What is rootbeer in the name of tea?

Question

My husband recently heard it on television and asked me that very same question. I have been pondering over it for ages! In all my eighty one years I've never heard of it. Does it originate in America, because it's not for sale in England?

I used to have ginger beer and I loved it with some cherry buns! I can'rt find it in my Tescos anymore, but is it related to rootbeer?

I think I have heard of Carter's...

Answer 1

Philadelphia-born Root Beer is the Oldest Continuously Marketed Soft Drink in the United States.

Created by pharmacist Charles E. Hires, Hires Root Beer began as a delicious herbal tea made of roots, berries, and herbs.
After perfecting the recipe in his drugstore, Hires officially introduced his beverage at the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exhibition, alongside several other new inventions, including Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Remington typewriter and Heinz Ketchup.

McDonald's tried it in the UK, but it didn't catch on.

This may be due to the fact that when many try root beer, they compare the flavour to the smell you get from antiseptics.
(Each brand or recipe will have its own unique taste.)

Root beer is so popular in the US & Canada that you will often find it alongside Coke and Pepsi drinks in fast food restaurants and available to buy in cans or bottles in most supermarkets, but it is relatively unknown in the UK.

Three of the UK's leading supermarkets are known to sell root beer: ASDA, Sainsbury's, Waitrose

It is very refreshing on a hot day when it's ice cold. Disgusting when warm... !

Answer 2

Rootbeer is a type of soda pop/soft drink. It is made froom roots. It is non-alcoholic.

In Britain, there are several different root beers, which rose to prominence with the temperance movement in the 20th century. These include sarsaparilla, dandelion and burdock, and ginger beer. They were strongly flavored drinks that people could use as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, and there tended to be a strong local preference for one of these. Well into the 1960s, these outsold cola drinks.

You may have heard of Carter's? It is sold in the UK.

Rootbeer is good when it is really cold. Rootbeer floats are very good as well- rootbeer with vanilla icecream! Mmm...

Answer 3

There is something that tastes a little like rootbeer called Sassafrass. You boil the roots to make a tea out of it, and the roots can be found almost all over the south east US. I have read reports that this was used as a home remedy for colds back in the early 20th and probably before then, but now, like everything it is considered a carcinogen.
My great grandmother taught me to identify the leaves of the young tree, and the roots are very aromatic. Once boiled it produces a very pinkish red tea. I've always found it rather pleasant, but it must be an aquired taste because few people I have introduced to it, seem to like it at all.
The sassafrass trees leaves are also dried and powdered to creat a thicken agent for soups. This is called powder File (pronoucned) fie-lee. Popular for Cajun dishes.

Answer 4

Don't you have Sarsaparilla over there in England? Or Birch Beer, Root Beer is similar =)

Root Beer is a very good soft drink that was invented a long time ago.. It has a lot of different spices and flavorings to it and makes you burp really well =)

Charles Hires(inventor of Hires Root Beer ) 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.


Here is a link with more information for you...

Answer 5

Have you ever tasted sassafras tea? That's the predominant flavor of root beer.

It's fairly easy to make your own root beer, and there are quite a few distinct brands. As I am writing this, I am drinking "white birch soda", which is similar in taste, but not bad.

The Marriott chain of hotels started out when Willard Marriot and his wife Alice started a root beer stand in Washington DC. It wasn't long before they had four of them. Although they sold A&W Root Beer, the A&W did NOT stand for Alice and Willard.

A "root beer float" is a glass of root beer with a scoop of ice cream floating in it. Add a little bit of chocolate syrup to it, and top it with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry, and you have a "Black Cow".

Answer 6

Back in 1952 as a young boy (15) in America I rummaged through my pockets, gathered all my money together and found I could afford a trip to the local picture house. Better than this, I had enough coppers over to allow me to use one of two drink dispensing machines set at the back of the picture hall. One was coke and one root beer. I knew the taste of coke so stood in a queue for a root beer. My turn came and in went my hard earned cash and out came a stream of liquid into a cardboard cup. I moved to one side to enjoy this new (to me) drink. What a let down - yeugh - a taste similar to what rubbing oils smell like. I put my cup on a handy shelf and moved away keeping my north eye on my drink. It was quickly picked up and swallowed in one smooth gulp. If our American friends can enjoy this awful drink, they can tackle anything liquid........................................

Answer 7

by using fact the unique "root beer" became truthfully a beverage made out of the basis of the "sasparilla vine" or sarsaparilla vine. There for the call root beer,. the unique brew had a alcohol content cloth, subsequently, "beer"

Answer 8

i know that mcdonalds used to sell rootbeer years ago in England , remembering ordering it accidentally once...ewww...it wasnt nice!

Answer 9

I had some once at a McDonalds 20 years ago -UGH! not for me I'm afraid.

Answer 10

root beers an american soda and taste like s**t its like disinfectant