Especially now that safrole is banned. I suspect there might be two answers. The closest probably being some hand-crafted root beer only available in limited markets but I’m also curious what national brands ae closest to the original flavor like I would get in the late 19th century.
IANA expert, but I suspect that no two of the hundreds of local “root beers” of the late 1900s tasted much like the others. Broadly similar maybe. But I bet the spread of flavors of root beer then is larger than that of colas today.
But it is an interesting question and I’d be real interested in hearing from anyone who does have an answer about any particularly legitimately old-fashioned flavors.
I think @LSLGuy is correct. It’s not like today’s common soft drinks are consistent in flavor across brands. A lot of root beer was produced during Prohibition to keep former beer bottlers in business. They were likely more consistent in ingredients and maybe could be researched. In addition there was no need to use actual sassafras containing safroles either, sarsaparilla and other flavorings were used in addition to the many more common flavorings found in many soft drinks. Other similar soft drink flavors like Birch Beer also vary widely in flavor and ingredients.
Hansen’s is one of the few modern root beers that uses real sassafras (with the safrole distilled out). So that may be as close as you get without brewing it yourself. Of course, “most authentic tasting” does not necessarily equal “best tasting”.
Right- what cola is the “most authentic”? Coke? Pepsi? RC? Jolt? Shasta? Faygo? Jarritos?
They’re all broadly similar, but with considerable variation between brands. Barq’s is probably the oldest brand still commonly available, but I don’t know how true to its original formula it is.
The ban on safrole containing was in 1960, so maybe some of our seasoned Dopers might have opinions about which root beers do or don’t taste like they used to.
Can’t answer the question. All I can say is that the A&W that one could get at the drive-thru window in the 60s was the bomb.
Something else that can affect the flavor: Most commercial root beers do not contain caffeine, with the exception of Barq’s.
I must have tasted A&W root beer in the late 50s. It’s also doubtful I would have noticed any difference in taste a couple of years later when I was still very young. We do have one of the few remaining A&W stands nearby, open only seasonally, but we’ll stop by at least once a year and skip the Sonic right down the road even though somebody’s father was mad at the A&W for not coming out to his car to take an order when he blinked his lights. Also because an A&W root beer float is way better.
I was in an A&W recently so of course I got a draught root beer. Yuck! Tasted like wintergreen soda.
A&W is thriving in Canada.
Oh, yeah. That creamy goodness, the frothy head and all served in a 5 pound glass mug with ice on it. I know we don’t like to promote other forums but the Reddit root beer group is thriving. There are a lot of root beers out there.
Locally I enjoy the home brewed root beer at Fatheads Brewery in North Olmsted. I still cannot figure out one flavor note, though! And I don’t understand why they serve it in a plastic tumbler. They should use the mugs like they have for beer.
At the drive-thru, it was handed out in a one quart cone-shaped cardboard container. We’d cruise the gut, slurping ice-cold goodness.
I usually buy A&W at Food Basics, but if I want a Premium Brand, I go for Barq’s.
One my earliest memories is our rare trips to the A&W drive-in. We never got food, just root beer. I always had to have a float. It came, as mentioned, in an icy, heavy glass mug. I sat on Mom’s lap in the front seat, the glove compartment lid dropped to serve as my table.
On very rare occasions we would get a gallon(?) to go, which came in a large glass jug.
mmm
One memory of my early childhood is getting in the family Nash and driving down to the area around St Croix, WI, where there was an A&W on the edge of a park with a WWI artillery piece. We always had root beer and barbecued beef sandwiches (I loved those!) before my brother and I went off to play around the cannon.
Man, now I’m jonesin’ for some birch beer.
Oh, yes, the A&W float. Wonderful stuff.
We must have done the same thing a couple of times, because we had one or two of those gallon jugs that we used around the farm.
The A&Ws around here still sell it in heavy frosted mugs, but use 2 litre plastic bottles for bulk purchases. Haven’t seen the glass jugs in a long time.
Snapple, when they made fizzy drinks (I think they stopped altogether) had “Tru Root Beer” which was almost clear and to my memory tasted better than A&W. They made a few others including a cola which was okay yet not remarkably so.