I’m always on the lookout for root beer and sometimes you can find them in the most random of places. And sometimes I am given one from a fellow root beer aficionado, with this one courtesy of Chris Sawyer. Black Bear is a label under the Sprecher brand, which has quickly become one of my top 5 favorite root beers. Black Bear is a solid, above average drink with a little harsh bite at first but quickly becomes smooth and light as I neared the end of the bottle. There’s little aftertaste as well with a very light wintergreen flavor as I got well past halfway.
It’s been years (2019) since I reviewed the original Fitz root beer. I haven’t tried it since largely because with a few exceptions (Sprecher, Barq’s, A&W, & Dang) it’s onward to new root beers I haven’t tried before. It’s been so long since I had Fitz’s, the pride of Missouri, that I had to re-read the review to get my mind set for the diet version. I said the original version was clean, crisp, light tasting with a nice vanilla aftertaste. And honestly, that would be a good description of this one. It’s incredibly light tasting and because it’s diet, it’s not sweet at all. I got a little whiff of aspartame in the aftertaste but unlike a lot of diet drinks, it’s barely noticeable. For a diet drink, this is totally serviceable for those looking to save some calories & considering there wasn’t anything that turned me off and grading on a no sugar curve, it’s an above average drink. If I ever completely run out of root beers to revi. 
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