Root beer
Root beer is a North American drink with a name that its most successful early marketer did not want. Charles Elmer Hires, a pharmacist, was a teetotaler. He wished to call his creation root tea. But he hoped to sell it to Pennsylvania coal miners, and that goal pushed him toward the word beer instead. The drink began as a brewed small beer. Today it is usually a sweet, carbonated soft drink, generally non-alcoholic, and it wears a thick and foamy head. This documentary follows the plants behind the flavor, the druggists and stand owners who sold it, the odd chemistry of its foam, and the reason its original flavoring has largely been replaced by artificial versions.
Two plants sit at the heart of traditional root beer: the sassafras tree, Sassafras albidum, and the sarsaparilla vine, Smilax ornata. Their root bark supplied the primary flavor. The vine also gives its name to a separate soft drink called sarsaparilla.
Old recipes reached far beyond those two plants. Allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock root and dandelion root all appeared in early versions. So did spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum chips, spicewood, wild cherry bark, yellow dock and prickly ash bark. Vanilla beans, dog grass, molasses and licorice rounded out the list. Many of these ingredients are still used today.
No standard recipe exists for modern root beer. Its primary ingredients are filtered water, sugar and safrole-free sassafras extract, which complements the other flavors. Common flavorings include vanilla, caramel, wintergreen, black cherry bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, nutmeg, acacia, anise, molasses, cinnamon, sweet birch and honey. Caramel coloring, rather than any root, is what makes the finished drink brown.
Americans have been drinking root beer since at least the eighteenth century. Written recipes have been documented since the 1830s. By the 1840s at the latest, confectionery stores were selling it.
Throughout the nineteenth century, people often drank it hot, and often with medicinal intent. The benefits of sassafras reached beyond its pleasant aroma, and both Native Americans and Europeans knew them well. Druggists took notice and began marketing root beer for its medicinal qualities.
By the 1850s, root beer had been combined with soda. At that point it was sold as a syrup rather than as a ready-made beverage. That syrup format set the stage for a pharmacist who would sell an extract of his own.
In 1875, Hires developed a root tea made from sassafras. The following year he debuted a commercial version of root beer at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and began selling his extract. He started bottling a beverage made from that famous extract in 1886. By 1893, root beer was distributed widely across the United States. Non-alcoholic versions became commercially successful, especially during Prohibition.
Not every competitor followed the sassafras route. Barq's, one of Hires's early rivals, began selling a sarsaparilla-based root beer in 1898. It was labeled simply as Barq's.
In 1919, Roy Allen opened a root beer stand in Lodi, California. That stand led to the development of A&W Root Beer. One of Allen's innovations was serving his homemade root beer in cold, frosty mugs. IBC Root Beer emerged during the same period, and it remains well known today.
One traditional recipe starts with a syrup cooked from molasses and water. After the syrup cools for three hours, it is combined with root ingredients, including sassafras root, sassafras bark and wintergreen. Yeast goes in next, and the mixture ferments for 12 hours. Then it is strained and rebottled for a secondary fermentation.
This method usually produced a beverage of 2% alcohol or less. The recipe could be modified to make a more alcoholic drink, which is called hard root beer.
Today a home brewer can start with a processed extract obtained from a factory. Another option is to work from herbs and roots that have not yet been processed. Alcoholic root beers produced in the 2000s include Small Town Brewery's Not Your Father's Root Beer, Coney Island Brewing Co.'s hard root beer and Best Damn Brewing Co.'s Best Damn Root Beer.
Sassafras root and bark are mucilaginous, and that property formed a natural, long-lasting foam. This head became a characteristic feature of the beverage. Root beer was originally carbonated by fermentation. As demand and technology changed, makers switched to carbonated water.
Once the sassafras was gone, manufacturers needed another way to get the foam. Some used small amounts of starch, such as cassava, together with natural surfactants to reproduce the familiar foaming character. Soybean protein or yucca extract also appear in many recipes, in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions. Some brands have distinctive foaming behaviors, and they have used those behaviors as part of their marketing identity.
A common use for the drink is to add vanilla ice cream, which makes a root beer float.
In 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration banned safrole, a key component of sassafras, because it causes cancer. Safrole is the aromatic oil found in sassafras roots and bark, and it gave traditional root beer its distinctive flavor. The ban covered commercially mass-produced foods and drugs.
The evidence came from laboratory animals. Animals given oral doses of sassafras tea or sassafras oil containing large doses of safrole developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer.
Since the ban, most commercial root beers have been flavored with artificial sassafras flavoring. Natural extracts with the safrole distilled and removed are also available. Hansen's is the brand named as using a safrole-free sassafras extract.
Commercial root beer is now produced in Canada and in every US state. Its popularity is greatest in North America, yet some brands are produced in or imported by other countries. These include Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Argentina, Germany, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Sweden, Vietnam and Thailand.
Barq's stands apart from most major brands because it contains about 1.8 mg of caffeine per fluid ounce.
The most recent entry in the record is a Museum of Root Beer, which opened in Wisconsin Dells in 2021.
Updated
Common questions
What is root beer made from?
Root beer is traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree, Sassafras albidum, or the sarsaparilla vine, Smilax ornata, as the primary flavor. Modern versions use filtered water, sugar and safrole-free sassafras extract with flavorings such as vanilla, caramel and wintergreen.
Who invented commercial root beer?
Pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires was the first to successfully market a commercial brand of root beer. He developed his sassafras root tea in 1875 and debuted a commercial version at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876.
Why is root beer called root beer if it is not alcoholic?
Root beer started out as a brewed small beer. Hires was a teetotaler who wanted to call his drink root tea, but he chose root beer to appeal to Pennsylvania coal miners.
Why did the FDA ban safrole in root beer?
The US Food and Drug Administration banned safrole in commercially mass-produced foods and drugs in 1960 because it is carcinogenic. Laboratory animals given large doses of safrole in sassafras tea or oil developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer.
What makes root beer foam?
Sassafras root and bark are mucilaginous, which formed a natural, long-lasting foam. Modern makers use ingredients such as soybean protein, yucca or small amounts of starch with natural surfactants to reproduce that foam.
Does root beer have caffeine?
Most major root beer brands other than Barq's are caffeine-free. Barq's contains about 1.8 mg of caffeine per fluid ounce.
When did A&W Root Beer begin?
A&W Root Beer developed from the root beer stand Roy Allen opened in Lodi, California, in 1919. Allen served his homemade root beer in cold, frosty mugs.
All sources
23 references cited across the entry
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