Why is it called "Root Beer"?

Question

It has neither Beer nor Root (at least I hope it has no root)

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

Actually, it does have "root", and that's where the name came from. Root beer has its origins in "small beers." Small beers are a collection of 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. Many of these ingredients are still used in root beer today along with carbonation. (There is more than one root beeer recipe.)

Answer 3

Foamy, frothy, spicy, sassy. Root beer. If an icy cold mug of the creamy, licorice- wintergreen -and-vanilla- blended soda is just your cup of tea on a warm summer day, you have Charles E. Hires of Cumberland County to thank.

Hires almost named his new concoction "root tea." It was, after all, made of tea brewed from roots and herbs. But through a twist of fate, or perhaps just a clever marketing ploy, Hires was persuaded to switch the name to "root beer" to appeal to the large market of hard-drinking Pennsylvania miners. It was a decision that would prove wildly successful, making Hires a wealthy man while providing a major boost to the temperance movement, just gaining momentum in the mid-1800s.

Answer 4

Because it is derived from the root of the beer tree.

Answer 5

well, sorry, dude, but it is made of roots. about 25 different herbs, berries and roots were needed to make the first original Hires Root Beer.

Answer 6

Because the flavor in root beer comes from sassafrass, which I think is a root.

Answer 7

Deb pretty much said it. The main ingredient was licorice root(back in the day) as well as other roots such as marshmallow root, and maybe sassafras root (I'd have to ask my grandma to be sure). It used be called sarsaparilla.

Answer 8

It is made from the roots of the Sassafras tree..

Answer 9

"OOGIE"S" a restrantant out west is known for their root beer, its becauce of the tree, every table has a matt that tells the story

Answer 10

it is derived from the root word for yummy