Canadian bartender Warren Johnston, owner of a ready-to-drink beverage company, Above Average Drinks, goes with Boylan Root Beer when topping off Vieux Pontarlier to make his Above Average Absinthe + Root Beer.
“There are still a huge number of drinkers, especially in my local community here in Alberta, that are less exposed to current trends in the cocktail world,” says Johnston. “Our team has found that simple drinks like this can often be the spark that leads them down the rabbit hole towards a lot of the products that, as bartenders, we love sharing and want to evangelize.” Root beer, after all, is not unlike a nonalcoholic amaro—a robust, complex drink layered with sarsaparilla and other botanicals.