Chester County Dwell.com – 10.14.2009
Taste Test: Root
By Margaret Gilmour
If you like the taste of root beer, there is no question that you will like the taste of ROOT, a novel root-beer liqueur made from an 18th-century Pennsylvania folk recipe and 100% organic ingredients.
Just how much you sip of this potent spirit, though, naturally depends on what you’re used to drinking.
I mostly drink beer or wine, for example. Occasionally after dinner, I’ll have small taste of Port or Hungarian Tokai (Tokaji).
Leslie primarily drinks wine, and like me, maybe a small glass of Port later on a weekend evening. But she also enjoys a whiskey here and there.
Which gets us back to our taste test of ROOT.
Because I don’t usually drink hard alcohol, I thought one sip, over ice, would be enough for me. But that one sip provoked one other before I reached back for my beer.
What I liked: the blend of spices and smoky flavors lingering along with the root beer essence. I was relieved that it wasn’t syrupy sweet in the least, and was fascinated by the coolness––almost minty effect––it left in my mouth. But, most of all, I loved the aroma.
To be fair to ROOT, I asked my husband to try out this rustic drink. After all, he is a Scotch drinker.
Before pouring a small amount over ice, he tried it straight up.
If you could see his eyes dancing, you’d know he loved it. “Interesting,” he says, going back for seconds. “Delicious.” He preferred ROOT over ice, even more as the ice melted a bit. There’s no doubt that a bottle will find it’s way into our liquor cabinet.
Leslie also liked it, choosing to sip it straight at first, and later adding a dash into her coffee.
What Leslie liked: “It’s root beer with a kick,” she says. She plans on getting a full bottle too. To sip, of course, but also to add to recipes. “Imagine how good it would be over ice cream and pound cake,” she says.
Imagine.
ROOT is a creation of Steven Grasse, the founder of Art in the Mechanical Age of Reproduction. This Philadelphia company got its name from an essay written in 1935 by Walter Benjamin, German philosopher, essayist and cultural critic. In the essay Benjamin writes (among other things) how the artist is lost when their creation is mass-produced to satisfy the needs or imagination of the public.
In November, Art in the Age celebrates one year in their flagship store on 116th, 3rd Street in Philly. Here you can purchase private label tees, custom wallpapers and upholstery, housewares, Mennonite quilts and more. All the merchandise is handmade by local artisans. None of it, of course, is mass-produced. What you buy comes with a little of the artist’s inspiration.
—
