~Daniel

You might think, “Well that’s the marketing stuff you just said you don’t want!” But you’d be incorrect. I don’t want the press release and the 17 cocktails with catchy names or nifty fold-out cards or cigar lighters or bottle-coozies. I want “We see our product as fitting into this niche and that’s why we made these decisions. This is our process for making the product. Please let us know if you have questions and we’ll be happy to provide you with answers.”

That’s what I want as a cocktail/spirits blogger, and I think that the majority of the other C&S bloggers I’ve interacted with would agree.

On another note, your sendup of the marketing materials is wicked sharp. Reminds me of the sound of a lot of boutique agency websites, with the Flash intros and the clever concepts and the creatives who, while able in service of their clients, suffer delusions and logorrhea when describing themselves. “Genuine redneck haircraft.” Haaaa.

Speaking of logorrhea, this in an awfully long comment. Anyway, fantastic post.

By The Rood
———–
2oz Coruba
.75 oz Root
.25 oz vanilla syrup
dash Herbsaint

Shake with crushed ice and pour into rocks glass.

I think the “root beer” combination of flavors is one of my weakness in regards to complex flavor. I dote on the peculiarities and differences. Root is the first honest / natural-tasting “root beer” liquor product I’ve yet tasted: Please excuse the giddiness. I rue the commonality and connotation of the contemporary taste towards the fizzy drink.

Like you, I’ve never craved the taste of root beer in anything but, well, root beer. And you can buy absinthe soap! I saw it at La Maison d’Absinthe while we were in town.

As for the marketing – you paid attention to it? I know that marketers must do their thing, and whatever, good for them – but I mostly just toss out all the marketing crap after scouring it for a) contact info (in this case, it was used by a bar manager friend to snag her own sample) and b) see if any recipes look good.

It’s too bad what Dr. Bamboo reported about additional samples, as I’m already almost out of the stuff. On the other hand, now I’ve got more jars to do experiments in!

I spent a very similar 90 seconds wondering what-the-hell and who-the-hell, and found the promotional materials to be precious at best. After my first whiff I thought, “Zatarain’s Root Beer Extract, only less complex, but with a whole lot of wintergreen.” And yep, it tastes like root beer, though less cloyingly sweet than the schnapps.

Almost none of the included recipes looked appealing (MAYBE that Manhattan variation, but I dunno). I’d be curious to see what Craig comes up with, but I must confess that I’ve never really craved the flavor of root beer in cocktails.

Although I must say I’m impressed that it comes paired with its own similarly flavored and scented brand of soap. Who else can say that?

You make an excellent point, and maybe they’ll get around to handcrafting more actual product than marketing crap next time. In the mean, we’ll send you ours. Cheers!

This is an excerpt from the response I got:

“So glad to hear that you enjoyed ROOT! Unfortunately, because it is a small batch artisan product, we do not have enough sample bottles on hand to send out full size bottles.”

I kinda wished they’d saved the time, money & energy they put into the slick, overstuffed packet of irrelevant marketing materials and channelled it into making more product and getting it into people’s hands (and mouths).

I appreciate that they went to the trouble to send *something*, I can’t really explore much with 1.5 or 3 oz.

I haven’t cracked open the mason jars yet, so I don’t know what I think about the product, but yeah, the marketing’s dopey.