Root Beer

This is a picture of the Sassafras plant/tree leaves. The roots of this plant are what I'd consider the main ingredient in Root Beer. The smell of the root is amazing. Most of the other roots used to make Root Beer can be found at bulk herb store (I found mine online). But sassafras has been deemed unsuitable for human consumption due to the contents of safrole, which they say is a carcinogen. Well, you too would get cancer from root beer if you drank 20 gallons a day for months.

Ok, I just wanted to get my feet wet with this post, so I'll start the ball rolling now and add later, maybe even pictures and stuff.

So, one of the first interests went hand-in-hand with my love of soft drinks... soda... pop. There was a missionary who told me about how when he was young they used to make root beer out in the shed in Africa. One day, a batch had been sitting too long and was no longer "safe" to open. A man from the local tribe decided he wanted the bottle and though warned, he won the prize. So, the story goes, that when he popped the top with his teeth (since bottle openers were scarce), the entire contents of the bottle burst into face and down his open mouth.

Well, I knew that I wanted to try this homemade, natrually carbonated soda.