The Big Barrel is home to one of Bundaberg’s famous drinks, Bundaberg Ginger Beer and numerous other brewed soft drinks.
Perhaps not as famous as the nearby rum distillery in Bundaberg, however, there are not many Australian’s who haven’t heard of and tasted Bundaberg Ginger Beer.
The Big Barrel is more like a half barrel lying on its side. It forms the building you can visit to purchase Bundaberg soft drinks and other merchandise.
Tasting and Self-Guided Tour
The Big Barrel houses another activity that shopping and adding another big thing to your photo collection. The tour includes tasting each and every flavour they produce too so can be sure which once you want to buy if you are not already familiar with them all.
The tour takes you through a self-guided gallery to learn about how the brewed soft drinks are crafted. An interactive part of the tour includes a guess the flavour “smellography”, with some ingredients used in their drinks to smell.
At the end of the tour, a guide provides everyone with a sample of every flavour. You may even get to try a flavour that is not generally available to Australian’s, such as their brewed cola made for export.
The tour includes 6 bottles of any flavour you like, including the brewed cola if that is what you choose. The 6 bottles are only for adult tickets so you will have to bring the wallet again out if the kids want their own 6 bottles to choose.
I have gotten away with convincing the kids to choose a bottle or two each while other times they want their own full half dozen pack of Bundaberg soft drinks.
You can often get the drinks cheaper from the supermarket but some flavours are harder to get than others at times and of course there are the ones that may not be available. There is the export brewed cola and I once bought a 10-pack of lime when they stopped making the flavour and there were only a few cartons left at The Big Barrel.
Bundaberg Soft Drink Flavours
Some flavours have come and gone over the years (like the lime flavour I mentioned). Growing up I used to drink their Root Beer and Horehound drinks, both root based brewed drinks like their ginger and sarsaparilla drinks.
- Ginger Beer
- Sarsaparilla
- Lemon Lime & Bitters
- Traditional Lemonade
- Apple Cider
- Burgundee Creaming Soda
- Guava
- Blood Orange
- Pink Grapefruit
- Passionfruit
- Peach
- Tropical Mango
- Pineapple & Coconut
Some of the flavours come in a low sugar diet variety:
- Diet Ginger Beer
- Diet Sarsaparilla
- Diet Lemon Lime & Bitters
