Which is the Best?: A “Comprehensive” Test of Ginger Ale

Started with Canada Dry Bold Ginger ale

I love Canada Dry Bold Ginger Ale. It beats the heck out of regular Canada Dry any day of the week. I shared this view over on Instagram where I happily became a ginger ale help line full of suggestions and feedback. Turns out people really like ginger ale. But which Ginger ale is the best? I set out to find out.

Methodology of Choosing

I never blog about food unless it has to do with travel (NMAAH, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Outerbanks, etc) but for this topic, I’m happy to make an exception. My background is in science so naturally I wanted to take a scientific approach but considering this isn’t a paid study, I also just kept it cute.

Based off an Instagram poll where I asked, “What’s your favorite ginger ale?” I received a whopping 28 suggested brands. Of those, I took the brands that had more than 5 recommendations and added them to a list to narrow down the list to 16 total ginger ales. I set out to buy all 16 ginger ales which makes perfect sense for a sweet sixteen bracket. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one brand, which is suppose to be local to me, Blenheim. What can you do though? It’s a lockdown.

The List of the Best Ginger Ales*

• White Rock
• Fever Tree
• Schweppes
• Bundaberg Ginger Beer
• Canada Dry Bold
• Canada Dry
• Seagram’s
• Vernors ginger Drink
• Trader Joes’ Ginger Beer
• Ale 8
• Goya Ginger Beer
• Q Spectacular
• Fentimans
• Reeds Extra Strong Ginger Beer
• Maine Root Ginger Brew

I totally recognize that many of these are brews and not ales but had more than 5 votes and there was no way I was going to do two brackets for just a few winning brews/beers.

Actual Taste Test

Each cup was labeled A through O on the side and paired with ginger ale. The cup was then labeled underneath with the ginger ale. The original bottles were then removed and we tasted the cups from A to M without knowing which bottle was paired with it. Cup O was automatically pulled into the second round since it had no mate. Winning letters were taken through the bracket and names were put down on the paper after testing them all. We also ate a cracker between rounds to clear the palette.

Hypothesis for Best Ginger Ale

What’s an experiment without a hypothesis? Obviously, I had a favorite ginger ale before the experiment; Canada Dry Bold. But that was without any taste test or direct comparison. Which ginger ale did I think would be the best? Vernors but that’s based purely off of the number of Michigan-ers in my inbox preaching the gospel and not off any previous knowledge of my own.

What do I like in a ginger ale? Something a little sweet, a little dry, heavy on the ginger flavor without feeling like cough syrup (you know which ones I’m talking about). Most importantly, I was looking for which ginger ale could become my new favorite. Which could I drink daily if I wasn’t worried about hurting myself with all the sugar?

Marcus also played along so you guys would have another opinion from a different perspective. Marcus’ and I are polar opposites for food and drink. He doesn’t really love ginger to begin with. He’s just looking for a ginger ale that is traditionally a good soda. His current favorite is Schweppes’ and he predicted Fentimans may be his winner. This was based solely on the loveliness of the bottle lol.

The Results

Well would you look at that. My winner was unilaterally Vernors and I knew the very first round that it would be. Oddly enough, it didn’t meet my criteria. It wasn’t dry. It wasn’t gingery. But without competition, I could drink it every single day for the rest of my life if I was left unattended. It’s got this creamy really subtle ginger taste that I found myself coming back to multiple times.

The Goya Ginger Beer was actually a really close second for me. It was flavorful and the right amount of ginger. If that cream in Vernors wasn’t so aggressively delicious, this would have easily been my number one choice.

Marcus’ favorite was Seagram’s which makes perfect sense when you consider that he was looking for a not too gingery, every day ginger ale. And the Seagram’s lived up to the expectation. It definitely won best ginger ale for Marcus.

On his score card though, he put an asterisk next to “H for Vernors” as he was drinking it as a call out. It’s the only note he made on the paper and he said, “it was really good. Kind of cream soda like. Could be a winner but is it a ginger ale?”

Reproducibility

Just for funsies, we each had one of our siblings participate to give you a larger sample size. (They are already quarantining with us so it’s no stretch or change in safety to do so.) Turns out they have the same taste buds! My brother also selected Vernors and Marcus’ sister also chose Seagram’s. I don’t know what that tells you about familial sense of taste but hey, that’s reproducibility if I’ve ever seen it.

Warnings and Tips

Four of us tried these 15 ginger ales in under ten minutes and four of us had a stomach ache for the better part of the evening. I’ve never consumed enough ginger ale in one sitting to experience the laxative properties but I should have known. I would offer you a healthy level of caution for trying that many in a row but it was totally worth it.

I would also caution you that the Maine Root is just foul. We were so glad that one got to skip ahead a bracket after trying it. Absolutely disgusting for all of us. I will probably, over time, finish all of the ginger ale brands except for Maine Root. I am sure for a particular type of taste bud this works but for us, it’s a definite no.

Wrap Up

Well there you have it. Definitely the strangest project I never thought I would do in quarantine but absolutely rewarding. I’ve had quite a few of these ginger ales in the last week since doing this test and I’ve gotta say, this was a great decision. So tell me, what brand must I try once we can actually go to the store to get it?