

A scientist stole my root beer - jwmerrill
http://naturespoisons.com/2014/09/17/a-scientist-stole-my-root-beer-safrole-sassafras/

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abakker
Ok - this is something I have experimented with before. Making root beer the
traditional way is possible at home, as is buying or harvesting sassafras.

Sassafras tastes and smells very much like root beer, as you would expect,
except "more". That is the best way I can describe it. It has a flavor profile
that is more complete than what you get in standard root beers. As the above
article states, it is pretty difficult to get a satisfactory extract from it.
The smell of the root/bark is great, but the concentration/taste of the brewed
liquid is very difficult to gauge. It requires significant amounts of sugar to
make it taste "like root beer".

To get around the challenges with Safrole, the root beer industry turned first
to Wintergreen, which is a very similar flavor profile, and it is
wintergreen,or artificial wintergreen that makes up the bulk of modern day
commercial root beers. Boutique makers also include vanilla, cinnamon, ginger,
and other botanicals to get a flavor they want, but Wintergreen is the key to
modern root beer. Many online recipes include many of these ingredients too.
I've never had much luck with them.

I've made some of these myself before, and always had an exceptional
difficulty getting the flavors to be concentrated enough to even approach the
commercial stuff - perhaps my ingredients or methods were sub-par. I always
wanted to get a mixture that I could make strong enough without making it too
sweet. The difficulty there is that it is hard to make any mixture strong
enough to mix with carbonated water, or, it is hard to carbonate by
fermentation without adding significant amounts of sugar.(over time, I've made
probably 10 attempts at this, and bought several hundred dollars worth of
ingredients/equipment. I've had much better luck with real beer.)

Finally, as a caveat, do not attempt to eat or cook with any wintergreen oil,
or wintergreen essential oil. It is almost pure Methyl Salicylate - According
to wikipedia, 1 fl oz of wintergreen oil is equivalent to taking 55g of
aspirin, equivalent to 171 adult sized tablets.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintergreen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintergreen)

~~~
owenfi
I bought some roasted chicory root from Sweet Maria's to make Blue Bottle's
nola recipe: [http://www.bluebottlecoffee.com/preparation-guides/new-
orlea...](http://www.bluebottlecoffee.com/preparation-guides/new-orleans-iced)

Throwing some in with iced-tea and ginger flavoring and carbonating was
somewhat reminiscent of root beer so I may keep experimenting with it.

The roasted chicory packs a strong punch, so perhaps roasting other roots
would amplify their flavor.

~~~
TezzellEnt
I'm getting an offline for maintenance page, so here's the cached version:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mY-
oh-...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mY-oh-
sEKp4J:www.bluebottlecoffee.com/preparation-guides/new-orleans-
iced+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

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abat
Good article, but I think the more accurate title would be "a government
bureaucrat stole my root beer in order to cover their ass"

~~~
Karunamon
Sadly yes - the "science" that the author calls out is absurdly and blatantly
bad. Apparently some people have never heard the saying "the dose makes the
poison"

~~~
hga
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Additives_Amendment_of_19...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Additives_Amendment_of_1958#Delaney_Clause)

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rdtsc
Another type of fermented non-alcoholic drink that looks like beer is Kvass.
It is popular in Eastern Europe. They would sell from a large barrel on wheels
on the corners of the street.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass)

It is made from fermented bread (toasted croutons), maybe some flavourings,
and yeast.

And it is one of my favourite soft drinks. And I don't drink sugary soft
drinks, but I would drink kvass. It is slightly tangy and earthy (woodsy)
flavour. When it is hot outside, there is nothing better than a large mug
filled with cold kvass with a nice head on it.

~~~
jradd
Thank you for posting this. IMHO this is how _real_ rootbeer is made. My
family always makes rootbeer at home, and it seems that the key ingredient is
"yeast." I have never tasted any rootbeer that comes close to the amazing
flavour and _kick_ that home made rootbeer has. Rootbeer that is so carbonated
it burns your throat before even tasting it. Mmmmmm…

I have actually found a comparable Rootbeer in some common grocery stores that
tastes almost exactly like my home made rootbeer, but not quite as strong. If
any of you love _real_ rootbeer as much as I do, I urge you to try this!

[http://www.amazon.com/Bundaberg-Root-
Beer-4-pack/dp/B00HGGW6...](http://www.amazon.com/Bundaberg-Root-
Beer-4-pack/dp/B00HGGW69O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411027463&sr=8-1&keywords=bundaberg+root+beer)

If you find it in a grocery store, STOCK UP! They are imported from Germany,
and when they are out of stock, it seems to take about a month to re-stock.

Edit: Okay, I think the store clerk was either misinformed or lying to me,
because "Bundaberg" is in Australia. Perhaps it is imported from Germany… and
that is why it takes 1 month. But every store I find it at, seems to have only
a couple left, and seems to take a long time before they "re-up."

~~~
glenr
Yeah, the Bundaberg range is definitely Australian. They do ginger beer (what
Australians call root beer) as well as sarsaparilla. Both are fantastic
drinks.

Edit: so if you're doing a search, you're probably likely to find it as
"bundaberg ginger beer" \- eg
[http://www.bundaberg.com/info/product_range/ginger_beer/](http://www.bundaberg.com/info/product_range/ginger_beer/)

~~~
ewood
Bundaberg sarsaparilla is the same formulation as the root beer, not the
ginger beer
([http://www.bundaberg.com/info/product_range/sarsaparilla](http://www.bundaberg.com/info/product_range/sarsaparilla))

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vitamen
Interesting. I like my Root Beer (Hanks, when I have my druthers) very much,
not sure I'd like it more if it tasted like it's "supposed to". Sounds like
the government stole his root beer though, not a scientist.

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audiodude
I think the real tragedy is not the missing root beer, but the apparent fact
that there would be no way to lift that ban now, given the bloated and corrupt
bureaucracy we're dealing with.

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lazerwalker
It's not difficult to get your hands on real sassafras and sarsaparilla. If
you're in the right part of the country, the stuff literally grows on trees.
If not, it's still definitely possible to find in local herb and spice stores
(I've found it at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco). There's no shortage of
online recipes to make your own root beer.

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__david__
My mom remembers drinking sassafras tea when she was a little girl.

I would love to make some "real" homemade root beer some time, as an
experiment. Maybe it would taste good, or maybe I'm too used to the synthetic
root beer I currently enjoy.

~~~
smoyer
Here in central PA you can easily find a sassafras trees in the surrounding
woods. I brew root beer occasionally but prefer making Ginger beer as I like
it's peppery flavor.

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chewxy
Funny because the first picture showed a Bundy root beer. Bundy claims to use
real sassafras roots to make their root beer (and I personally quite enjoy
it). Not sure about the safrole content though. Will check it out at lunch

~~~
jradd
So anybody that knows anything must already know and love Bundaberg rootbeer;
thus the shorthand for its name. I feel a bit sheepish now having mentioned
Bundaberg earlier as some sort of unknown miracle. :)

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joshvm
This harks a lot to Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, which is a great read. There
are plenty of examples of governments making knee jerk reactions to scientific
press. And even more of tabloids and other media outlets going crazy after
they misinterpret papers.

On the other hand, if you've never tried 'real' root beer and you love the
commercial stuff, is it a problem? One argument, albeit not valid here, would
be that chemicals are chemicals regardless of whether they come from a plant
or a laboratory. It may also be the case that the commercial stuff simply
tastes better because they've had longer to play around with the formula.

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beardicus
Here's a link to a fairly well developed recipe for sassafras-based root beer:

[http://honest-food.net/2010/07/04/sassafras-and-homemade-
roo...](http://honest-food.net/2010/07/04/sassafras-and-homemade-root-beer/)

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rotten
Herbal Sage Tea company sells Sassafras Tea if you are curious in trying some.
It is pretty good (IMO), it tastes like unsweetened root beer ...
[http://www.herbalsage.com/proddetail.php?prod=SassafrassRoot](http://www.herbalsage.com/proddetail.php?prod=SassafrassRoot)

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crshults
The renaissance fair in Muskogee always has Bud's Homemade Root Beer in from
Alton, IL. The stuff is amazing and unlike any commercial root beer I've
tried. [http://www.budsrootbeer.com/](http://www.budsrootbeer.com/)

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xyclos
I make sassafras tea every year with my son. It is delicious and an adventure
to harvest and make.

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calebm
They have a really good root beer drink they call "Sassafras" at the Bristol
Renaissance Faire in Wisconsin
([http://www.renfair.com/bristol/](http://www.renfair.com/bristol/))

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camkego
Do you think those south American root beers I buy at my little latin market
contain Safrole? They certainly taste different than US root beer.

~~~
DanBC
Maybe they're using different sugar? Cane or beet sugar instead of high
fructose corn syrup.

~~~
moron4hire
You know, I've had the Mexican versions of common soda brands, and I can't
tell the difference. I think it's psychosomatic.

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DanBC
Haha! I tend to agree that's probably true for most people.

Some people can taste the difference (double blind and everything - I'm not
sure if anyone has done the tests). I would think the water used would also
make a difference.

~~~
dlss
I think with practice almost anyone can tell the difference.

It's about as subtle as the difference between velvet and silk to your finger
-- I can see how you'd confuse them if you weren't thinking about it, but
there's no way you'd stay confused if you paid attention and practiced.

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lotsofcows
A scientist stole my cocaine! That's right, they thought it made Coca Cola
addictive! Good thing they removed it. Not remotely addictive any more.

