No other Root Beer has caffeine from what I can see, and it would almost appear the caffeine is added artificially since the brand itself seems to have been moved to being made from artificial syrups. (was drinking some today hehe). Just thought this was odd.
Market niche?
I drink diet soda off and on (for taste and caffeine) and prefer Barq’s for this reason.
It always confuses me as I’m supposed to be avoiding caffeine and in those Coke fountains with the touch screens Barq’s is listed under their non-caffeinated section but yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s wrong and it has caffeine. I don’t understand it either.
Because Barq’s has bite.
And why does Ruby Red Squirt have caffeine but regular Squirt doesn’t?
Because it’s got bite, you fool.
Market differentiation.
A nice market differentiation could have been if they went back to making it like they did in the 1800’s. I bet it would taste better too.
With slave tears?
Kinda hard to do on a large scale. Thankfully other companies have taken on that mantle (though their sodas are a lot more expensive than your typical mass-produced stuff).
They changed the recipe because old-timey root beer was full of carcinogens.
Anyway, I like to mix 50% Diet Coke with 50% root beer. Tastes good.
Can we ban this asshole?
Whoa. That is news to me! Do you have a link I could read to educate myself better on this (big fan of root beer and sassafras stuff).
Sassafras root is still used to flavor traditional root beer, but since sassafras was banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to the controversially claimed carcinogenicity of its constituent safrole, most commercial recipes do not contain sassafras.[1][2] Some commercial root beers do use a safrole-free sassafras extract.[3]
Safrole, the aromatic oil found in sassafras roots and bark that gave traditional root beer its distinctive flavour, was banned for commercially mass-produced foods and drugs by the FDA in 1960.[1] Laboratory animals that were given oral doses of sassafras tea or sassafras oil that contained large doses of safrole developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer.[1] While sassafras is no longer used in commercially produced root beer and is sometimes substituted with artificial flavors, natural extracts with the safrole distilled and removed are available.[11][12]
Not sure if you have to ingest sassafras to get the carcinogenic effects, or if they can happen just by handling the stuff.
Barq’s is one of my least favorite root beers. It just tastes cloying and fake to me for some reason. Like liquid root beer barrel candy.
Surprise, you’re wrong. Barq’s in Freestyle machines is caffeine-free.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ccfreestyle/status/327510397135491073?lang=en
I don’t know, but it kind of cheeses me off, as I don’t want caffeine in my evening movie sodas and Coke has a monopoly on movie fountains (and uses Barq’s in their movie fountains).
You would have to eat like, a million pounds of it.
File powder, which is widely used in Creole cuisine, is pure ground sassafrass leaf.
It won’t give you liver damage or cancer, unless you just sat there and ate a whole tree.
I had no idea. Always cool to learn something new. Thanks!