As a teenager living in Ponders Corner I delivered the Tacoma News Tribune on Saturdays for a friend who attended church on Saturday. My parents owned the LaCasa Motel in Ponders Corner. I delivered the newspapers from Ponders Corner to Bridgeport Way and onto McChord Field. I rewarded myself with a nickle Coke from a Coke machine at McChord and a bottle of Tang Root Beer at one of the local motels before heading home. I loved root beer then and still do.
As a senior at Clover Park High School my buddies and I would play two-hand touch football on the weekends at the play fields of Clover Park High School, which of course really turned into tackle football. We played during the spring and summer. On the hot days or even just the warm days we would finish playing and head over to A&W Root Beer. There was nothing like a quart of A&W to cool us down.
“Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree Sassafras albidum or the vine of Smilax ornata (known as sarsaparilla, also used to make a soft drink, sarsaparilla) as the primary flavor. Root beer is typically but not exclusively non-alcoholic, caffeine-free, sweet, and carbonated. Like cola, it usually has a thick and foamy head. A well-known use is to add vanilla ice cream to make a root beer float.” – Wikipedia
One of our long-term clients at LaCasa, a cook at Fort Lewis, retired and left the motel with treasures from his years in the army. He left us with a dozen boxes of K-Rations, sport coats (my size), dozens of photographs he had taken of Hiroshima right after the end of World War II, and several cases of Ginger Beer. Although I loved root beer, ginger beer had a little extra zip that I still enjoy to this day.
“Traditional ginger beer is a sweetened and carbonated, usually non-alcoholic beverage. Historically it was produced by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar. Current ginger beers are often manufactured rather than brewed, frequently with flavor and color additives, with artificial carbonation. Ginger ales are not brewed. Ginger beer’s origins date from the colonial spice trade with the Orient and the sugar-producing islands of the Caribbean. It was popular in Britain and its colonies from the 18th century. Other spices were variously added and any alcohol content was limited to 2% by excise tax laws in 1855. Few brewers have maintained an alcoholic product.” – Wikipedia
For years my favorite ginger beer has been Bundaberg from Australia. Indo Asian is one of our favorite restaurants in Tacoma and one of those reasons is they provide Bundaberg Ginger Beer ($5.00) a bottle) with their meals. My wife, Peggy, has injections every other week at her pulmonologist’s office in the Baker Center. I usually drop her off and then head to Stadium Thriftway in the Tacoma Stadium District. We love their cranberry oatmeal cookies AND they have Bundaberg Ginger Beer ($2.49 a bottle), which we share.
I’ve never been one to take things just as they are, I like to look around and see else is available, and at what price. We found that at Dollar Tree. For $1.25 plus tax we can have a Spicy Ginger Craft Soda. A little more bite would be nice for both the Sprecher Spicy Ginger and the Bundaberg, but the taste is there and the price is excellent. We recommend both.
“WBC Spicy Ginger Soda has the robust taste of ginger blended with a bit of citrus to balance out the heat. This soda is the perfect addition to many a cocktail or mock tail, and great on its own as well. Made with 100% real sugar.”
Where does that leave us with A&W Root Beer? Well, at my age I’m not looking at tackling anyone any more. A&W is a good root beer, no doubt about it, but for that extra tang, I’ll go with the Spicy Ginger.
I really enjoyed that article and the knowledge I have gained about the different products and flavors thank you for that. Well written.
Seani,
Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed the article . . . and a ginger beer?
Don
As a young kid in the 1930
As a young girl in the 1930’s and 1940’s our family made homemade root beer every summer. We had a large crock, that we made it in. Saved many ketchup bottles, for the finished product. and had our own bottle capper. After it was all bottled, it went under the kitchen wood stove, for a few days, to keep it warm, and then down into our dirt floored cellar. It was hard to wait, until my mother would say, it had been laying long enough. Try it and see how it tasted. As I remember, it was delicious, especially with a tuna sandwich, after a long swim in American Lake.
Evelyn,
Yes, indeed. I grew up in the 1950s on a dead-end road overlooking Nalley Valley. My family didn’t brew, but my best buddies, David and Kathleen, the children next door helped their father with the brewing of home-made root beer. I don’t know if the father Chet, an old cowboy, was the only one to drink the concoction, or not, but I don’t recall ever being offered a sip. We were usually in trouble, or would have been if more of our exploits had been discovered. Thanks for looking back memory. Don
DuPont Grocery and Grocery Outlet both sell it
Michael,
Well, darn and double darn. I videotaped the work on the new water treatment plant in Steilacoom for months and months and used to stop in at the DuPont Grocery and Grocery Outlet places for snacks and pop and didn’t know about the root beer. Thanks. Don
Don..you can buy the root beer extract at any store. Directions are on the label. All you will need are the bottles.
Having been born in 1927 I have a lot of memories to share.
Evelyn,
I have more than enough projects to keep me busy, so I will just extract myself from any sipping work and rely on Dollar Tree and my friends to supply me . . .
Thanks.
Don
Don,
This was a fun story. I too like root beer floats. I make them at Joe’s Bar for my grandchildren and for my own pleasure.
Joseph Boyle – Read your story 2800 miles away on the East Coast.
Joe,
You never know about grandchildren. Two weeks ago our eldest grandchild celebrated her birthday by rounding up her friends, a few relatives, and her hubby to be and took us to a Drag Show. We didn’t know what to expect, but we had a great time. Some how I think the special drawing was rigged. When the first prize was announced, my wife Peggy won and in the second half of the show for the second prize I won . . . just saying . . .
Don
Evelyn and I have a lot in common. During the 1950s, some 20 years after Evelyn’s experience, my mother made root beer. We got to operate the capper.
No wood stove or dirt cellar in our experience, but when it was time, it was time to crack open a bottle.
I did not make the connection with my past until reading Evelyn’s response. Maybe my childhood experience is why I enjoy root beer floats so much today.
Thanks for jarring my memory, Evelyn.
Joseph Boyle
Joseph,
So, in your life you’ve been both a copper and a capper. I would gladly drink to that or sip to that with your morning coffee if you were still living on Clover Creek. Thanks for commenting.
Don
Nice for the little visit. You may or may not remember that I am living in the condo in Mt Vernon village, that you sold to my daughter.
Don,
FUNNNNNNY! “Copper and a capper…” – Very clever and I am certain the product of your quick thinking.
Joseph Boyle
Joseph,
You just can’t get anything past an old policeman . . . except loose gravel, perhaps . .
Don