<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the sassafras tree Sassafras albidum (sassafras) or the vine Smilax ornata (sarsaparilla) as the primary flavor . Root beer may be alcoholic or non-alcoholic (but it is usually non-alcoholic), come naturally free of caffeine or have caffeine added, and be carbonated or non-carbonated . It usually has a thick, foamy head when poured . Modern, commercially produced root beer is generally sweet, foamy, carbonated, nonalcoholic, and flavoured using artificial sassafras flavouring . 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 . Some commercial root beers do use a safrole - free sassafras extract . Major producers include Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Coca - Cola, Sprecher Brewing, Dad's Root Beer, Berghoff Beer, Whole Foods Market, and Stewart's Restaurants . </P> <P> Sassafras root beverages were made by indigenous peoples of the Americas for culinary and medicinal reasons before the arrival of Europeans in North America, and European culinary techniques have been applied to making traditional sassafras - based beverages similar to root beer since the 16th century . Root beer was sold in confectionery stores since the 1840s, and written recipes for root beer have been documented since the 1860s . It possibly was combined with soda as early as the 1850s, and root beer sold in stores was most often sold as a syrup rather than a ready - made beverage . The tradition of brewing root beer is thought to have evolved out of other small beer traditions that produced fermented drinks with very low alcohol content that were thought to be healthier to drink than possibly tainted local sources of drinking water, and enhanced by the medicinal and nutritional qualities of the ingredients used . Beyond its aromatic qualities, the medicinal benefits of sassafras were well known to both Native Americans and Europeans, and druggists began marketing root beer for its medicinal qualities . </P>

Where does the flavor root beer come from