 | |
| Type | Root Beer |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Keurig Dr Pepper |
| Country of origin | 117-119 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Introduced | 1876 |
| Color | Caramel |
| Related products | A&W Root Beer, Dad's Root Beer, Mug Root Beer, Barq's |
| Website | www |
Hires Root Beer was an American brand of root beer that was manufactured by Keurig Dr Pepper. Introduced in 1876, it was one of the longest continuously made soft drinks in the United States. [1]
Hires Root Beer was created by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires. The official story is that Hires first tasted root beer, a traditional American beverage dating back to the colonial era, while on his honeymoon in 1875. [2] However, historical accounts vary and the actual time and place of the discovery may never be known. [3]
By 1876, Hires had developed his own recipe and was marketing 25-cent packets of powder which each yielded one US gallon (3.8 L) of root beer. At Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition in 1876, he cultivated new customers by giving away free glasses of it. Hires marketed it as a solid concentrate of 16 wild roots and berries. It claimed to purify the blood and make rosy cheeks. [4]
In 1884, he began producing a liquid extract and a syrup for use in soda fountains, and was soon shipping root beer in kegs and producing a special fountain dispenser called the "Hires Automatic Munimaker." In 1890, the Charles E. Hires Company incorporated and began supplying Hires root beer in small bottles [5] [6] claiming over a million bottles sold by 1891. [7]
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." [2]
One of the major ingredients of root beer was sassafras oil, a plant root extract used in beverages for its flavor and presumed medicinal properties. The medicinal properties of root beer are emphasized in the advertising slogan, "Join Health and Cheer; Drink Hires Rootbeer". The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned sassafras oil in 1960 because it contains the carcinogen and liver-damaging chemical safrol. However, a process was later discovered by which the harmful chemical could be removed from sassafras oil while preserving the flavor. [8]
Prior to the move to "natural and artificial flavors", Hires ingredients included carbonated water, sugar, dextrose, caramel, plant extracts of birch, sassafras, licorice, vanilla, spikenard, sarsaparilla, hops, wintergreen, pipsissewa, ginger and flavor.
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 bottled root beer.
A mid-1960s' advertising campaign featured jingles by jazz singer Blossom Dearie, wherein she sang in a Betty-Boop voice: "Hires Root Beer! Hires Rootin' Tootin' Root Beer! Hires Rootin'-Tootin' Rabble-Rousin', lion-roarin', Roman-candle-lightin' Root Beer!"
Consolidated Foods bought the company from the Hires family in 1960, and sold it two years later to Crush International. Procter & Gamble bought Crush in 1980, and sold it to Cadbury Schweppes in 1989. Cadbury divested its soft drinks arm in 2008, and the beverage company renamed itself Dr Pepper Snapple Group.
In Canada, the Hires brand is no longer sold by Keurig Dr Pepper; retailers and vending machines have replaced it with Pepsi-owned Mug Root Beer since the 1990s and DPSG markets Stewarts Root Beer in Canada. The Hires brand is now offered by Canada Dry Motts as an alcoholic drink, Hires Root Beer and vodka. [9]
Hires' availability in the U.S. was phased out as other Dr. Pepper owned brands like A&W Root Beer were promoted on behalf of the same company. [10]
As of 2023 [update] , the Keurig Dr. Pepper web page no longer lists Hires among its list of brands on the all products listing search on its website. [11]
7 Up or Seven Up is an American brand of lemon-lime–flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The brand and formula are owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, although the beverage is internationally distributed by PepsiCo except the UK where it is distributed by Britvic, PepsiCo's designated UK distributor.
Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree Sassafras albidum or the vine of Smilax ornata as the primary flavor. Root beer is typically, but not exclusively, non-alcoholic, caffeine-free, sweet, and carbonated. Like cola, it usually has a thick and foamy head. A common use is to add vanilla ice cream to make a root beer float.
Yoo-hoo is an American brand of chocolate-flavored beverage that was created by Natale Olivieri in Garfield, New Jersey, in 1928 and is currently manufactured by Keurig Dr Pepper. As of 2019, the drink is primarily made from water, high-fructose corn syrup and whey.
Stewart's Fountain Classics is an American brand of premium soft drinks. Stewart's are nostalgic "old fashioned" fountain sodas, having originated at the Stewart's Restaurants, a chain of root beer stands started in 1924 by Frank Stewart in Mansfield, Ohio. In 1990, the bottling rights to Stewart's were acquired by the Cable Car Beverage Corporation. Cream Soda and Ginger Beer flavors were introduced in 1992. Other flavors have been added since then. In November 1997 Cable Car Beverage Corporation was purchased by Triarc. Cadbury Schweppes PLC acquired the Stewart's brands in 2000 along with Snapple and Mistic Brands for $1.45 billion.
Crush is a brand of carbonated soft drinks owned and marketed internationally by Keurig Dr Pepper, originally created as an orange soda, Orange Crush. Crush competes with Coca-Cola's Fanta. It was created in 1911 by beverage and extract chemist Neil C. Ward. Most flavors of Crush are caffeine-free.
Canada Dry is a Canadian-American brand of soft drinks founded in Toronto, Ontario, in 1904, and owned since 2008 by the American company Dr Pepper Snapple. For over 100 years, Canada Dry has been known mainly for its ginger ale, though the company also manufactures a number of other soft drinks and mixers. Although it originated in Canada, Canada Dry is now produced in many countries such as the United States, Panama, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Turkey and in a number of countries of Europe and the Middle East.
Sussex Golden Ginger Ale is a "golden" ginger ale originally bottled in the town of Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada. It is produced by Canada Dry Motts, a subsidiary of Keurig Dr Pepper. The beverage is retailed in Canada's Maritime Provinces and northern areas in the state of Maine.
Sun Drop is a citrus-flavored soft drink produced by Keurig Dr Pepper with a yellowish-green color. Among soft drinks, it is known for its high caffeine content. Orange juice concentrate is an ingredient in the drink. Bottled Sun Drop uses real sugar cane, which contains some "pulp" giving Sun Drop it's distinct flavor and appearance. Sun Drop competes primarily against the Coca-Cola Company's Mello Yello and PepsiCo's Mountain Dew.
An ice cream float or ice cream soda, also known as a spider in Australia and New Zealand, is a chilled beverage that consists of ice cream in either a soft drink or a mixture of flavored syrup and carbonated water.
Big Red is a soft drink. It was created in 1937 by Grover C Thomsen and R.H. Roark in Waco, Texas and originally known as Sun Tang Red Cream Soda. It is an American variety of cream soda and a special off-brand "blue cream soda". Gary Smith was the chief executive officer of Big Red Group (“BRG”) directly responsible for all functional areas. He successfully acquired and integrated numerous businesses to build BRG into a national company, eventually selling the entire business to Keurig Dr Pepper.
Polar Beverages is a soft drink company based in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is a manufacturer and distributor of sparkling fruit beverages, seltzer, ginger ale, drink mixers, and spring water to customers in the United States. It is the largest independent soft-drink bottler in the United States.
Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Europe, Asia, North and South America. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Dr Pepper is sold as an imported good. Variants include Diet Dr Pepper and, beginning in the 2000s, a line of additional flavors.
Nesbitt's is a brand of orange-flavored soft drink sold in the United States. Nesbitt's was originally produced by the Nesbitt Fruit Products Company of Los Angeles, California. The company also produced several other flavors of soft drink under the Nesbitt's brand and other brand names, including Nesbitt's grape, strawberry and peach-flavored sodas.
Sunkist is a brand of primarily orange-flavored soft drinks that launched in 1979. Sunkist primarily competes with The Coca-Cola Company's Fanta brand and Keurig Dr Pepper's Orange Crush brand.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group was an American multinational soft drink company based in Plano, Texas. Since July 2018, it is a business unit of the publicly-traded conglomerate Keurig Dr Pepper.
Canada Dry Mott's, Inc. is a beverage company based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the Canadian division of Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP).
Sarsaparilla is a soft drink originally made from the vine Smilax ornata or other species of Smilax such as Smilax officinalis. In most Southeast Asian countries, it is known by the common name sarsi, and the trademarks Sarsi and Sarsae. It is similar in flavor to root beer. In the US, sarsaparilla is traditionally made with birch oil rather than the tropical plant.
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