Root beer began as a sassafras and sarsaparilla remedy, fermented with yeast into a naturally carbonated small beer with low alcohol. This deep dive traces how that pharmacy tonic became the frosty soda we know today.

We follow pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires, a teetotaler who launched his extract at the 1876 Centennial Exposition and chose the name root beer over root tea to appeal to coal miners. Then we cover Barq’s caffeinated recipe, A&W’s frosty mugs, the prohibition loophole that boosted root beer, the 1960 FDA ban on safrole, and the flavor blends and surfactants that rebuilt its taste and foam.

• How Indigenous uses of sassafras and home yeast fermentation shaped early root beer
• Why Charles Hires rebranded root tea as root beer and later bottled a ready-to-drink version
• How Barq’s added caffeine and A&W’s frozen mugs changed the root beer experience
• Why the Volstead Act’s half-percent threshold made root beer a prohibition-era winner
• How the FDA’s safrole ban led to wintergreen, licorice and yucca-based foam replacements