A root beer fit for an emperor? No, not really. A root beer fit for a king? Still no. Empire root beer has an interesting old school label with its phone number printed in a high profile place. I almost wanted to call it but what was I going to say? It’s almost 100 years old and is based in Rhode Island. It’s got a nice carbonation up front, a slight bite and a great smooth texture. But the flavor is almost nonexistent. If you’re like me, you have forgotten about it immediately after you drink it. Honestly, it tastes a little watered down, like they forgot the spices in a root beer drink. C’mon, it needs a little spice, this is root beer after all. I’m not drinking cola! Anyways, it doesn’t taste awful but it’s far from great. It’s average at best, almost borderline below average.
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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