Showing posts with label Charles E. Hires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles E. Hires. Show all posts

Jul 27, 2012

Hires Root Beer

Like several other soft drinks, Hires Root Beer (now owned by Dr Pepper Snapple) was developed by a pharmacist. According to one of the many stories behind the origin of America’s oldest root beer, Philadelphia’s Charles E. Hires discovered an herbal tea made of roots, berries, and herbs while on his honeymoon.
Hires introduced a root beer powder mix that consumers could use to make their own root beer at the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where Alexander Graham Bell showcased his telephone. Charles developed a soda fountain syrup version of his root beer in 1884 and began bottling the drink in 1893. Only Detroit's Vernor's Ginger Ale is older, introduced in 1866 and is now also owned by Dr Pepper Snapple.

His decision to market the beverage as a beer rather than a tea, as he had originally considered doing, appealed to the Pennsylvania miners and added to Hires’ popularity during Prohibition. Incidentally, the R-J on the bottle stood for Root Juices.