User Contributed Dictionary
Verb
hires- third-person singular of hire
Extensive Definition
Hires Root Beer is a soft drink
which is currently marketed by Dr
Pepper Snapple Group, and shares the title of America's oldest
soft drink with Detroit's Vernor's ginger
ale.
Hires Root Beer was created by Philadelphia
pharmacist Charles
Elmer Hires on May 16, 1866, who gave it the
name root
beer rather than herbal tea. It
debuted in 1876 at the Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and was sold to the public in bottles in 1893.
Hires' choice of name for his product caused a
problem: the word "beer" drew the wrath of the temperance movement. He had
his root beer tested by a laboratory, and trumpeted their
conclusion that a glass of his root beer contained less alcohol
than a loaf of bread.
Hires Root Beer was promoted as "The Temperance
Drink" and "the Greatest Health-Giving Beverage in the World."
Hires advertised aggressively, believing "doing business without
advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what
you are doing, but nobody else does."
Hires Root Beer kits, available in the United
States from the early 1900s through the
1980s allowed
consumers to mix a dry extract with water, sugar and yeast to brew
their own root beer. However, most consumption was of pre-bottled
root beer.
By 1989, it had been
acquired by Cadbury
Schweppes, now Dr Pepper Snapple Group.
The manufacturer considers it the longest
continuously made soft drink in the United States; however,
Vernor's
ginger ale (currently also owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group) also
makes that claim.
References
- Hires, C.E. 1913. Seeing opportunities. American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record. American Druggist Publ. Co., New York. ISSN 0099-7366.
- Quarantiello, L. 1997. The Root Beer Book: A Celebration of America's Best-Loved Soft Drink. Tiare Publ., Lake Geneva, WI. ISBN 978-0936653785.