For quite a while I thought “root beer” to be a fictitious beverage, like Romulan Ale or Bloodwine.

Until I stumbled upon some comments by Americans mentioning it to be a real thing!

Only problem was that it is basically unknown and very hard to find here in Germany.
After unsuccessfully trying two special US stores as well as a couple of Asia markets (after someone mentioned that it is also a thing in some Asian countries) I basically gave up.

So imagine my excitement when accidentally coming upon this can in my local Edeka market (a type of German higher end grocery store)!

Now I and my kids are ready to try it, but this should naturally be with the right background.

So: Which Star Trek episode that references it should we watch while tasting it?
We are currently watching TNG, so this would be preferred (if it even appears in there?).
I would even be ok with a Wesley centered episode… ;-)

Update:

First, thanks to you all for the suggestions! In the end we went with DS9’s “Little green men”, as other episodes would have required too much contextual knowledge (and are also much darker).

Individually perceived tastes of the Root beer varied somewhere between toothpaste and decomposed rubber.

Final verdict has been mixed:
My daughter completely hates it, my wife is not especially fond of it, I kinda like it and my son now has a new favorite soft drink :-)

  • Vespair@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    15 days ago

    This specific root beer, the Bavarian nutmeg special edition, not the regular, is genuinely one of the most delicious beverages I’ve ever tasted.

    Root beer is strange in that it has an enormous floor to ceiling range. Some of it is genuinely disgusting, but the best of it is amazing.

      • Vespair@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        15 days ago

        Can’t pretend to know anything about it, randomly saw it at a grocery store once and bought it on a whim and it blew my mind. Was truly devastated to learn that when they meant special edition, they meant it. I haven’t seen it in over a decade, but I still regularly check for it just in case they ever decided to release a new batch, that’s how incredible and memorable it was even more than 10 years later.

          • Vespair@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            15 days ago

            Yeah the original is also very good, a high quality root beer. It just isn’t transcendent like that special edition. But OP if you can find regular Virgil’s, definitely give that one a try!

            • Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.deOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              15 days ago

              Given that the can in the pic is the first root beer I have seen in my whole life (and that despite actively searching for it), the chances of finding some specific speciality brand are probably pretty slim, I guess… :-)

    • Digit@lemmy.wtf
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      15 days ago

      A’ha! I suspected there must be an old legit good original root beer, not just the corporate commercial chemical syrup water crap.