Hires Root Beer

Hires Root Beer is a soft drink which is currently marketed by Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and shares the title of America's oldest soft drink with Detroit's Vernor's ginger ale.

Hires Root Beer was created by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires on May 16, 1866, who gave it the name root beer rather than herbal tea. It debuted in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was sold to the public in bottles in 1893.

Hires' choice of name for his product caused a problem: the word "beer" drew the wrath of the temperance movement. He had his root beer tested by a laboratory, and trumpeted their conclusion that a glass of his root beer contained less alcohol than a loaf of bread.

Hires Root Beer was promoted as "The Temperance Drink" and "the Greatest Health-Giving Beverage in the World." Hires advertised aggressively, believing "doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does."

Hires Root Beer kits, available in the United States and Canada from the early 1900s through the 1980s allowed consumers to mix an extract with water, sugar and yeast to brew their own root beer. However, most consumption was of pre-bottled root beer.

By 1989, it had been acquired by Cadbury Schweppes, now Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

The manufacturer considers it the longest continuously made soft drink in the United States; however, Vernor's ginger ale (currently also owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group) also makes that claim.

References

*Hires, C.E. 1913. Seeing opportunities. "American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record". American Druggist Publ. Co., New York. ISSN 0099-7366.
*Quarantiello, L. 1997. "The Root Beer Book: A Celebration of America's Best-Loved Soft Drink". Tiare Publ., Lake Geneva, WI. ISBN 978-0936653785.

External links

* [http://www.drpeppersnapplegroup.com/brands/hires/ Official site]