Perhaps the planet’s best root beer has local roots
What: A new root-beer concentrate, made by Michael Sunderland, the pastry chef behind the michaelsdolce line of artisan jams.
Why: Mixed one-part syrup to four parts soda water, this makes possibly the best root beer on the planet. It’s not too sweet nor too carbonated, but complex and refreshing with the flavours of ginger root, star anise, vanilla, cloves, orange peel, chicory and even wintergreen.
“I experimented over two months, making about 10 batches until I got it just right,” Sunderland says.
Cool and refreshing on its own, it makes an incredible root-beer float, topped with vanilla ice cream, such as Pascale’s, and perhaps even with cherries on top from Ottawa’s Top Shelf Preserves. How much: $10 for a 250 mL bottle, which makes a litre (about 34 ounces) of root beer. Where: Sunderland sells it stirred in soda and ready to drink by the glass for $4 for a 12 ounce cup at Ottawa Farmers’ Market at Lansdowne on Sundays. You can also buy the concentrate from him at the market, or at such stores as Goods (209 Dalhousie St.), Green Door Grocer (202 Main St.) and Seed to Sausage (729 Gladstone Ave.). What else: Blumen Studio, 465 Parkdale Ave., makes an iced cappuccino with the root-beer syrup and CC’s Corner in Richmond adds it to milkshakes. Both those spots also sell the concentrate. More: Find michaelsdolce on Instagram and Facebook.