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Hires Root Beer, once a staple in American households, had sadly been discontinued in its traditional bottled and canned forms in 2010.
Despite its rich history spanning over a century, the iconic beverage fell victim to a series of mergers, acquisitions, and changing market trends, ultimately leading to its gradual disappearance from store shelves, although its syrup extract remains available for soda fountain use.
The origins of Hires Root Beer can be traced back to the late 19th century when Charles Elmer Hires, a pharmacist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, created a unique blend of roots, berries, and herbs.
According to popular legend, Hires first encountered root beer while on his honeymoon in 1875, and this experience inspired him to develop his own recipe.
Hires marketed his root beer as a solid concentrate of 16 wild roots and berries and claimed it could purify the blood and make rosy cheeks.
By 1876, Hires was marketing 25-cent packets of powder that each yielded one US gallon (3.8 L) of root beer.
He gave away free glasses at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition that year.
In 1884, Hires began producing a liquid extract and a syrup for use in soda fountains, and he started shipping root beer in kegs.
He also developed a special fountain dispenser called the "Hires Automatic Munimaker".
The temperance movement, which gained significant traction in the late 19th century, posed a challenge for Hires and his root beer due to the beverage's name containing the word "beer."
To counter this perception and emphasize the drink's non-alcoholic nature, Hires went to great lengths to prove that his root beer contained only a negligible amount of alcohol, even commissioning a laboratory test to demonstrate that it had less alcohol content than a loaf of bread.
Despite these efforts, Hires faced a boycott from the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1895 after a freelance chemist alleged that the drink contained a "high percentage" of alcohol.
In response, Hires commissioned a thorough chemical analysis by a professor from the University of Pennsylvania, which revealed that the beverage contained only a "trace" of alcohol, ultimately leading to the boycott being called off.
Hires' revenues rose by an average of 29 percent annually between 1904 and 1909, with soda fountains serving up 65 million glasses of Hires Root Beer at a nickel each.
One of the major original ingredients of root beer, sassafras oil, was banned by the FDA in 1960 for containing a carcinogen.
However, a process was later discovered to remove the harmful chemical while preserving the flavor.
In the mid-1960s, Hires launched a successful advertising campaign featuring jazz singer Blossom Dearie singing in a Betty-Boop voice: "Hires Root Beer! Hires Rootin' Tootin' Root Beer!"
The Hires Root Beer Company underwent a series of mergers and acquisitions in the latter half of the 20th century, beginning with its purchase by Consolidated Foods from the Hires family in 1960.
Just two years later, Consolidated Foods sold the company to Crush International, which in turn was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1980. In 1989, Procter & Gamble divested its soft drink holdings, and Hires Root Beer became part of Cadbury Schweppes.
The Hires brand is now owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group and is no longer listed on Keurig Dr Pepper's website as one of their brands.
It is not sold by the can or bottle anymore, but sold via its syrup extract for soda fountain use.
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