Birch Beer

Birch beer, a beverage made with the sap of birch trees, first became popular in America in the 1880s and 1890s, during the temperance movement. Many soft drinks, including ginger ale, sarsaparilla, spruce beer, root beer, cherry smash, and Coca-Cola, were developed and mass-marketed during this time. Because they contained no alcohol, these beverages were billed as family drinks. That some of these sodas were said to have healing properties helped spur sales. For example, ginger ale was supposed to cure nausea and help digestion; sarsaparilla was said to be a blood purifier; and early versions of Coca-Cola were billed as hangover and headache cures. By the late 1800s, many sodas were being bottled for mass distribution. The crimped metal cap was patented in 1892, enabling more than one hundred bottles per minute to be easily sealed.