Boylans Root Beer review - A Tesco's trial?

Visiting some friends in London near London Bridge and we popped into (possibly the biggest) Tesco Metro near Bermondsey tube station. Past the fruit and veg isles was a promotional stand (I think they call the gondolas in the retail trade) with loads of USA products like Hershey's chocolate and more importantly, just the one root beer bottle product of Boylans Root Beer.

Returning to my friend's flat and couldn't wait to taste it. The first few sips of the root beer is wet, watery and a very subtle flavour but pleasant. Couldn't taste any of the flavours that were listed (sassafras flavor, cinnamon, anise, black pepper, mushroom, sweet birch, extracts of chocolate and coffee, vanilla, and wintergreen oil). After the drink had warmed from being chilled and sipped for a while whilst playing cards (possibly one of the funniest but cruelest card games yet Cards Against Humanity) the vanilla taste comes through. Good for a slow drink I'd say. 

With Tesco's retail mega-force to buying bulk the cost to a consumer was a more reasonable £1.70 a bottle. Could this be just a local addition or a one-off promotional campaign? Or, I'm hoping, a test to see if American products sell well and get some permanent shelf space. Either way folks, pay the devil and let's see if a major supermarket plants a potential rising star in an otherwise flat soft drinks market.

7/10