re: Best Rootbeer You've Ever Had

The best tasting root beer I ever had was from a woman they called "The Root Beer Lady" who lived as a hermit in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area near Ely, Minnesota. She just squatted on a tiny island in the wilderness. Eventually, she had lived there so long they allowed her to live out her days there. Her little house was quite picturesque, having a picket fence made of multi-colored lost paddles she collected.



During the winter, she would make root beer and harvest large blocks of ice from the frozen-over lakes. The blocks were stored underground and she had ice all through the summer. During the summer, she would have ice cold root beer to sell to all the hot & thirsty canoeists passing by.

I don't know how she made it - she may have bought some extract off the shelf like you or I could do, but believe me that was the best tasting and most welcome root beer you can imagine.