Virgil's began in the early 90's as an independent microbrew soda by the Crowley's. It was sold in 1999 to Reed's Inc. who produce the Virgil's line up of flavors in the Los Angeles area. The flavor line up has grown over the years from Root Beer to include various cream sodas.
While Reed's Inc. does "brew" it's sodas using old-fashioned methods adapted to modern machinery, they also claim to use authentic ingredients from all over the world. Of this I cannot speculate, but whether or not that makes for a better soda can be debated. I can attest to having had other "premium" or "micro-brewed" sodas that sometimes fail to impress. Although, due to using "all-natural" ingredients you'll generally find Virgil's beverages next to Reed's sodas in grocery store health food/organic food sections.
While most Virgil's sodas use cane sugar, because this is their diet version it is sugar free, but contains Stevia extract as a sweetener. It's only lightly carbonated. It surely tastes like a diet with a different flavor. Unfortunately I did not have the regular diet available to compare, but will have to locate some in the future. The birch flavoring is strong. It leaves a lingering after taste and strangely seems to have a small numbing sensation on my tongue, perhaps from the wintergreen. All in all, for a diet root beer it isn't too bad, but I prefer others. Look for my future post on the non-diet Virgil' Root Beer.
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