Root Beer

Root beer is a carbonated, usually non-alcoholic beverage native to North America, traditionally flavored with the root or bark of the sassafras tree or with sarsaparilla, along with a blend of other roots, herbs and spices. It grew out of earlier home-brewed small beers made from various roots and herbs by colonial era Americans and Indigenous peoples, and was commercialized and popularized from the late nineteenth century onward, notably through Charles Hires marketing of a root beer extract. Modern commercial root beer in the United States is typically brewed without sassafras root, following health regulations restricting the sassafras compound safrole, and instead relies on artificial or other natural flavorings to approximate its distinctive taste.