the.com/root beer
A medicinal sassafras tonic that grew up to become America's wholesome rebellious soda.
means A sweet, carbonated North American soft drink traditionally flavored with sassafras root (and often other roots, barks, and herbs like sarsaparilla, wintergreen, and licorice), typically non-alcoholic.
from The name is plainly literal: a "beer" — in the old, broad sense of a fermented or brewed beverage made from plant material — built on roots, chiefly sassafras root bark. Folk brews from roots, barks, and berries were common in early America, descended from European "small beers" and herbal tonics, and the drink was long sold as a healthful sassafras tonic. The commercial "root beer" we know took off in the late 19th century, when it was bottled and marketed as a temperance-friendly soft drink. (One wrinkle of truth: safrole, the compound that gave natural sassafras its flavor, was later found to be carcinogenic, so modern root beer uses safrole-free or artificial flavoring.)
- Banned root
- Original sassafras flavoring was outlawed as carcinogenic in 1960
- Pharmacy origins
- Charles Hires sold it as a healthful tea cure
- Foam science
- Yucca extract gives it that thick lasting head
- Global outcast
- Many countries find the flavor tastes like medicine
mug root beer — created 1947, owned by pepsico and second-largest brand in the us market
barq's root beer — founded 1898 in new orleans, only major brand containing caffeine