Neither Root nor Beer

 Since root beer has never contained alcohol how did it get the beer part of its name? It all started with a man named Charles E. Hires who was served a root tea by the innkeeper where he was staying on his honeymoon. Hires brewed his own root beverage and called it root beer in order to entice the coal miners to purchase the packets for 25 cents each. That covers the beer part of root beer, the root part comes from the original flavoring which was sassafras root, the root of a tree the Native Americans had used for healing long before European colonists appeared. However sassafras was found to contain a carcinogen and is no longer used. Today's root beer, depending on the brand, may still have a few of the good for you ingredients from the original recipe but it's mostly chemicals and HFCS.