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Root Beer is a sweetened carbonated beverage which, despite its name, has little to nothing to do with actual beer. Nonetheless, people throughout the world enjoy it so enthusiastically you could be forgiven for thinking it contains alcohol. And while there are dozens of different brands of the ol’ sarsaparilla, a handful of iconic sodas have been sitting at the top of the heap for the past century. But which one is the best?
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Today, we're going to take a look at which root beer is the definitive root beer
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Root beer has nothing to do with beer. In fact, it contains no alcohol at all
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It does, on the other hand, sometimes contain roots. The beverage, which was invented in North America
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gets its distinctive taste from flavorings that usually include things like sassafras root, wintergreen, sarsaparilla, birch, and juniper
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Nobody is sure exactly who invented root beer, but many suspect it was derived from medicinal root teas made by Native Americans
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Those teas contained many of the same leaves, fruits, barks, fruits, and flowers that came to define the taste of root beer
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And the earliest root beers were also sold as medicinal. The first person to successfully market the drink was a pharmacist named Charles Elmer Hires, who worked out of Philadelphia in the late 1800s
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He's the guy who came up with the name root beer, and his products laid the groundwork for the root beer business we know today
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which is mostly dominated by big corporate brands like A&W, Barks, Mug, and IBC
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So, what's the definitive root beer? Which beverage is the McDonald's? No, the Taylor Swift, a root beer. The brand that immediately
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pops in your head when you think of ordering one. Obviously, sales is a big part determining that
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and when it comes to sales, A&W, IBC, and Barks have traditionally been the leaders of the pack
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In fact, in recent decades, right around 80% of all root beer sales in the United States were
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accounted for with just those three brands And of those three brands A has long been the single biggest seller Or at least it was until 2023 when its numbers were surpassed by the sales of the prebiotic root beer beverage made by Olipop That may
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be because Olipop claims to be more than just another root beer, touting all kinds of health
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and digestive benefits the brand attributes to its use of botanicals, prebiotics, and plant fibers
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as ingredients. But being the best-selling brand doesn't necessarily make it the definitive brand
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There's also taste to consider. And while that's an extremely subjective area
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our admittedly unscientific survey of taste test found Olipop often falling in the middle of the
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pack. Sprechter Root Beer, made by the Sprechter Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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was a name we found near the top of many lists, as was Barks. But the root beer that appears at
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or near the top of the most taste lists is, drumroll please, A&W. Huh, that was a little
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anticlimactic. This isn't to say that everyone loves A&W. Some critics complain of its excessive
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sweetness and the inferiority of the bottled product compared to the root beer on tap at
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an A&W restaurant. But overall, a good solid plurality of taste testers seem to place A&W
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the most recognized brand in the US, at the top of their list for its smooth flavor and its creamy
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texture. Of course, there are other great root beers, particularly if you're okay spending a
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little extra on some craft soda brands. We recommend trying Sioux City Root Beer
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Virgil's Handcrafted Root Beer, Stewart's Root Beer, WBC Chicago-style Root Beer, Bundaberg Root Beer, and Dr. Brown's, among others. But if you're looking for the definitive
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it, Rude Beer. The letters you need to remember are A and W. They're right there on the side of the can