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Root Beer |
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Lindsey Brown
2007-08
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Project Report
Introduction
Root
Beer was created before cola, sports drinks and even before
old-fashioned cream soda. Did you know that root beer is actually beer
with roots in it? Root beer is very sweet. In the 19th century people
called root beer the miracle drink. The cool thing is that root beer
has always been popular!
Sassafras Root beer’s main
ingredient is sassafras. Sassafras is found in dry sandy loams. It
starts out as greenish-yellow flowers, and then it grows leaves, then
dark blue fruits. Some people believe that Bartholemuel Gonsnold an
English explorer discovered sassafras in 1602. Sassafras bark and
sassafras root have been used as medicine. It has been used as tea,
flavoring for soups, and as a condiment.
It is still used in the south to make soups thicker, and sassafras oil is used for soaps and perfumes.
Brand
names There are a lot of root beer brand names. There is a root
beer brand name for every letter of the alphabet except for “x”. There
is a brand name for root beer called Dads there is a brand name called
IBC there is even a brand name called Yankee Doodle!
Soda Timeline
The
first soft drinks came out in the 17th century. The drinks were made
out of water, lemon juice and honey. In the year 1676, the
“compagnie de limondiers” from Paris were given monopoly on selling
lemonade drinks. In the year 1767 “Englishman doctor”, Mr. Joseph
Preistly, created the first glass of carbonated water,
In 1798
“soda water” was created. After that, in the year 1810 “imitation
mineral water” was created then 9 years later, in 1819, “soda
fountains” were created and Samuel Fahnestock patented them. A very
important date was in 1835, when the first bottled soda water in the
U.S. was created, 15 years after that Ginger ale was created in
Ireland, then 10 years later in 1861, people started calling mineral
water “pop”. Finally in 1876 ROOT BEER WAS CREATED! Then to top it all
of, in 1892 “William Painter created the crown bottle cap.
Mug Root Beer
Mug
root beer became available in the 1950’s. One day a company called the
Belfast Beverage Company changed their name to “Mug Old Fashioned root
beer.” In the 1960’s, “Sugar Free Mug’ was invented. It was a low
cal soda with the yummy flavor of Mug root beer. In 1986, the Pepsi
Company bought Mug Old-Fashioned root beer. Today Mug is still popular
and has that old fashioned flavor.
Conclusion
Root
beer has had a colorful past since it was created in 1876. It’s
founding ingredient, Sassafras oil is still used to make soaps and
perfumes. Now that brand names have taken over, Sassafras is no longer
used as an ingredient. There is actually a brand name for every
letter in the alphabet except for x. Mug root beer was marketed in the
1950’s. However, George Allen Hires created Hires root
beer, not Charles E. Hires. He just helped market it.
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Who I Interviewed And What I Learned
For my personal
interview I interviewed Philip Greg Hires. Mr. Hires has been a
Counselor for 35 years and he graduated from the University of Missouri
with a master’s degree in social work. Mr. Hires told me that his
great Grandfather, George Allen Hires created “non-alcoholic extracts”
Greg hires also told me that he had never met George Allen hires.
He said that his dad would go to his grandma’s house to eat five
gallons of ice cream on Sunday that was seasoned with the
“non-alcoholic extracts” for a taste test.
Hires root beer was
marketed at the world’s fair in1876. Root beer was syrup that was added
to soda water that was called a health drink and they added the
extracts to make a better flavor for the “healthy” soda water.
A
lot of changes have occurred with root beer in recent years. It
used to only be served at soda fountains, and now we can take the drink
home. In Mr. Hires’ great grandfather’s case, his cousin Charles
E. Hires was involved with marketing. One of
the ways they did
this was to sell the bottle of extract with a recipe where you can add
sugar and yeast to it then you can just bottle it. Lots of people
remember making their own root beer. It is very different from
now because now you can just buy a can.
One of the original
ingredients is sassafras witch came to find out that it is not good for
you, so now the flavor is produced artificially.
“The
problems facing root beer companies today are Competition, there are a
lot of choices of soft drinks out there, and carbonation isn’t thought
to be so good for you anymore. Water is something that is being
bought and sold these days. I am sure my great grandfather never
would have dreamed that someday people would be buying bottled water.
That’s absurd- water is free. There are also a variety of juices,
energy drinks, etc.” Mr. Hires said.
“The future of root
beer? People will like it and it will hang around. In the
case of Hires root beer, it’s not even bottled locally anymore.
There are very few places you can get it now. But if you can’t
get it here, it is still easy to get other types of Root beer. My
grandparents bottled up a whole bunch of extracts and traveled across
the country selling them to candy makers, and we still have some of the
original bottles.” Mr. Hires told me.
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The Products I Created
I
created a buzzer board. It took a very long time to finish but I now
have it done. To make my buzzer board I had to pick a piece of poster
board, then I had to draw a soda can to put on the poster board, then I
had to type questions and answers on the computer. After that I had to
cut the questions and answers out, then I had to cut backings for them,
after that I had to glue them onto the poster board. Then I had to
punch holes in the poster board, then I had to put tinfoil from the
question to the correct answer, after that I had
to tape the tinfoil so that it
would not move. That’s how I created my product.
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Bibliography Hires, Greg. Personal Interview. January 15, 2008.
“Introduction
to Pop- the history of soft drinks” October 16, 2007
http://inventors.about.com/od/foodrelatedinventions/a/soft_drinks.htm
Le Strange, Richard. “History of herbal plants.” New York: Arco
Publishing Company, 1977. P.2.
“Mug.” December 18, 2007/ <http://www.mugrootbeer.com>
“The History of pop timeline.” Introduction to pop. October 16,
2007 http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa091699.htm.
“Root Beer brands.” Root Beer Brand names. October 16, 2007
<http//rootbeer.net/rootbeerbrands.html>
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