinkers who expect a mellower soda. A reliable reference point for what classic brown birch beer should taste like.
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The maker
Boylan Bottling traces back to 1891, when Paterson, New Jersey pharmacist William Boylan began selling his birch beer; birch is the brand's founding flavor. The company is now based in New York City and bottles its cane-sugar sodas in tall glass bottles under the Boylan Bottleworks label. Its original birch beer is built on pure birch oils with pronounced sweet-birch and wintergreen character.
Ingredients & nutrition
Carbonated water, cane sugar, pure birch oils, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, vanillina, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness).
12 fl oz · 160 cal · 40 g sugar(per serving, as labeled)