Root beer

Root beer is a sweet, dark-brown carbonated soft drink native to North America, built on a warm, complex flavour historically drawn from the bark of the sassafras tree and the root of the sarsaparilla vine and rounded out with vanilla, wintergreen and baking spices. Once a lightly fermented "small beer" sold as a temperance and health tonic, it is today an almost entirely non-alcoholic, caffeine-free soda with a thick, foamy head and a creamy, anise-and-vanilla sweetness. It is one of the most distinctively American flavours, the classic partner of a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a root beer float, and is largely unknown as a soft drink outside North America.