Rooting For A Teetotaler's Delight

O'Doul's? Buckler? Kaliber?

I think not.

If I want something cold, bubbly and frothy in my mug -- sans alcohol -- I don't go for non-alcoholic beer. I go for root beer.

Apparently, the Los Angeles Times agrees with my palate, shining a spotlight on the recent root beer revival and offering up their favorite rootin' tootin' micro-brew picks.

Still, root beer fan that I am, I was surprised to learn that sassafras is no longer a mainstay ingredient in this brown bubbly brew:

Hires had promoted his product as a non-alcoholic drink. As a result, sarsaparilla was considered such an innocent ingredient that, as late as the 1950s, the heroic new sheriff in a cowboy movie would walk into the local saloon and ask for a "sasparilly," showing how pure and fearless he was. This would be the equivalent of going into a tough bar and asking for root beer.

However, sassafras is no longer considered innocent. In 1960, it was outlawed as a food additive because mega doses caused cancer in rats. Since then it has become even more illegal, because the flavoring element in sassafras, safrole, is used in making the illicit drug MDMA (Ecstasy).

Ecstasy, huh? No wonder sasparilly has always had a way of putting me in a good mood.

Comments

[Claude Scales]

And, back in the day, Coca-Cola's formula included cocaine.