This is a day that celebrates my daughter's favorite drink--rootbeer! It was on this date in 1866 that Charles Elmer Hires invented rootbeer, or at least his version of the drink.
Charles Elmer Hires was born on August 19, 1851, and he was a pharmacist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to legend, he discovered this fantastic drink on his honeymoon, and he was going to call it "root tea." He determined rootbeer would be a better choice. His drink was advertised a temperance drink (no alcohol in it), and it was also advertised as being medicinal--purifies the blood and such. He was one of the first U.S. businessmen to aggressively advertise his product. He died July 31, 1937.
This is my daughter's favorite drink, I would say. There is a lot of information out there, and if you would like to do more research, please check out:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/html/may16.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-root-beer.htm
http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/food/the-story-of-hires-rootbeer.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Elmer_Hires
http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/root_beer.htm
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=485&page=gr
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/hires-keg1.jpg
I love little bits of of trivia! I've lived in PA all my life, yet never knew rootbeer was invented here.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm craving a float!
Oooo a rootbeer float does sound awesome now.
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