Mason's Root Beer

First introduced in 1947 by Mason & Mason, Inc. of Chicago, Mason's Root Beer is one of a handful of classic American root beers. In the 1970's the Rheingold Corporation purchased Mason & Mason, Inc and in 1975 was Rheingold was acquired by Pepsi Co. The Federal Trade Commission forced Pepsi Co to sell off some of it's holdings and so in 1978 Mason's was sold to Monarch Beverage. Monarch had purchased Dad's Root Beer in 1986 and subsequently ended the production of Mason's Root Beer.

Although shelved by Monarch, it is possible to to procure Mason's from a company called Real Soda which licenses and recreates some older brand sodas. Danny Ginsburg started collecting bottle caps much like me as a kid and in his efforts to collect more caps began traveling around buying bottled sodas. Danny founded Real Soda as a distributor of bottled sodas and grew to the point that he began licensing older brands to recreate, bottle and sell as well.

The aroma of Mason's is rich and bold with a lower carbonation level than usual for a root beer. It tastes like an old-fashioned root beer and would be more at home in a root beer float than some root beers I've tasted. I can pick up a small hint of a licorice-like finish but it doesn't ruin the flavor. Over all it's a good root beer, not great, but good.