The Absolute Best Root Beer Brand Has Been Around For 100 Years

With its sweet infusion of creamy vanilla and molasses flavors and warming notes of cinnamon spice, root beer feels like a luxury soda with all the flavor it keeps packed inside. To be fair, it is a luscious elixir, so whether you enjoy it solo or in a frosted glass with vanilla ice cream, it's bound to be delicious.

While root beer is a great soda to purchase for a special occasion, there are so many brands on the shelf, and it can be hard to decide which one to pick. To help us make a good choice, Chowhound's own Jennifer Geer ranked popular brands of root beer to find out which soda was best. According to her, the absolute best root beer brand has already been around for 100 years, and that brand is IBC.

With origins in 1919, IBC has been on the soda scene for longer than most and is one of the few old-fashioned soda brands you can still buy today. With only eight ingredients inside each bottle, its simplistic recipe is its power, and Geer was impressed by how well it stood up to modern-day competitors. The drink is made with cane sugar and strikes a perfect balance between its sweet and spicy flavors. It's got notes of licorice and wintergreen, vanilla and anise, and with its wide availability, it's also one of the most accessible root beers on Geer's list. 

IBC root beer has a lot going for it with a nice fizz and flavor that makes it stand apart. Other options on Jennifer Geer's list, such as Hanks' root beer, were too creamy and resembled more of a cream soda than root beer. Other popular brands like Mug didn't offer as many spicy notes, so the flavor felt unbalanced. 

Still, there is another brand on the list Greer was a big fan of, and that brand is Sprecher Root Beer. Snagging the second spot on Geer's list, this soda is also full of well-rounded flavors across the spectrum of sweet and spicy and even features honey as a main ingredient. Sprecher uses a special fire brewing method to produce this drink, and the result is an especially rich and smooth root beer. So, if you're hard-pressed for a root beer and there's no IBC in sight, Sprecher would be another great choice. But if you want to try the hands-down best root beer brand, keep looking for the classic IBC logo instead.