Because 'powder root tea,' the name of the original concoction, just didn't sound like it had the kick that beer, the miners' poison of choice, did. Fortunately for Charles E. Hires, the man ...

Exactly what went into the root beer and how it was made depended heavily on who made it for a while. It wasn't until the 1870s, when a pharmacist from Philadelphia named Charles Elmer Hires ...