Root Beer is a carbonated beverage originally brewed using sassafras. Root beer, popularized in North America, comes in two forms: alcoholic and soft drink. The historical root beer was analogous to small beer, in that the process provided a drink with a very low alcohol content. In spite of roots being used as the source of many soft drinks in many countries throughout the world (and even alcoholic beverages/beers), the name root beer is almost unused outside of the United States, Canada and the Philippines. Most other countries have their own indigenous versions of root-based beverages and small beers but with different names and branding.

December 4 is International Root Beer Day (IRBD). IRBD was first celebrated on December 4, 1995 in Venezuela with American root beer imported from Curaçao.

Ingredients

There are hundreds of root beer brands in the United States, produced in every U.S. state, and there is no standardized recipe. The primary ingredient, artificial sassafras flavoring, is complemented with other flavors, common ones being vanilla, wintergreen, cherry tree bark, liquorice root, sarsaparilla root, nutmeg, acacia, anise, molasses, cinnamon, clove and honey.

Homemade root beer is usually made from concentrate, though it can also be made from actual herbs and roots. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic root beers have a thick and foamy head when poured, often enhanced through the addition of yucca extract.

Although most mainstream brands are caffeine-free (including A&W Root Beer, Dad's Root Beer, and Mug Root Beer), at least one brand of root beer, Barq's contains caffeine, although Barq's does produce a caffeine-free variety sold in Utah and areas of rural Pennsylvania for the caffeine-averse Mormon and Amish communities. Additionally, Bawls highly caffeinated beverages offers "G33K B33R" caffeinated root beer.

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See also "root beer" in the Epicurious Food Dictionary. (Root Beer created in the mid-1800s by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Hires...)