Root Beer
A carbonated soft drink flavored with sassafras and other roots, giving a distinctive spiced-vanilla flavor.
Origin
The United States, evolving from Indigenous and colonial-era sassafras and sarsaparilla beverages, commercialized starting in 1875-76 by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Hires.
History
Indigenous peoples across the Americas had long used sassafras and sarsaparilla roots for medicinal and culinary infusions, a tradition colonial settlers adapted into homemade "root tea" beverages. Charles Hires, a Philadelphia pharmacist, developed a commercial version after reportedly tasting a homemade root tea on his 1875 honeymoon, and he debuted his product, rebranded as "root beer" (likely to sound more appealing to working-class drinkers than "root tea"), at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, selling powdered mix packets that made a gallon at a time. Root beer became a defining American soda, and in cocktails it's both a mixer (root beer floats spiked with cream liqueurs or vanilla vodka) and a flavor reference point for whiskey-and-cola-style drinks wanting more spice complexity.
Flavor profile
Sweet and herbal, with sassafras, wintergreen, vanilla, and other root and spice notes.
Tasting notes
A complex blend of herbal roots and warm spice sits under root beer's sweetness, distinctly different from cola's simpler caramel-vanilla profile, working especially well with vanilla-forward liqueurs and cream in a boozy float.
Substitutes
- Cola, for a different but comparably dark, sweet soda mixer.
- Sarsaparilla soda, for a closely related, slightly different herbal-root flavor.
- Dr Pepper, for a different but comparably spiced dark soda substitute.
