By: Matthew Patterson

     Root Beer was first invented in the 1820's. It's creator, Charles Hires, worked as a pharmacist in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania. He began working at the age of 12, and opened his own pharmacy once he turned 16. It is rumored that Hires discovered a similar beverage to his later "Root Beer" while on his honeymoon in New Jersey. A women who was a hostess at the hotel that he and his wife were staying at was serving a so-called "Root Tea". Hires soon after began selling a dry version of the tea mixture and also began creating a liquid version. After mixing over 25 different herbs, berries, and roots, he added the end product to a corbonated soda water drink. Charles Hires began selling his offical Root Beer Drink at the 1876 Philidelphia Centennial Exhibition. From that point, Root Beer became one of America's most popular beverages.

  Root Beer has its origins in what is referred to as "small beers". Small beers are made up of a collection of beverages made during colonial times in America using a variety of herbs, barks, and root which include: birch beer, sarsaparilla beer, ginger beer, and of course root beer. Some of the ingredients in the earlier versions of root beer include: allspice, birch bark, ginger, sassafras root, vanilla beans, molasses, etc. Some historians believe tht root beer was originally invented to be a remedy for disease, and that was the reason for the hefty amount of herbs and other natural ingredients. Today, the two main ways to make root beer are from extract or from scratch.

"Brewing Root Beer." Brewing Root Beer. Ed. Terafan Greydragon. Nottinghill Coill Collegium. 27 Jan. 2009 <http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewing_root_beer.html>. 

Bellis, Mary. "The History of Root Beer." The History of Root Beer 11. 16 Jan 2009 <http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_root_beer.htm

Artist Unknown, "Encyclopedia Rootannica." 11. 16 Jan 2009