Birch beer
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
This original birch beer comes from Boylan, the craft soda house founded in 1891 by Paterson, New Jersey pharmacist William Boylan and now based in New York City. Birch beer is the brand's founding product, and the recipe centers on pure birch oils for a sweet-birch and wintergreen profile. Boylan bottles its cane-sugar sodas in tall glass bottles under the Boylan Bottleworks label.
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)