{"id":23603,"date":"2013-07-16T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T07:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=23603"},"modified":"2013-07-13T14:09:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T21:09:40","slug":"why-root-beer-is-called-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/07\/why-root-beer-is-called-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Root Beer Is Called That"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rootbeer\"<\/a>Today I found out<\/a> why root beer is called that when it doesn\u2019t contain any alcohol.<\/p>\n

This popular soft drink pairs well with vanilla ice cream, resulting in root beer floats that are common sights at kids\u2019 birthday parties in North America. The common version that we know today isn\u2019t an alcoholic beverage, but a sweet soda that can be enjoyed by all ages. So why is it called \u201croot beer?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer lies in the history of root beer. Most food historians (yes, they exist) think it likely that the first versions of root beer started out as \u201csmall beer,\u201d a beverage brewed from herbs, bark, and berries. Small beer was popular in medieval Europe, where rampant water pollution had a tendency to make people sick. Brewed drinks like tea and beer were considered the healthier option. The same was true in early Colonial America before safer water facilities could be developed. Small beer contained alcohol\u2014usually between 2% and 12%. The beverage was so commonplace that it turns up in a variety of classical literature, including several of William Shakespeare\u2019s plays and Vanity Fair<\/i> by William Thackery.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few centuries to find pharmacists attempting to create a \u201cmiracle drug\u201d or \u201ccure-all\u201d for people\u2019s ailments in the late 19th<\/sup> century. (Many of the popular carbonated beverages today have their roots in such an attempt.) Historians generally believe that root beer was created on accident by a pharmacist experimenting with a variety of roots, herbs, bark, and berries used in small beer recipes in order to make a brew to cure every sickness. The original \u201croot beer\u201d was sold as a syrup for consumers to water down into a type of cordial. It was both sweet and bitter, probably not unlike cough syrup today, and obviously didn\u2019t take off as a beverage you\u2019d buy for anything other than potentially curing sickness.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that it\u2019s unknown whether or not the original pharmacist commonly credited as the creator of root beer was actually Charles Hires. Obviously, types of root beer had been around for centuries, so he cannot accurately be described as the \u201cinventor.\u201d He was, however, the first one to come up with a recipe that was widely marketable, hence why he is given credit. According to his biography, Hires ran across a delicious tea recipe while he was on his honeymoon, which he decided to replicate and sell as a cure-all. However, the honeymoon story has little evidence to back it up, and it\u2019s likely that Hires was simply experimenting with various ingredients until he came up with a recipe that worked.<\/p>\n

He began selling dry packages of the tea mixture in his drug store, and later developed a liquid concentrate which people could mix with water. Initially, the mixture was called \u201cHires Root Tea\u201d as it was brewed like tea from the dry packages. The packets cost twenty-five cents and supposedly could make up to five gallons of root tea.<\/p>\n

The \u201croot\u201d in the name of Hires\u2019 concoction came from its main ingredient, the sassafras root. Hires changed the name of his product from \u201ctea\u201d to \u201cbeer\u201d sometime before the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. It\u2019s likely that he changed the name to make the beverage more appealing to the working class. In the midst of the second wave of the Temperance Movement, the name caused outrage amongst the movement\u2019s leaders. Hires, on the other hand, advertised root beer as the \u201ctemperance drink,\u201d arguing that it had no alcohol and was a great alternative to alcoholic beverages.\u00a0Thus, \u201croot tea\u201d became \u201croot beer.\u201d (Note: It isn’t entirely accurate to say root beer doesn’t contain alcohol as carbonated beverages like root beer, Pepsi, Coke, Dr. Pepper, etc. do have trace amounts of alcohol, as do many other things, like yogurt, just not any significant amount.)<\/p>\n

The name change turned into a great marketing scheme. At the Philadelphia exposition, Hires handed out free cups of his brew, gaining new customers. It\u2019s likely that marketing the product as \u201cbeer\u201d was the key to its success, and Hires soon was bottling root beer and selling concentrated syrups to soda fountains. He even made \u201croot beer kits\u201d available for individuals to make their own root beer at home.<\/p>\n

Root beer continued to be marketed as a \u201chealth beverage\u201d with the slogan, \u201cJoin Health and Cheer, Drink Hires Root Beer!\u201d Funny enough, in 1960 the United States Food and Drug Administration banned the main ingredient\u2014oil from the sassafras root\u2014because of research proving it was a carcinogen and also contained safrol, which damages the liver- not exactly healthy.\u00a0 Because of this, today root beer typically contains an artificial sassafras flavour rather than the real thing.\u00a0So at this point the whole name is a lie.<\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n