The Hires Soda Fountain Barrel

Everyone knows that frosty cold root beer always tastes better from a big 'ol wooden barrel. One of my favorite local haunts, Carl's Drive-in in Maplewood MO, has been serving their homemade version from a wooden barrel since 1975, and if you google "vintage root beer barrels" you'll see all kinds of great examples from a variety of world famous brands. So anyway, the point of this jibber jabber being a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a fun little home edition soda fountain barrel from the 50's or 60's, capitalizing on Hires Root Beer, a brand which I'm not sure I've ever had. Put it all together, and dump your own store bought RB into it, then serve it up to your chums like a true soda jerk. The barrel itself is unfortunately made of cheapo plastic, but the box is at least full of cute illustrations. It's also full of great shout-outs telling us that it "really works!", it's an "unbreakable - true replica!" and that it "won't leak!" I didn't actually buy this thing to test it out, but I hope all of that is true, --cuz we already know that "kids love it!" We adults do too!