As a kid, we were rarely allowed to drink pop at home.

For one, we couldn't afford it.

Secondly, my mom said it was junk and not healthy, so when we did get to have it, it was a treat (or we were at a friend's house whose parents weren't as strict as my mom).

My venture into the world of soft drinks was limited mostly to Faygo, and while there's a special place in my heart for Faygo, my childhood tastebuds were blown away when I first sampled A&W root beer, with all its creamy deliciousness in that frosty mug.  Ah, the memories flow back...

Fast forward to today, where I often forget about Root Beer and its deliciousness.  I had a chat with a buddy over drinks last week and we were talking about Root Beer with bourbon which got me thinking:  What is everyone's favorite?  For me,  it was A&W, hands down.  He liked IBC.  Both are great, but different.

Root Beer itself was invented in the 1800s.  It originally contained sassafras for its signature taste, until it was banned in the 1960s.  While today's root beer mostly contains trash ingredients, it's still damn tasty.  In fact, global root beer sales topped $1 billion in 2024, and are projected to be nearly $1.5 billion by 2030. 

Native Americans originally used sassafras as a medicinal herb to treat all sorts of ailments.  Root bark from the sassafras trees were distilled into a tincture to treat fevers, rheumatism and to help when you have diarrhea-cha-cha-cha. 

Root Beer is credited to Charles Elmer Hines for turning it into a soda pop that we know today.  He was infatuated with the drink and it led to him founding the Hines Root Beer Company, which you may recognize.  Sassafras itself gave the spicy kick many loved about root beer, until the FDA said a coupond called safrole (by product of the root and bark) caused cancer, so it was banned. 

According to a recent poll, here are the top 10 Root Beer brands from a recent taste test online:

10:  Mug / Faygo (tie)

9:  A&W

8: Stewart's

7: IBC

6: Virgil's

5: Boylan

4: Barq's (it has bite!)

3: Hank's

2:  Sprecher

1. Dad's

Damn, now I am thirsty for some!