[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: 8-22 Happy Birthday Jamieson! and Root Beer

[Meredith Wilson]

As I add to the list...
Many Happy Returns, Jamieson!  Hope it's a wonderful day.


**Ps. can some kind soul enlighten me as to what root beer is? (which 
**root is it made from? anyway related to ginger beer? does it taste 
**nice?)

Root Beer is one of my favorite flavors, and I believe it's made from the
Sassafrass root.  I know if you find wild Sassafrass and chew on the leaves
it tastes like root beer...

Ok, I went online and this is what it said:
(Of course, you never know what is actually true online, but it's a
start...)

MEDICINAL ORIGINS 

Most historians believe that the invention of an actual root beer recipe
happened by pure accident, thanks in part to an inventive pharmacist, eager
to create a miracle drug. Though people had been drinking an herbal home
brewed variety for years, root beer was still just an experiment for the
creative and inventive. In 1870, an unknown pharmacist toying with a handful
of roots, berries and herbs, came up with a recipe for root beer which
consisted of juniper, wintergreen, spikenard, pipsissewa, sarsaparilla,
vanilla beans, hops, dog grass, birch bark and licorice. The original drink
was quite medicinal in nature, tasting both bitter and sweet. Even though
the pharmacist offered the drink to the public as a cure-all, it was never
marketed or well-received. 


HIRES COMPANY 

Meanwhile, Charles Hires, also a pharmacist, was on his honeymoon around the
same time when he discovered an herbal tea he simply could not part with.
After taking the recipe of herbs, berries and roots home to Philadelphia
with him, he began selling a packaged dry mixture to the public made from
many of the same ingredients as the original herbal tea. Well received,
Hires soon developed a liquid concentrate blended together from more than 25
herbs, berries and roots. The public loved the new drink and as a result,
Hires introduced commercial root beer to the public in 1876 at the
Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. In no time, it became a popular drink of
its day. By 1893, the Hires family sold bottled versions of their well-known
brew, sealing their place in rootbeer history. 



No matter which version of root beer history is true, one thing is for
certain: Rootbeer is an original brew, predating colas and other popular
sodas. 

--Mer