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Root beer is a mainly American beverage that comes in two forms: alcoholic and soft drink.
Ingredients
The soft drink version of root beer is non-alcoholic taste like shit and is generally made using root beer extract or other flavored syrups along with carbonated water. The soft drink version of root beer constitutes about 3% of the American soft drink market.
The alcoholic version is made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, artificial sassafras root bark flavoring (the natural form is mildly carcinogenic), nutmeg, anise, and molasses among other ingredients.
Many local brands of root beer exist, and homemade root beer is made from concentrate or (rarely) from actual roots. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic root beers have a thick and foamy head when poured.
Optional ingredients
Root beer may also include allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum, yellow dock, honey, clover, cinnamon, licorice, prickly ash bark, quillaia, and yucca. Because of their pleasant flavor and medical properties, some of the root beer ingredients have also occasionally been used in other products such as toothpaste, soap and medicine. This could explain why some people tasting root beer for the first time say that it reminds them of these products.
Due to the wide variety of ingredients possible, the flavor of root beer is widely variable between brands.
In Britain, there are several different root beers, which rose to prominence with the temperance movement in the 20th century. These include sarsaparilla, dandelion and burdock, and ginger beer. They were strongly flavored drinks that people could use as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, and there tended to be a strong local preference for one of these. Well into the 1960s, these outsold cola drinks.
Traditional use
Root beer is a traditional beverage and herbal medicine. Throughout history, the beverage was often alcoholic, usually around 2%. As a medicine it was used for treating cough and mouth sores. Commercially prepared root beer was developed by Charles Elmer Hires on May 16, 1866. He presented root tea powder at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial exhibition. In 1893 he began selling bottled carbonated root beer. There was an upsurgence in the popularity of root beer in the United States during the period of prohibition in the early 20th century as local breweries resorted to brewing non-alcoholic root beer since alcoholic beverages were outlawed.
Commercial soft drink brands
- A&W Root Beer — Cadbury-Schweppes
- Barq's — Coca-Cola
- Boylan Bottling Company
- Carter's — UK only Root Beer
- Dad's Root Beer — Hedinger Brands, LLC
- Fanta
- Faygo
- Fitz's
- Frostie's
- Grandpa Graf's
- Hank's
- Henry Weinhard
- Hires Root Beer
- Hosmer Mountain Root Beer
- IBC Root Beer — Cadbury-Schweppes
- Jones Soda Root Beer
- Mug Root Beer — PepsiCo
- Railroad Root Beer
- Ramblin' Root Beer — Coca-Cola, Replaced in mid-1990s with Barq's
- Route 66 Route Beer — Route 66 Sodas, LLC
- Sarsi — Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc.
- Shasta
- Stewart's Fountain Classics — Cadbury-Schweppes (Winner, 2006 World Cup of Root Beer)
- Sprechers Root Beer —
- Tommyknockers - When under the right lowlight, this brand glows in the dark.
- Vess
- White Rock Root Beer
Commercial brands
Traditional root beer brands include:
- A-Treat Allentown, Pennsylvania
- Abita
- Barrelhead — Cadbury-Schweppes
- Blumers
- Bundaberg Root Beer — Australian brand of brewed drinks
- Berghoff Root Beer
- Frostie
- Frozen Run
- Goose Island
- Hank's Root Beer
- Henry Weinhard's Root Beer
- Old Dominion Root Beer
- Natural Brew Hand Crafted Draft Root Beer contains sweet birch, licorice root, sarsaparilla, cinnamon, clove, anise, wintergreen, and vanilla
- Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer - PA regional brand specializing in red birch beer.
- RICHardson Root Beer
- RipSaw Root Beer - A Michigan root beer bottled in Alpena by The Fletcher Street Brewing Company.
- Route 66 Root Beer
- Snapple
- Sprecher Brewery
- Thomas Kemper
- Tommyknocker's
- Triple XXX
- Virgil's Root Beer — Reed's, Inc.
- Pittsburgh Soda Pop Company - Soda pop syrups for home use.
The Samuel Adams brewery also produces an alcoholic variety in its Brewer/Patriot sampler pack. It is flavored with herbs, spices, honey, and molasses.
See also
References
- Quarantiello, Laura E. The Root Beer Book. 96 pages. Limelight Books: 1997. ISBN 0-936653-78-7.
- Kim Severson, Real Men Drink Root Beer, San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 1999
External links
- The Rootbeer Brothers For the Love of Root Beer.
- anthony's Root Beer barrel Reviews of 321 different brews
- Spike's Root Beer Ratings and Reviews Reviews, photos, and ingredient information on different brands
- Root Beer World History and photos of over 2000 brands, with recipes and discussion forums
- Condensed information about root beer from the Home Brewers Digest 1991-1994
- Root Beer Brands - RootBeer.net
- Luke's Root Beer Pages
- How to Make Root Beer
- Root Beer In The UK