"Stars & Stripes" Root Beer
So before I left, my friend Nick and I had tried to compile a list of all the uniquely American things I should do before leaving the country for a year. Drinking a root beer was on the list. However, today in Utrecht I purchased the above can of root beer, and it was perfectly good, normal root beer. Now, I did buy it at the “America Today” clothing store, and clearly it’s being marketed as a really American thing. But the fact remains: it is possible to drink a root beer in Europe.
EDIT: Update! Further evidence that the Dutch do, in fact, drink root beer:
Another root beer sighting, this time on the shelves of an ordinary grocery store, and without any over-the-top American branding. The label beneath it said “A&W root beer”, but unless A&W comes in different cans in Europe, it wasn’t. I didn’t buy any of this, so I can’t speak to its taste.
Ok, that’s kind of awesome. But still, you did have to go to a specialty store.