It’s ironic, that soda was invented by doctors and pharmacists in the 19th century and today a habit that's hurting the nation’s health. Philadelphia figured prominently in the origins of soda.
In 1875, Charles Elmer Hires created a root beer by mixing sarsaparilla, sassafras, wild cherry, wintergreen, and ginger. He sold it at his drug store at Sixth and Spruce streets. According to his biography, Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires discovered a recipe for a delicious tisane—a form of herbal tea—while on his honeymoon in New Jersey.
A year after he developed his root beer, he reached a huge audience by giving away samples at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Fairmount Park. Also at the time, temperance was becoming a mass movement in the U.S., so demand grew for a nonalcoholic drink such as root beer. Trade cards also catapulted Hires root beer to national prominence. Collected by adults and children alike, the colorful cards stood out.
While Charles Hires and his family contributed greatly to the popularity of modern root beer, its origins can be traced to pre-colonial times during which indigenous tribes commonly created beverages and medicinal remedies from sassafras roots. Root beer as we know it today is descended from "small beers," a collection of beverages (some alcoholic, some not) concocted by American colonists using what they had at hand. The brews varied by region and were flavored by locally grown herbs, barks, and roots. Traditional small beers included birch beer, sarsaparilla, ginger beer, and root beer.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Charles Hires would have a lot to feel flattered about. The success of his commercial root beer sales soon inspired competition. Some notable other root beer brands. A&W, Barqs, Dad's and Mug to name a few.