Why Is Root Beer Called Root Beer?

Root beer is a popular sweet, carbonated beverage that contains no alcohol. It is called “root beer,” however, because its original formulation was derived from roots and herbs, and the name was chosen to appeal to a specific customer. The primary ingredients in early recipes of the drink included sassafras, wintergreen, and sarsaparilla, which were commonly used by Indigenous North Americans in medicinal teas. These roots and herbs gave the beverage its distinctive flavor, which was carried over into the commercial versions of root beer, although replaced with different ingredients.

Some early root beers contained small amounts of alcohol. The recipes involved cooking the mixtures down to a syruplike consistency, adding more water and a small amount of yeast, and leaving the beverage to ferment. Yet the “beer” part of the drink’s name was a clever marketing move by Charles Elmer Hires, a Philadelphia-based pharmacist who was the first person to successfully sell root beer on a mass scale in the late 1800s. Hires called it “root beer” to make the drink more appealing to coal miners, despite the fact that Hires’s recipe was nonalcoholic.

The addition of carbonation as well as high-fructose corn syrup or sugar, caramel coloring to give the product its trademark dark brown appearance, and small amounts of natural and artificial flavorings to traditional root beers led to the modern, fizzy version we know today, but the name “root beer” stuck as a nod to its origins.