30 Root Beers, 30 Days

The Cured Ham likes structured tastings. Usually, they are wine or beer tastings. Recently, a high school buddy of mine suggested a Root Beer tasting. Not just any root beer tasting, but 30 root beers over a 30 days.

The gentleman conducting this in-house tasting is Mike Poindexter writer of the new Central Valley blog, The Eclectic Life. Mike is a Selma native who knows a whole lot about the food business, at least a particular corner of it, as he is the 3rd Generation to run Poindexter Nut Company. 

His journey into tasting root beers comes from drinking a lot of cola and the caffeine addiction that comes with it. I had a similar addiction to Pepsi in college, drinking 4-6 per day. The Cured Ham was at his heaviest ever in college and drinking Pepsi didn't help matters (neither did the beer and plonky wine). 

So The Eclectic Life and The Cured Ham have something in common, kicking the cola habit and having a real fondness for root beer. The beauty of root beer is the wide variety of artisan producers, unlike the monoculture producers of cola; Coke and Pepsi. The entire list of root beers he's sampling can be found here.

I think this will be a fun series to follow. Mike is also incorporating an "Ice Cream Compatibility Rating" for the classic Root Beer Float. Before it's done, I'm going to try to acquire one of my favorite Root Beers from the Indian Wells Brewing Company down in SoCal for Mike to try. You can also find Mike on twitter @Mike_Poindexter