Is there a specific brand you’d recommend to try? Way Fruit Farm has a downtown store with a huge selection of sodas (PA and other, I think).
We had it in the DC MD area as well.
I think if you were uninitiated as a Child it is a rather unusual Taste.
As a side note, we also used fresh Birch Twigs or Sticks as Skewers for Sausages or Hamburgers when camping. It imparts a special Flavor to the Meats.
I believe it is also used for smoking Meats and Fish in Scandinavia and parts of Europe among Beech, Pine and other Woods.
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I usually have a few bottles of “Pennsylvania Dutch” birch beer–yep, that’s it’s brand name–which is the soft drink of choice for a BIL and nephew.
But the best is always the stuff made fresh for the various PA Dutch\Amish festivals. (I’d suggest the Goeshenhappen festival, but I can never remember how to spell it 
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I imagine it can be found through the Midatlantic region or areas with a history of Amish settlement.
i can definitely imagine it’s a good choice for cooking skewers. Alas, no birch trees on my property and I don’t think the arboretum would appreciate me liberating any of their branches.
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I used to enjoy birch beer floats at a stand at the Brimfield MA antiques fair. I thought it a very close cousin to root beer and sarsaparilla.
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I can’t tell what sodas they serve from looking at their web site. But there’s some good-sounding choices at amazing prices. And I think that may be the first time I’ve ever seen a Fluffernutter on a kids’ menu. Talk about American food 
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Birch Beer seems a simpler more straight forward Flavor to me. Basically just reduced Birch Sap is the Flavoring.
Where as Root Beer and Sarsaparilla are made up of many Flavors and Formulations. Sassafras, Sarsaparilla Bark, Licorice, Ginger, Dandelion Root and or any Number of other Spices and Leaves.
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What does it taste like?
Also, I’m about to start a thread with local sodas worldwide (unless such a thread already exists, that is) 
Sort of like root beer and licorice had a very odd love child. It’s not bad with rye and lime juice over a lot of ice 
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I just looked at the descrip and it mentioned wintergreen and licorice.
That’s another harrrrrd no here 
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It is very much an acquired, regional taste. The venn diagram of Moxie drinkers and those who call soda “tonic” is probably a circle.
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And who knew I had already extolled the virtues of PA Dutch birch beer?
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Yep Moxie is def an acquired taste. I’m in Maine-- the home of Moxie and it has an almost cult like following. Not me ! OTOH I do like root-beer. There’s a couple three craft soda-pop makers here & the root-beer they serve at Portland Pie Co. (Capt something?) was astonishingly good.
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Yeah, I forked that post 
And replied to a 4 yr old thread 
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Nor me. But it actually originated in Lowell, MA (although a Maine doctor created it as “nerve tonic” while living in MA). But you Maineiacs are the die-hard Moxie fans. LOL
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Funny, I was just going to post a rhetorical question — do the people who like root beer (I used to like root beer vanilla floats when I was a kid but haven’t had one since then) also like black licorice (I do, but not the hard-core intense varieties)? I guess those Venn diagram circles might overlap. 
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American tomato 
philosophy…
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I can’t say I like root beer, but I don’t mind it (root beer floats are a whole nother thing
But I have always disliked black licorice . . . mom used to keep the black jelly beans at Easter for herself because I wouldn’t touch them.
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