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 ...

That was the beginning of Hires Root Beer Company. By the end of the 1800s, root beer was a folksy beverage like sweet tea in the South, one for which many families had their own unique and ...