Hank's - 7 Reviews

While Philadelphia may be the trash can of the United States its inhabitants sure know what they are doing when it comes to food and drink. Before you get all offended, please present your counter argument, but know that I have been to the city more than two dozen times, in many different neighborhoods and there has not been a single visit where I did not witness a decent amount of trash being blown around. I always have a good time there, but it is the dirtiest city I have ever visited. Let's wash those visions of garbage away and think about the good things like soft pretzels, (vegan) cheesesteaks, peanut chews, Wawa iced tea and of course Hank's soda.

Hank's root beer has been a staple of my Philly trips for years, and now they have expanded their reach into the world of iced teas. Normally I would say that they needn't have bothered with the existence of Wawa and their delicious teas, but I'm pretty sure Hanks took the mighty mini-mart into consideration and went for more unusual flavors. As much as I love Wawa, you're not going to see a cucumber watermelon tea in their line. This is where I think hanks will find its new market and thrive.

When the days are hot such as these, a good melon or cucumber drink is always what is needed to hit the spot, when you get tired of lemonade. A combination of the two is a dream for some. I just happen to be included in that some. The watermelon in here is nice, as it actually tastes a bit like the summer treat and not like a Jolly Rancher aka the candy that nearly destroyed the fruits entire reputation. I could use a bit stronger cucumber flavor, as it's really only there in the aftertaste. It's still better than nothing though.

My only suggestions are that I believe this would have worked much better with a green or white tea. I'm just tired of black iced tea. It tastes so standard. There's really nothing wrong with it, and I'm sure in six months I'll be on a black tea kick again, but at the moment all I can think of is lemon tea, and that's not what I want to think of with this.

Also, there are three sweeteners in this game; sugar, agave nectar and Rebiana. I made it through about half the bottle before the stevia started to show itself. I think that's only because it started to warm up a bit. Even when it's there it's not very strong and doesn't distract from the beverage much. I understand why it's included, but I am the type of tea drinker that would rather have less sugar than to have a zero calorie one included. Tea doesn't need to be very sweet (if at all).

Like the benefactor in the Dickens' classic I had great expectations for this beverage. While all of my hopes and dreams were not met, I feel this it was worth my time, and with some tweaking I think that future flavors in this line could do great things for the convenient stores of the north east.

Hank's has yet to steer us wrong. I will admit that I've had this bottle of root beer for a decent amount of time. I kept putting it off because, let's face it, diet is pretty gross. It always seems to taste chemical some how.
Hank's must have spent some time in the lab working on this one, because I was actually able to make it through the bottle with little problems from my taste buds. Initially it actually tastes like root beer, and not just that generic diet flavor. That comes as a light aftertaste. When diabetes comes a knocking, and my sugar dreams all come crashing down, I'll make sure to order a case of this.

Hank's just knows how to make solid quality sodas. There's really nothing out of the ordinary with the birch beer. It just tastes like Hank's spent the extra money and bought really high quality ingredients, instead of picking them up at Aldi or the Dollar Tree.
There is "fair birch beer" for kids and there is birch beer like this for adults. This is one time I'm going to accept that I'm an adult.

I don't know what makes a gourmet root beer "gourmet". Is it that they add extra "stuff" to the mix and, in return, can call it "gourmet"? That's all they do with pizza. Maybe they put better ingredients in and get to call it that. Aside from whatever quillaia and yucca extracts, this root beer is pretty standard when it comes to ingredients. There is a pretty definite vanilla taste to round out the root beer taste, which is actually pretty nice.

I also found that I burped a lot with this drink. Good, heavy root beer burps. The kind of burps that you get yelled at by your mom when you burp in your room with you door closed and she's downstairs. You know burping is "rude," but come on mom it's my room. If I can't burp there, where can I burp? That's what I want to know and now!

This root beer is good, and I appreciate the recommendation. We appreciate the recommendation. It's not terribly different from a lot of other root beers, but it's not bad by any means and you can tell that it's not a mass produced, garbage root beer.

Another great soda from the Hanks company. A high quality creamsicle flavored beverage. My friend Kevyn hates creamsicles. Show of hands, how many people feel sorry for him? Not only does he not enjoy an amazing summer treat, but he also won't give this great soda a chance. It's a shame I tell you.

I'll tell you what's delicious. Tacos, most pizza, Hanks black cherry pop, and chipotle flavored Tabasco sauce. See how I subtly slid Hanks in there? Well it shouldn't have been that subtle because it's frigging wonderful.

For the first time in a long time I can taste non-candied black cherry flavor. Do you live in Philly? Does cheese flow through your veins? Can you go a week without at least wanting to go to Gino's? Then number 1 you should equally be in love with Hanks and if number 2 if you haven't had it hop to it.

Flavor. It's very clean. No aftertaste of leftover sugar. Just plain good.

A handful of our readers have been raving about Hank's root beer, so when I got home yesterday and there was a box of their sodas waiting for me I felt like a kid on my birthday.
I have yet to try the root beer, but this cream soda lives up to the hype. In fact I think it surpasses the hype. It is perfectly vanilla flavored, without being overly creamy. I may have felt like a child when I opened the box, but this is most definitely an adult soda. It's the kind of soda they should be serving at bars. There are people like the Thirsty Dudes out there who like to go hang out with friends, but don't drink alcohol. Pop out of the gun just doesn't cut it most of the time. So proprietors of bars take note!