I stumbled across Homer Soda by accident, and I’m glad I did!  While looking for something else, I ended up of Five Star Soda’s review of this root beer.  I’m not much of a connoisseur, so if you want detailed flavor notes, you might want to check out that review, too.  This review led me to the Homer Soda website, though, where I could learn more about the root beer — and also more about the family behind the root beer.

Homer Soda Company

The Homer Soda Company is primarily a soda shop.  Located in Homer, IL, this soda shop is owned and operated by a homeschooling family of seven.  They sell a large variety of glass-bottled sodas, ranging from the fairly mainstream (like Cheerwine cola) to very unusual options like Pure Soda Works Strawberry Jalapeno.  (Personally I fail to see the appeal of the latter, but obviously somebody likes it or there wouldn’t be a market for it!)

Homer Maple Syrup Root Beer

The Homer Soda Company’s maple syrup root beer was birthed out of a family trip.  While visiting Homer Lake, the family viewed a maple syrup-producing demonstration.  After coming home, they decided to try syrup-making themselves.  (Everything’s a project opportunity for a homeschooling family, right?  We’re actually hoping to tap our own maple tree, with the help of this book and spile.  It’s almost that time of year!)  Having produced syrup, and being the owners of a soda company, it was natural for them to ask, “What if we put the two together?”  The result: Homer Soda Maple Root Beer.

What We Thought

This root beer is, unfortunately, unavailable locally, so we had to order it and have it shipped.  (Hint: if you’re ordering it, wait until it isn’t below 20 there and where you are.  We had some freezing during shipping and a bottle exploded.  Not a problem if it just isn’t quite so cold!)  It’s unique, and yet still classically root beer.

The flavor balance seems to depend a lot on the temperature.  When the root beer is very cold, that seems to dampen the more “root-like” flavors, and the maple’s sweetness dominates.  When it’s very warm, the sweetness is less apparent.  When it’s chilled — but not overly so — it seems to have the best balance between the two.

I am a little puzzled by Five Star Soda’s comment about this not being a “foamy root beer.”  For us, it had a good deal of foam, just like most root beers.

Of course, as usually happens, much of this foam settles until the glass looks more like the image at the top of this section.

Sweet Preparations

The sweet maple adds a unique dimension to sweet root beer preparations like root beer floats.

For a similar flavor profile without quite so much of the cold, try an Italian cream soda (with vanilla syrup) with this root beer in place of the soda water.