Let's talk about Beer...

Root beer that is...

I know it's Friday and it's cat or orchid or pet or picture day but I'm feeling different (Yes, when is that something new).

It is true I am mainly a Diet Pepsi kind of girl, but I love root beer, especially root beer floats. In days long ago A&W was my favorite root beer. However, in my quest for the best root beer either in an iced mug or accompanied by ice cream I have found a new favorite.






Jones Soda Company has all kinds of crazy flavors as well as other types of drinks, I admit I stick strictly to the root beer though other family members enjoy some of their other products. Aubrey is a fan of the Blue bubblegum.

The history of root beer is interesting, according to about.com:

Charles Hires was a Philadelphia pharmacist who according to his biography discovered a recipe for a delicious herbal tea while on his honeymoon. The pharmacist began selling a dry version of the tea mixture and also began working on a liquid version of the same tea. The result of was a combination of over twenty-five herbs, berries and roots that Charles Hires used to flavor a carbonated soda water drink. The Charles Hires' version of the root beer beverage was first introduced to the public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial exhibition.

.....However, the origins of root beer can be traced further back in history. Root beer has its origins in what is referred to as "small beers." Small beers are a collection of local beverages (some alcoholic, some not) made during colonial times in America from a variety of herbs, barks, and roots that included: birch beer, sarsparilla beer, ginger beer and root beer. Ingredients in early root beers included allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum chips, sarsaparilla, spicewood, wild cherry bark, yellow dock, prickly ash bark, sassafras root, vanilla beans, hops, dog grass, molasses and licorice. (makes you just want to say "um no thanks" to some of those doesn't it?)

Many of these ingredients are still used in root beer today along with carbonation. There is no one recipe.

Another famous brand of root beer is A & W Root Beer, now the number one selling root beer in the world. A & W Root Beer was founded by Roy Allen, who began marketing root beer in 1919.

In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned sassafras as a potential carcinogen, however, a method was found to remove the oil from sassafras. Only the oil is considered dangerous. Sassafras is one of the main ingredients in root beer.

So there you have it, more about root beer than some of you probably want to know but, next time you enjoy a frosty mug or a root beer float you can amaze your friends and family with your root beer knowledge. Maybe next Friday we can cover Purple Cows or Fluffernutters......

:-)