what is your favorite ginger beer?

I've had four Caribbean-brand ginger beers: Barritt's, Blue Sky, Gosling's, and Reed's. (haven't found Regatta anywhere).

Of these, I found the Blue Sky utterly repugnant; and the Reed's refreshing, but not gingery enough as it is sweetened with honey and pineapple. The Barritt's and Gosling's tasted remarkably similar, with the Gosling's having slightly more ginger bite and the Barritt's tasting slightly sweeter (fwiw, the Barritt's is sweetened with cane, while the Gosling's has the dreaded "all natural" corn syrup).

I tried these out in a Dark and Stormy-- I preferred the Barritt's, wife preferred the Gosling's.

what are your favorites; and, which makes the best (Egyptian recipe) Suffering Bastard??

I buy D&G Old Jamaican Ginger Beer from the 'International Foods' aisle at Krogers - 2 liters for $1.99 (made by the same company that makes Ting grapefruit soda). It is very gingery - quite a "bite". It is sweetened with sugar, not HFCS. Don't know how it compares to Gosling's, et al. Since it has such a strong ginger and lime taste, I use it as a base for a teriyaki marinade, too. Just add garlic and soy sauce.

i tried that brand ages ago and found it to be suckyish, but i shall revisit and report back.

I just concluded an experiment where I made dark n stormys with 2 different rums and 3 different ginger beers. The three ginger beers were Barritt's, Goslings, and Saranac. The rums I tried were the Gosling's Black Seal and Cruzan Blackstrap. The ginger beer I preferred was the Saranac. The rum I preferred was the Cruzan. Of the six combos my favorite was Cruzan Blackstrap with Saranac ginger beer.

kewl. ive used Myers's, Goslings, and Bacardi Select.

what recipe did you use?

Porpoise,

Where can I locate your brands? I want to try some out.

the Reed's seems to be in most grocery stores around here, often in the organics section, and at Whole Foods (i prefer the extra ginger Reed's which i've only seen here at Whole Foods).

the Gosling's i've found at ABC liquors and Total Wine and More, the Barritt's only at Total Wine and More so far. i think these are both bottled/canned in the US under Bermuda 'supervision,' so you may want to try your local liquor stores.

I remember reading some detailed notes on ginger beer and related subjects over at Scottes Rum Pages. He used to post here occasionally too. Good mentions for Ginger People, Barritt's, and Reed's.

I use Cock & Bull since it's easy to get and pretty good. But I might not know what I'm missing with others I haven't tried. Probably the choice depends on what you're using it for - straight beverage, mixing with a dark rum, or mixing specifically with a "black" rum for a Dark & Stormy.

-Randy

altho a Dark and Stormy aint bad, i really like a Moscow Mule better- the vodka, lime and ginger really refresh.

I have made a number of Dark 'n' Stormies, all using Gosling's Black Seal, but with a variety of ginger beers. Here are the results of my scientific research.

Fever Tree : good ginger bite, not too sweet, very pleasant drink.
Bundaberg : good ginger bite, a bit sweeter than Fever Tree, but not too much so. A little more carbonation than FT, which I think is good for a D&S.
Reed's Extra Ginger : I found this to be bland and unfocused compared to the others; I found it distinctly inferior (though I did finish my drink.)
Fentiman's : I have not tried this one yet, it's up next.

So, if I had to pick a favorite out of the ones I've tried so far, I would go with the Bundaberg. I would never complain about the Fever Tree, though.

Will post back once I've gotten around to the Fentiman's.

Give me Fentiman's or give me death.

Try the Fentiman's Curiousity Cola as well as it has a slight ginger taste. I'm using both in my next book.

[ Edited by: Kahuna Kevin 2011-04-15 19:58 ]

On 2011-04-10 11:13, thePorpoise wrote:
what is your favorite ginger beer?

I prefer Mary Ale!

Maine Root Ginger Beer has phenomenal flavor. If you really love ginger -- I mean you don't mind so much ginger that it can almost burn a bit going down -- you should try this stuff. Our local food co-op carries it, but a higher end grocery store near you might carry it as well:
http://www.maineroot.com/products_gingerbrew.php

Mixes really well with the Kraken!

Cheers,
Rupe

On 2011-04-26 06:44, rupe33 wrote:
Maine Root Ginger Beer has phenomenal flavor. If you really love ginger -- I mean you don't mind so much ginger that it can almost burn a bit going down -- you should try this stuff. Our local food co-op carries it, but a higher end grocery store near you might carry it as well:
http://www.maineroot.com/products_gingerbrew.php

Mixes really well with the Kraken!

Cheers,
Rupe

Maine Root mixed with Coruba Dark makes an awesome Dark & Stormy.

I like the Bundaberg pretty well... but for the mega-ginger BOOM, it's gotta be Cock & Bull.

Another vote for bundaberg, my favorite for drinking on its own. Cock and bull has a bit of a burn from the ginger, which is fine for a drink, but is overpowering compared to somevrums (the kraken seems to stand up to it well.)

On a similar note, Cost Plus World Market has Polwell and Mahoney Ginger Syrup which has some bite. Ive experimented with adding it to 7up for a variation on the dark n stormy. Its good, but different.

On 2011-04-10 11:13, thePorpoise wrote:
I've had four Caribbean-brand ginger beers: Barritt's, Blue Sky, Gosling's, and Reed's. (haven't found Regatta anywhere).

UPDATE-- ok, finally found Regatta. Also, revisited the grocery store JCS Jamaican Country Style. Bottom line-- Jamaican style sucks., Stick with bermudan style ginger beer. here are the conclusions from my lab experiments:

--Barritt's is slightly the sweetest, it works best in the DarkNstormy (key = the lime juice);

--Gosling has the heaviest ginger bite (no sweetness)-- works best in the Moscow Mule; and

--Regatta lies between the Barrit's and the Gosling i nterms of sweetness and ginger bite-- works th best in the Suffering Barsteward...

oh, the sacrifices my cocktail laboratory makes...

my thoughts so far,
I've tried reed's extra, ginger people,fentiman's and cock & bull.
The rum's I used were meyer's dark and gosling's blackstrap.
The wahine and I both enjoyed the ginger people and fentiman's on there own but we'll stick with Reed's extra to drink on ice.
O.K. I have to say that that when I've tried gosling's before I wasn't pleased with it, I got an off root beerish flavor, so no surprise
I didn't like it with any of the ginger beers. Though we like meyer's (what can I say) I didn't really care for any of the drinks until we mixed it with cock & bull! The sweetness of it's sugar and a slight bitterness of it's strong ginger flavor won out and sold us on this drink!
I started out using to much lime ( I like lot's of lime juice in most drinks) but discovered that a standard wedge was enough.
So, though we started with a 1 to 1 ginger beer to rum ratio, were taken with a 1 1/2oz cock & bull to 1oz Meyers dark rum ratio, lime, crushed ice and yes, stir it!
exclamationally yours! , tikicoma!

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2011-05-10 22:49 ]

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2011-05-10 22:52 ]

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2011-05-10 22:55 ]

I like making ginger beer. It only takes a couple of minutes of actual effort.

I like Olde Tyme Jamaican Style, It is healthy for health..

Everyone is different I've tried all of the above posts ginger beer types and my favorite is Barritts, the others are not as sweet but for dark and stormy its the way to go. That said if you like the spicier ginger beer there are 3 types of http://www.blenheimgingerale.com/ - and the hot is hot. Its nice mix with what ever rum you choose. Fetterman(sp?) is also good but hard to find just like Barritts.

Reeds I feel has a bit of an "woody" after taste but it sorta depends on the rum use, and obviously the amount. I feel that the Goslings Ginger beer comes up short compared to the Barritts and seems like a goslings marketing - slap in the face to kinda thing from Goslings to Barritts - Bermuda style.

To each his or her own but if you get a chance try the Blenheim ginger ale all different flavors. Or stick with Barritts!(PS Facebook has a bunch of ginger beer / ale pages mostly public so you don't need to sign up to view)

finally got hold of the DG brand- very nice ginger bite with balanced sweetness. made a nice DarkNStormy.

First Jamaican brand I've sampled that I enjoyed...

I didn't see this one mentioned, but I picked up a bottle for the first time yesterday at my local Fred Meyers and enjoyed it.

Reading this thread with interest from the UK. We have Fentiman's range, 'Botanically Brewed' etc. but the best by far available in UK is this brand - Crabbie's of Glasgow. They have been going since 1801 and are considered the masters of ginger beer here. As you can see in the pic they make the traditional 'cloudy' ginger beer, and also an 'alcoholic' one, which is dangerously drinkable. If you can't get it over there, I could hire a clipper and send a rescue mission...