What Is Root Beer?

The invention of Root beer is often attributed to Charles Hires in the late 1800s who experimented with carbonating a sweetened tea made from the sassafras root, he had a pharmacy and is credited with bringing root beer to market. Legend has it that he discovered sassafras tea on his honeymoon, and rigorous boycott by the Christian Women’s Temperance movement made his root beer very popular, even though it was not alcoholic! Several decades later, prohibition helped root beer become even more popular.

Traditionally, sassafras was used as the primary flavor of root beer, and had been used for hundreds of years prior by the Native Americans for a number of medicinal purposes. In 1960, the FDA banned sassafras after some studies showed  it had a carcinogenic compound, although it would probably still be legal today of root beer lobbyists existed!

Root beer is very similar to birch beer and sarsaparilla, which are also sodas made from the bark or roots of very similar tress (Root beer from sassafras, sarsaparilla from sarsaparilla, and birch beer from birch). Many of those drinks are now made from a mix of artificial and natural flavors.