Food - Drink
What's The Difference Between Root Beer And Birch Beer?
By JESSIE MOLLOY
If you’re tired of colas and fruity sodas, you might turn your attention to root beer — or birch beer, if you’re from New England. These drinks are similar, but do have differences; firstly, Renegade Brewing notes birch beer is similar to root beer, but has “more intense, clearer, and complex” flavor with a strong minty taste to it.
The major difference between these drinks involves the herbs used to make them. Traditional root beer uses sassafras root, but after sassafras was found to have carcinogenic properties, most brands switched to artificial flavors; meanwhile, birch beer was once flavored with birch tree bark, but today, it's flavored with birch sap.
As mentioned before, birch beer has a lighter, more minty flavor compared to spicy and sweet root beer, but some root beers are minty as well, because they also contain birch. If you want to try birch beer, you should know that birch sap can cause allergic reactions in people who have pollen allergies, so be careful and don't drink too much.