Editing Hires Root Beer (section)

== History ==
===19th century===
[[File:All gone Could I have another glass of that Hires' Rootbeer.jpg|thumb|upright|An 1894 American Trade Card for Hires Root Beer]]
[[File:SitH - Hires Root Beer mug.jpg|thumb|A Hires Root Beer mug from the 1930s or earlier]]
Hires Root Beer was created by [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], pharmacist [[Charles Elmer Hires]]. The official story is that Hires first tasted [[root beer]], a traditional American beverage dating back to the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial era]], while on his honeymoon in 1875.<ref name=brands>{{cite web |url = http://www.drpeppersnapplegroup.com/brands/hires/ |title = Our Brands |publisher = Keurig Dr Pepper |access-date = August 22, 2014 }}</ref>  However, historical accounts vary and the actual time and place of the discovery may never be known.<ref name=bennett>{{cite web |url = http://www.gourmetrootbeer.com/history.html#hires |title = Local Historians Argue Over the Root of Hires |first = Eileen |last = Bennett |date = June 28, 1998 |work = [[The Press of Atlantic City]] |access-date = August 22, 2014 |via = Gourmet Root Beer }}</ref>

By 1876, Hires had developed his own recipe and was marketing 25-cent packets of powder which each yielded {{convert|1 | USgal|L|spell=in}} of root beer. At Philadelphia's [[Centennial Exposition]] in 1876, he cultivated new customers by giving away free glasses of it. Hires marketed it as a solid concentrate of 16 wild roots and berries. It [[Patent medicine|claimed to purify the blood]] and make rosy cheeks.<ref name=pendergrast>{{cite book |author-link = Mark Pendergrast |first = Mark |last = Pendergrast |year = 2000 |title = For God, Country and Coca-Cola |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bSAChoqpnHUC&q=hires |page = 14 |publisher = Basic Books |isbn = 978-0-46505-468-8 |access-date = August 22, 2014 |via = [[Google Books]] }}</ref>

In 1884, he began producing a liquid extract and a syrup for use in [[soda fountain]]s, and was soon shipping root beer in kegs and producing a special fountain dispenser called the "Hires Automatic Munimaker." In 1890, the Charles E. Hires Company incorporated and began supplying Hires root beer in small bottles<ref name=funderburg>{{cite book |title = Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains |first = Anne Cooper |last = Funderburg |publisher = Bowling Green University Popular Press |location = Bowling Green, Ohio |year = 2001 |isbn = 978-0-87972-854-0 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Wr_yPYvkNWwC&pg=PA92 |pages = 92–94 |access-date = August 22, 2014 |via = Google Books }}</ref><ref name=hoolihan>{{cite book |title = Social Medicine in the United States, 1717–1917 |first = Christopher |last = Hoolihan |publisher = Boydell & Brewer |year = 2001 |isbn = 978-1-58046-098-9 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zFKvimYMHloC&pg=PA454 |page = 454 |access-date = August 22, 2014 |via = Google Books }}</ref> claiming over a million bottles sold by 1891.<ref>{{cite web |title = Hires Root Beer |url = http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:60538 |publisher = Lowcountry Digital Library |access-date = September 1, 2014 |archive-date = September 3, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140903102941/http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:60538 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

Hires Root Beer was promoted as "The Temperance Drink" and "the Greatest Health-Giving Beverage in the World". Hires advertised aggressively, believing "doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. ''You'' know what you are doing, but nobody ''else'' does."<ref name=brands/>

One of the major ingredients of root beer was [[sassafras]] oil, a plant root extract used in beverages for its flavor and presumed medicinal properties. The medicinal properties of root beer are emphasized in the advertising slogan, "Join Health and Cheer; Drink Hires Rootbeer". The U.S. [[Food and Drug Administration]] banned sassafras oil in 1960 because it contains the carcinogen and liver-damaging chemical [[safrol]]. However, a process was later discovered by which the harmful chemical could be removed from sassafras oil while preserving the flavor.<ref name=nickell>{{cite journal |last = Nickell |first = Joe |date = January–February 2011 |title = 'Pop' Culture: Patent Medicines Become Soft Drinks |journal = Skeptical Inquirer |volume = 35 |issue = 1 |pages = 14–17 |publisher = [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] |url = http://www.csicop.org/si/show/pop_culture_patent_medicines_become_soda_drinks |access-date = August 22, 2014 }}</ref>

Prior to the move to "natural and artificial flavors", Hires ingredients included carbonated water, sugar, dextrose, caramel, plant extracts of birch, sassafras, licorice, vanilla, spikenard, sarsaparilla, hops, wintergreen, pipsissewa, ginger and flavor.

===20th century===
Hires Root Beer kits, available in the United States and Canada from the early 1900s through the 1980s allowed consumers to mix an extract with water, sugar and yeast to brew their own root beer. However, most consumption was of bottled root beer.

A mid-1960s' advertising campaign featured jingles by jazz singer [[Blossom Dearie]], wherein she sang in a Betty-Boop voice: "Hires Root Beer! Hires Rootin' Tootin' Root Beer! Hires Rootin'-Tootin' Rabble-Rousin', lion-roarin', Roman-candle-lightin' Root Beer!"

[[Sara Lee Corporation|Consolidated Foods]] bought the company from the Hires family in 1960, and sold it two years later to [[Crush (beverage)|Crush International]]. [[Procter & Gamble]] bought Crush in 1980, and sold it to [[Cadbury|Cadbury Schweppes]] in 1989. Cadbury divested its soft drinks arm in 2008, and the beverage company renamed itself [[Dr Pepper Snapple Group]].

In Canada, the Hires brand is no longer sold by Keurig Dr Pepper; retailers and vending machines have replaced it with [[Pepsi]]-owned [[Mug Root Beer]] since the 1990s and DPSG markets Stewarts Root Beer in Canada. The Hires brand is now offered by [[Canada Dry Motts]] as an alcoholic drink, Hires Root Beer and [[vodka]].<ref name=rv>{{cite web |title = Hires Root Beer and Vodka |url = http://www.canadadrymotts.ca/brands/Hires |publisher = Canada Dry Motts |date = November 27, 2018 |access-date = November 27, 2018 }}</ref>

Hires' availability in the U.S. was phased out as other Dr. Pepper owned brands like [[A&W Root Beer]] were promoted on behalf of the same company.<ref name=bp>{{cite web |title=Killing A Product: The Demise of Hires Root Beer |url = http://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2011/08/22/killing-a-product-why-you-cant-find-hires-root-beer/ |work = Stuff Nobody Cares About |date = August 22, 2011 |access-date = August 22, 2014 }}</ref>

===21st century===
{{As of|2023}}, the Keurig Dr. Pepper web page no longer lists Hires among its list of brands on the all products listing search on its website.<ref>{{cite web |title=Family of Brands |url=https://www.keurigdrpepper.com/en/our-brands/product-facts-brands |publisher=Keurig Dr Pepper |access-date=2022-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922134506/https://www.keurigdrpepper.com/en/our-brands/product-facts-brands |archive-date=2022-09-22}}</ref>