Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative, Inc. - CHELCO Call 800-342-0990 to report an outage Find out what your FREE Co-op Connections Member Benefits Card can do for you! Click here for details!
Sassafras root is still used to flavor traditional root beer, although since sassafras was banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because of the carcinogenicity of its constituent safrole, most commercial recipes do not contain sassafras. Some commercial root beers do use a safrole-free sassafras extract.
Wintergreen: Just what you're probably thinking of -- the minty flavor often found in chewing gum. Sassafras: Coming from the sassafras tree, this imparts a deep, bitter flavor. Vanilla extract (Bourbon or Tahitian): This gives root beer its distinctive creaminess. Click through the slideshow below to see the results of our taste test.