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The Roots of Root Beer

Root beer
Wild sarsaparilla.

Soft drinks are the very model of industrially processed food. No one is surprised that they contain artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. But people might be surprised that root beer, one of the most iconic of the fizzy drinks, was originally made from actual roots. Even more surprising, the main ingredients of those natural root beers have been banned by the FDA. I love root beer, and this summer I resolved to dig up the roots of this drink – both literally and figuratively.

Early root beers were medicinal tonics, each combining its own idiosyncratic blend of roots. Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) and Jamaican sarsaparilla (Smilax ornata) were especially popular. In the nineteenth century, enterprising pharmacists began sweetening these drinks, lightly fermenting or carbonating them, and marketing them as flavorful alternatives to alcohol. Sales took off, brands were built, and fortunes were made.

Then, in the 1960s, everything changed. Laboratory tests showed that an oil found in both sassafras and sarsaparilla, called safrole, caused liver cancer in rodents. Shortly thereafter, the FDA prohibited the commercial use of both plants, and root beer companies had to change their recipes. Today, root beers commonly use artificial flavors to mimic the spiciness of these traditional tonics.

Many home brewers continued to make traditional root beers. They criticized the FDA’s decision, purporting that the laboratory animals were given far more safrole, proportionally, than a person would ever consume in real life. They noted other safrole-containing foods, such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and star anise, that the FDA did not ban. They pointed to alcohol and artificial food dyes; those, they argued, posed even greater cancer risks.

Still, evidence of safrole’s harmful effects has continued to mount. When a European commission recommended a similar prohibition in 2002, they cited dozens of studies that replicated or extended the original test results. Scientists now have a good idea of how safrole’s byproducts damage DNA in liver cells. It is fair to assume that consumption of these plants should be approached with caution.

For my experiment, I prepared a half gallon of root beer flavored with both safrole-laden sassafras and a replacement for Jamaican sarsaparilla: a wild local plant called wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis).

Confusingly, wild sarsaparilla is not even in the same family as Jamaican sarsaparilla, which is a viny greenbrier native to Mexico and Central America.

Wild sarsaparilla is an unassuming herb. Between 1 and 2 feet tall, its solitary stem diverges into three compound leaflets. Each leaflet is further divided into five sub-leaflets with toothed edges. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) and hickory seedlings (Carya sp.) are similar in appearance, but both of these are woody stemmed, and poison ivy’s leaflets occur in threes (not fives). Hidden under the leaves of wild sarsaparilla, like a person huddling under an umbrella, are the plant’s leafless flower stalks. Tiny, greenish white flowers grow from three globular flowerheads. They look like a trio of fireworks caught in mid explosion.

For my root beer, I gathered wild sarsaparilla’s long, mildly aromatic, underground rhizomes that grow horizontally just an inch or two below the surface. Gathering was quick and easy. I uprooted the rhizomes with a rounded digging stick and my fingers. You can see the latest version of my recipe here. It is still a work in progress. The combination of sassafras, ginger, and licorice was excellent. Disappointingly, the wild sarsaparilla root conferred little flavor of its own.

I am new to fermenting, and experienced brewers would find my methods lacking, but I learned a good deal in the process. The next time, I’ll carbonate the beverage instead of fermenting it. Also, I’ll sidestep the question of safrole altogether and replace the sassafras and sarsaparilla with black birch bark and wintergreen.

People often speak as if there is nothing new in foraging, as if our knowledge of wild plants comes only from the distant past and that we are merely trying to emulate some long-lost foraging golden age. But root beer’s story reminds us that foraging is a living tradition. We honor the past, but change what we do as we learn more, experiment, and innovate. À votre santé.

Ingredients

  • 15g (1/2 cup) shaved sassafras root bark (or 1/2 cup shaved black birch bark)
  • 12g (1/4 cup) wild sarsaparilla root (or 1/4 cup chopped wintergreen leaves)
  • 18g (1/4 cup) fresh shaved ginger root
  • 1/2 stick cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp coriander
  • black birch twigs cut to 10” lengths (enough to fill a half-gallon jar)
  • 2 bags licorice root tea
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp. molasses
  • 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1. Pour 6 cups hot (not boiling) water over the black birch twigs and let steep overnight.

2. Add sarsaparilla root, ginger root, cinnamon, and coriander into a pot with 6 cups of cold water.

3. Heat the mixture and boil for 15 minutes.

4. Reduce heat and add the sassafras root. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

5. Remove pot from the heat. Add licorice root teabags. Steep for another 15 to 20 minutes without heating.

6. Carefully strain about 4 cups of the mixture through a jelly bag or a clean cloth into a half-gallon jar.

7. Stir in sugar and molasses until dissolved.

8. Strain 3 cups of the birch twig infusion into the mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature.

9. Activate the yeast and add it to the mixture. Allow it to sit (uncovered) for 12 hours.

CAUTION: This recipe uses very little yeast, but all fermentation releases carbon dioxide. As the mixture ferments, gas may cause a sealed container to explode, which is why it’s important to leave the jar uncovered. (And, of course, it also produces small amounts of alcohol.)

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