Which is your fancy? The premium stuff, like Henry Weinhard's, or your basic A&W? Our ward recently had a root beer tasting party where they blinded the flavors and asked everybody to pick their favorite. They had the gourmet micro brews as well as the less expensive mass marketed brands. A&W won the contest.

Root Beer was about the only soft drink I liked as a kid and I really like it as an adult. It's about as American as baseball and hot dogs. There was a root beer shop not far from our church where I grew up in Reseda, CA and after mutual, we'd beg our leaders to take us by for a brew after an activity. They served it in frozen mugs for a quarter and it went down cold and smooth.

When our older kids were in high school we had a french exchange student spend a summer with us. The poor kid had a hard time adjusting to the casual American palate. He developed a real fondness for hot dogs, but couldn't take root beer. He said it tasted like medicine.

Summer wouldn't be summer without an ice cold root beer now and then.