At more than 120 years old, Hires Root Beer is not only America’s original root beer, but also the oldest continuously marketed soft drink in the United States.

Hires Root Beer was created by an entrepreneurial pharmacist named Charles E. Hires, who discovered a delicious herbal tea made of roots, berries and herbs while on his honeymoon. He began marketing packets of the ingredients of Hires Root Tea in Philadelphia.

Hires continued to experiment with his original recipe and introduced Hires Root Beer at the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, an event that also marked the introduction of other notable inventions such as Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, the Remington typewriter and Heinz Ketchup. To stand out in such company, Hires less-than-humbly touted Hires Root Beer as “The Temperance Drink” and “the Greatest Health-Giving Beverage in the World.”

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