To address some of the comments I've been getting (I wish I could address all of them personally, but there are quite a few lol): 1. Yes, I know safrole is used to make MDMA/MDA. But that is NOT why it is banned in food. You'd have to process thousands of liters of natural root beer to get any meaningful amount of safrole out, and even then, it would be contaminated with stuff like anethole (licorice/anise), which poisons the various drug syntheses with undesirable and toxic PMA. It would be completely impractical to spend thousands of dollars on root beer when you can just uproot or cultivate a few plants for free. Some have mentioned that old-fashion root beer extract was a contributing factor, since it would've contained much higher levels of safrole that could be extracted and used. Well...then why haven't they also banned almond extract? That stuff is basically a concentrated solution of benzaldehyde, and believe me, people have used it to cooked amphetamines that are much more notorious than MDMA. And again, root beer extract would still contain all of the hard-to-remove poisonous contaminants that I mentioned before, so even that would be a sub-optimal source compared to sassafras. AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF (thanks to a commenter who brought this up): although it was made decades before, MDMA wasn't even a scheduled substance until the 80's...20 years after the safrole ban. It's therapeutic effects weren't even examined until the 70's. So as far as I'm concerned, there's no real correlation between the ban and safrole's use in drug synthesis. 2. Safrole was banned because it CAN be harmful if ingested in high doses. In low doses, it's fairly safe, which is why you can eat stuff like cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper without suffering from liver failure. That being said, safrole/sassafras is not a health food, medicine, or cure-all. It doesn't "purify the blood". It is still toxic, and any benefits from taking it are outweighed by the damage it does to your liver. 3. Plenty of you have asked about my root beer preferences and which ones I've tasted. My favorite is probably Hank's Gourmet, but A&W and its Great Value knock-off are solid choices. Some honorable mentions are: Frostie's, IBC, Barq's, Sprecher, Bawls Guarana, Triple XXX, and Sioux City...and probably more that I'm forgetting, lol. Least favorites are probably Dad's, Boylan's, and Mug (I'd still drink them though). Virgil's Bavarian Nutmeg was good, but a little weird, imo. 3.5: I recently tried birch beer, as many of you suggested, and it was pretty good! It tastes kind of like Listerine mouth wash, since the essential oil of birch is the same as wintergreen, but it wasn't bad. I still prefer root beer though! 4. When I mentioned going to Europe for "real" root beer, I was basing that comment on the fact the some countries (like Germany, according to a German chemist I know) still allow safrole in foods. It can't be added to food, but it doesn't have to be removed from it either. In other words, you could use sassafras to make root beer in some European countries. Of course, I've been told root beer is somewhat unpopular over there, so... 5. Here's why I made my root beer the way I did: this is a science/chemistry channel, therefore my focus was on extracting the safrole, not making old fashion sassafras tea the way your grandma did (hence why I didn't just steep the roots like most people do). Also, I don't have a soda stream, nor do I have the money to spend on one, so I used club soda. I've tried fermenting root beer before, and it throws off the flavor. I could've used dry ice, but that's harder to get and working with in under pressure is unnecessarily dangerous. My goal was to make something that tasted and looked like store-bought root beer, not to make a 100% all-natural brew. Hence why I was not ashamed to add extracts and food color. I tried a few other recipes found on UA-cam, but they all fell flat (sorry "Glen and Friends Cooking", cinnamon DOES NOT belong in my root beer!). 6. To everyone sharing cool stories, giving helpful advice, and complimenting me (or my sister) in any way: thank you very much, I wish I had time to personally thank all of you! Also, to the few people complaining and insulting me because I said the words "my family's lake cabin": get over it. Not everyone on UA-cam is trying to show off. I'm not rich, and I only included that because it seemed relevant to the story.
If i'm remembering correctly its a mutagen under the ames test, it was massively used widespread in household products as an ( unsafe ) additive before it was banned. This is kind of misinformation. There are multiple lines of research establishing the harmfulness of safrole. a single drink might not kill you, but before the ban people were exposed through multiple avenues than just root beer. It was in candles, foods, furniture polish. People did routinely Get safrole poisoning. The point of the rat tests is to try to mirror longterm lifetime exposure in humans. This kind of denialism is of the same chararter tobacco companies used to deny cancer claims. Considering your love of root beer ( and it was formed without using safrole ) the ban was enacted to protect people like yourself who would have massive doses relative to body size in childhood, and would be biased to develop cancer later in life before they are 18 , and able to make their own decisions. Consider the workers at the factories used to make these things, their doses would have been much higher, esp as a volatile oil.
My great granny would dig up sassafrass trees in the mountains of north Georgia and make her own sassafras tea. Died of a stroke in her sleep at the age of 93. She lived on her own until the age of 91.
I've drank sassafras tea all my life (69) and have made authenic root beer for decades. I use dried roots, brown sugar, anise but I naturally carbonate mine using champagne yeast. It doesn't add off flavors and is closest thing I've found other than the old fountain style A&W, sold at roadside stands
Did you add more sugars to sweeten it after brewing? How did it come out? I tried brewing hard cider using DADY, and it made the cider very tart. It really did remind me of a champagne. Tried again using Nottingham Ale Yeast, and it tasted closer to my expectations, but I somehow totally failed with the bentonite clay, and got a bit of a muddy mess. I might try something with black cherry extract, molasses, and some type of yeast (DADY?), but I don't know if this is worth pursuing without distilling it afterward. Just a black cherry wash might not be the most appealing.
Can you share a recipe mate? I’d appreciate it, my late great grandmother used to make it for me. But she did it by heart. And my family hasn’t an understanding on how to make it.
I grew up in New Orleans, and we had a very large sassafras tree in our backyard. One day, I was playing with a post hole digger and dug up some of the roots and told my mother that it smelled just like root beer. She told me that her mother showed her how to make sassafras tea from the roots. I dug up some of the roots for her, and she showed me how to do it. It tastes just like root beer but without the fizz. It's been a long time since I've seen someone do this. Thank you for this content. This brought back so many memories for me.
We also had a Bay tree growing in our backyard, and my mother would pick the leaves and dry them. Almost every Monday as tradition, she would cook red beans and rice and use the Bay leaves as seasoning.
My grandma was 3/4 Cherokee. She taught me how to make sassafras tea 45 years ago! She said it was good for the body and soul! I have taught my daughter and grandsons how to make the tea! Thank you sir for bringing back some memories
The wintergreen you're missing is the thing they replaced sassafras with when it got banned. You should try birch beer and spruce beer and other alternatives to get a sense of the variety.
@@pb_cheetah3844 Sarsaparilla is a similar but distinct beverage, though some would consider it a type of rootbeer. Apparently in the US it's actually usually made with Birch oil, though the Sarsaparilla and Birch beer soda extracts I have are quite distinct from each other.
I'm a woodworker and years ago a friend gave me a bunch of sassafras lumber. When working it, the smell of root beer was all around the shop. What a great smell...and great lumber to work with.
Shoutout to the FDA. Protecting the American citizenry from cancer for countless generations. Nicotine? No way thats a drug, no way that can give you cancer. Better get rid of this saffrole thing tho
Back in the 70's my grandfather was just starting to close down his birch still. They produced birch oil for many years for soda companies. Black Birch logs were stripped of bark and placed into copper lined boxes and steamed. The liquid after steaming was heated and condensed into a wooden box that had a collection jar. It operated the same way as a corn mash still. Artificial flavoring did them in but the still was still standing till mid 80's and you could still smell the birch smell.
What sodas was birch oil in? I just got some birch beverages I ordered from Poland that I'm trying later today (not for b.fast!). I remember root beer tasting quite different as a kid in the early 60s - far less sugar and more spice. It was always my favorite. It wasn't really like pop. It was something different. Now it has antifreeze in it (so does ice cream), which I think is sweet. Which is why if your pet licks it off the garage floor it's extremely dangerous - kidneys, I think. But yet it's allowed in our food.
@@Lee-jh6cr there are several forms of antifreeze, one type is harmless the other toxic, the food grade one is Propyl en glycol, the lethal one is Ethylene Glycol, both are sweet to taste
Very informative. For those interested, harvesting the sassafras root toward the end of winter is the optimal time. Since all of the sassafras tree’s nutrients, like safrole oil, are concentrated within the root system, as the tree “hibernates” during winter. Though this makes it more difficult to identify, and must be found via bark pattern identification.
My grandma would always tell me that when she was a kid, durring chistmas, her dad would harvest sassafras root and they'd knaw on it as a winter treat. I was able to experience that myself a few years ago and all i got was funky tasting wood.
idk if its true but i heard when it comes to harvesting some wild plants you're supposed to use that to grow 5-10 generations till its "clean" or free from whatever contaminants might've been where it grew. is that true or just a suggestion?
When I was a kid A&W had home brewing kits in grocery stores. I had it once and it was the best tasting drink I ever had. The key that you missed is actually brewing it with yeast. This creates a carbonation with really small bubbles and thuse a super smooth taste. Despite that, great video.
Was going to come down here and say this. My grandfather brewed his own with yeast used to make the carbonation a couple times when I was young. It really changes the flavor, not that underlying "minty" root beer flavor, but it adds notes of regular beer flavor, that yeasty bready flavor. It was... so incredibly good.
Hey Moriah! Already subscribed to your newsletter. (Guys, as Zach said at the beginning of the video, you're giving away a lot of personal information. Be careful please!)
I used to love rootbeer floats with A&W rootbeer and french vanilla ice cream... The ice cream would crystalize and taste sooooo good... Thanks for all the info on how to make rootbeer... 🙂
While at Boy Scout Camp Garland in Oklahoma during the 60’s I found some sassafras saplings and dug them up. It was east to identify sassafras by its leaves, as you showed. And the aroma and flavor of the roots confirmed the identification. Naturally I shared the roots with my troop members, kids my age. The taste was really delightful! There was a downside, though. One kid peed his sleeping bag that night. The root contains a diuretic. Thanks for sharing! Fun chemistry demo!
I tried making my own rootbeer when i was in the seventh grade. Thats been 45 years ago. Enjoyed the whole video, very informative. Again, super job on the video.
You can make original rootbeer in a similar fashion to ginger beer: make a tea with your sassafrass bark and other desired herbs, use demerara sugar for extra goods. Add some homemade gingerbug to ferment the fizz into it, bottle it up and let it ferment for a few days to a week. The fermented fizz gives it a wonderfully olde timey flavour.
@@craigb8228 I mean, it's just a steam distillation yeah? Not so different with how you make hard alcohol. I have a friend who makes absinthe by steeping the herbs in everclear than steam distilling it and diluting to the desired ABV.
You must be a bit careful . Once it's fizzy enough , store it somewhere cold or drink it up quick , If it keeps fermenting , it will get so it all fizzes out when opened , The next stage is bottles exploding like small grenades !!!
When I was a teenager I discovered sassafras trees back on my family's property and actually made my own rudimentary root beer. I simply boiled the roots because that's the process I had and I have to say, your process is much more elegant and I love it!
@@desperadodeluxe2292bro I went to the rainbow gathering in Bristol TN in like.. 2012-2014? I can’t remember exactly. But we drank SO MUCH sassafras tea too! 😂 🙌
@@classydarktoys5731 I went to katua near Asheville. Back in..I forgot nationals was in VT. Was it 2015? Or 16? All kinds people showed up for a small gathering. I was also at nationals in MT back in 2012? I can't remember. It was out of Missoula.
From Applalacia , we make sassafras tea pretty often. Using the bark of the larger root that is washed lightly then fully dried, it turns into red bark pieces that are sweet. You can make sun tea or boiled. Ends up a beautiful color and mild sweetness. It's a natural blood thinner, so it seems like it cools you down in the summer. Do not drink if you are already on blood thinners ! I know you were making root beer, but small roots, not dried , too much shaved off IMO. Just use the bark that shaves off and be sure to dry it. For flavor and color.
I remember buying licorice root to chew on, and maybe also sassafras. In the 70s ginseng was popular. Back in the day you could buy sugar canes to chew on, and honey in the comb - you'd chew the honey out and be left with beeswax.
I make sassafras tea just by boiling the roots for 15/20 minutes. Has a nice red color that old time birch beer used to have. I highly recommend trying it.
Mental health is one hell of a struggle, and its auch a strong opponent to face. Its a horrible thing. As someone that had her fair battle with it, im really happy to hear about your sister's book. I hope that she will be able to publish it! And thank you as well for helping her, it's an amazing thing.
It's as much of a struggle as you make it for yourself. It's a problem as old as civilization itself. The solutions have been offered for thousands of years, but instead people rely on their own perception of the issue (that's a trap, don't do it), or "modern fixes" like mind-altering drugs. Research the philosophical fixes to mental issues and then put in the work, things will improve. This guys sister might not fully understand it but she seems to be moving into the right path: progressing as a human being and working towards higher ideals. Having too much idle time, thinking about existential nihilism and stagnating as a human being are the 3 things that will send you right to the depths of hell mentally. There are external drivers as well, but unless they can be changed only focus on what's in your control.
@@chrishayes5755As someone whose mental health has taken a major nose dive... I could've disagree more with what you've said. 😞 When your mental state saps every ounce of interest in everything, and robs you of motivation and desire, it becomes impossible to force yourself to do the things you mention which will "cure" (or alleviate) one's depression! Yes, for some, it's not a struggle, and those things will undoubtedly help them... For others, like myself, I laugh at the audacity to claim such things. My uncle (who I never met) began to distance himself from my mom's side of the family and eventually fell off the radar around his late 30s. Despite my mom's best attempts to track him down and/or his fate, she's been unable (any records are sealed and unobtainable, for whatever reason). Sadly, I'm 100% confident that he took his own life... Because, unfortunately, that's where I'm at. I'm 40 now, but the last 2 years have seen a sharp drop in my mental health, despite medication which had been working fine. Before, I wanted to get better, whereas now, I inexplicably_DON'T_ want to. My *genuine desire* is to cease to exist. Strangely, the thought of *_that_* is what makes me feel happy... 🤷♂️ Something in my brain has tripped, and I'm certain that happened to my uncle as well, given I have the same desire of wanting nothing to do with anyone and everyone. I just want to die, or baring that, be completely alone and isolated. (my only interest in communicating with others is through YT comments; probably due to it not being personal and the anonymity) I only say this, to educate you, that you're not as right as you think you are. Because yes, I'm sure mental health problems ARE as old as society is... But society also did not have the lifespans that we do today. Just as well, I'm sure suicides have also been a part of society for equally as long, and just further prove that what you say is not as correct as you may feel it to be. I briefly had a doctor like you, who thought she had ask the answers and refused to continue writing the one prescription for the medication that actually helped me... So arrogant in her analysis of my mental health. Worst doctor I've ever met, simply because she wasn't open minded. I don't expect you'll actually take to heart what I've told you, which is fine as you're probably no different from that doctor. Assuming you even made it this far down this wall of text... 😊 _[note: to anyone else reading this - rest assured, this is _*_not_*_ a 'cry for help' by me; I'm just trying to enlighten this person, which simply requires total honesty and transparency on my part.]_
@@moriahthewriter Hi 👋🏻 Moriah 😊, I just found this channel today, this homemade Rootbeer video is the first one I’ve watched. Your brothers videos are interesting, highly entertaining and informative to watch. Judging by the comments section a ton of people seem to agree. It’s filled with comments from people of every age from kids to 90 year olds ! 😄 Pretty rare to have such a large cross section of people all talking about the same thing. Nice of your brother to mention what you are going through as I’m sure it’s not easy at times and also to try and get some help to have your book published! 🙂 He obviously cares about you a lot! ❤️ as a Big Bro is supposed to! ( I love my little sister too! she’s an awesome person and I will do anything I can to help her no matter what it is. All she has to do is ask and tell me what she needs from me and I will do it ! ) It is nothing to be embarrassed about. Just worry about being a good person and dealing with things the best way you can while you seek help and work your way through it all. Remember to not be too hard on yourself and give it some time. Everyone has problems of some kind no matter who they are ! ( those who say they don’t , have other types of problems in their life , or they are easily able to hide it or just plain lying) I myself suffer from crazy 3 day long brutal migraine headaches due to overly stressing out about way too many things all the time but I am slowly learning to deal with that as I get older . In my case doctors weren’t a lot of help they mostly just wanted to keep prescribing pills ( which I took for years until it started affecting my stomach lining in a bad way ) looking back in hindsight a therapist may have been a better idea! I just didn’t think of that. I’ve had them ever since I was young and just a few years ago I finally figured out what is actually causing it! Far Too much stress! 😵💫 most of it self imposed unfortunately! 😄. I read something about that a long time ago but I didn’t really think much about it until I noticed one day, that is exactly what was doing it! it’s way worse for you than most people think it is. a small amount of the of the right type of stress is actually good for you , but that was definitely not what I was doing to myself all these years ! So now I just try to be a more mellow person , stay as relaxed as possible and not over react to things I can’t control and just work on things that i can do something about, almost like magic way less headaches ! 😊. Just know that you are not alone in having those issues and that you are on the right path in seeking help to deal with it. Congratulations on your #1 first new book ! That’s really impressive ! 👍🏻 I’ve always wanted to write one ! ( but I haven’t yet 😢 so you are way ahead of me there 😄 ) I hope you are doing well and continue to get even better. I also hope your new book does really well in the future and that you become a very successful world renowned writer with a great rewarding career that you love ❤️ doing something that truly makes you happy 😊, Say hello your brother and tell him to keep making interesting videos! 🙂 they really are very well done 👍🏻, best regards from B.C. 🏔️ Canada 🇨🇦 , Andy 😊
@@offgridatliberypoint You mean those pieces of paper that every single politician and judge ignores whenever they feel like it? yeah, real effective those.
I also love Root Beer. I live in S.C. and they have a soft drink called Sundrop. We've all heard of a Root Beer Float. Well I came up with the Sundrop Float. It's Sundrop with Lime Sherbet. It's fantastic
To those who don't know, the sassafras tree has 3 different leaf shapes, all possible to appear on the same tree. Duck feet, mittens, and regular ovals. Most trees will have all 3. The leaves have an interesting sweet smell
@@kretieg Wait! Don't just stop there man! Why would you do this to me? What effect do you get out of the dried crushed leaves? I am in the Great White North.... BUT! thankfully I live in the ONLY part of Canada that has this tree. So.... teach me. That I may crush my neighbors in the surprise dinner wars.
I'm almost 70 and I remember drinking home-made rootbeer "way back when" and it absolutely gave me a nice "buzz" similar to that which beer and other alcoholic stuff did when I had my chance to start 'sneakin'' it a few years later.
As I remember, it wasn't as sweet-tasting as the A&W and Hires Root Beer. But, it sure didn't take long to get used to it! There was a slight "yeast" taste to it. Apparently, my friend's dad lost several bottles of that batch due to pressure build-up in the bottles.@@GodOfLovers1111
When I was a kid my Aunt use to make homemade root beer she used hops and sugar and the roots! It was always Awsome! Unfortunately I don't have her recipe ❤❤❤❤
Bros account is like the ultimate form of all the other science youtubers past and present. The king of random, styropyro, Nilered, extractions and ire. A true student of the internet. I applaud you man
I make my rootbeer extract with wintergreen, sassafras, sarsaparilla, cherry bark, and ginger powder. You can get safrole containing sassafras from most small farms- since they don't have the ability to extract the safrole before sale. I use an ethanol and PG mix in a drop funnel to extract. Turns out pretty awesome tbh.
I grew up drinking sassafras tea. I was always told it's best to dig the roots in the winter when then roots have a higher concentration of the good stuff.
I remember my grandma making sassafras tea when I was a kid. She'd get me and my brother to dig up roots from the sassafras trees in her back yard. I will never forget that amazing smell.❤
I was taught 60yrs ago in scouting that the best way to harvest sassafras is early spring. A walk thru woods with it you'll notice if your paying attention you can find it by smell!! Also the sap has begun flowing so you get pungent root!! I've heard the herb can build up in you if you drink it like a beverage for an extended time.
@@Roosters-rants1977for reference; drinking 2 sodas a day would give you diabetes in around 5-14 years 32 a day would kill you from a overdose of sugar. The only reason is because they don’t want you taking mdma, because as a drug it makes you empathical. Which would mean you would not agree with the government. Since they are immoral
If the US government banned it, it's because some corrupt Tammany hall-style democrat owned a chemical plant for the substitute and wanted it gone so he'd make a fortune. That's how the US works. This is still PT Barnum's country and it ALWAYS will be
I have mental health troubles too and please tell her that i want to congratulate her for writing a book and I wish her all the best in getting the funds to self publish it and I wish her all the best in life. I know how hard life can be for people like us, and she is an inspiration that we can be great functional parts of society and that we can and should help each other too. I hope her suffering goes away or is able to be managed with medication and therapy. Also, she should be very proud of herself. Please pass this message on to her. Thank you, Kevin B.
I grew up drinking sassafrass tea - hot and cold - at my grandmother's table and have missed it for years. I recently discovered a plant known variously as root beer plant, holy leaf (hoja santa in Mexico) and Mexican pepperleaf. It's packed with safrole and smells an tastes much like sassafras. I'll take a small leaf and crush it a bit, roll it up and stick into an bottle of carbonated water then seal it, leaving it for a day or so. Then I pour out a bit of the water and mix in sweetener with it then pour the rest of the infused water over the sugar mixture, stir gently and add ice. It makes a pretty good drink, real close to a good sassafras based root beer.
I’ve drank tea made from the root my whole life lol. The way you’ve made it is way more complicated. If you get the root in winter it’s way stronger. But I don’t use the bark I shave it off and let the root dry. Once it’s dried I split it and boil the root the longer you boil it the stronger the tea. After it’s finished I just add sugar to taste and chill it for a few hours.
I’m 45 and remember when I was growing up, my mom used to go in the fall to the woods to collect sassafras roots to keep on hand for when were sick with colds, flus and upper respiratory infections. She had an old recipe for us to use from my grandma who was a healer in the backwoods of South Alabama. I don’t remember the way they made the remedy, but it cleared the cold and flu or upper respiratory infections quicker than using antibiotics or whatever the doctors gave us. I just remember how good it tasted when it was warm and the taste was delicious 😋. I loved watching how you made the sassafras oil.
In 1986 I walked into my local town chemical supplier and bought a 500ml bottle of isosafrole. I had special ordered it. The guy looked ta me kind of weird, but we made the sale and off I went to make something out of it. There's probably a statute of limitations which has passed, but still just gonna say I never did complete the synthesis.
I love that you took the time and effort to make a custom label!!! Also, the reference to Nile Red making normal stuff from weird stuff like gloves. Don't be hard on your self, he has an advanced degree and professional set up. But still you did something ridiculously cool!
I made sassafras tea throughout my childhood. I used to like the taste. Used to pound the roots to break up the fibre and add to boiling water. A bit of sugar and sometimes lemon juice. Yum!
I love walking through the woods and happening upon a sassafras tree. I’ll always grab several leaves and chew on the stems during my hike. I always referred to them as root beer trees, but never realized the flavor was concentrated in the roots. Awesome video!
I am retired, and I can remember when my grandmother made sassafras tea by boiling sassafras root, then remove the root from the tea. I can also remember buying concentrated sassafras tea in a glass jug. Be safe my friends.
I spent a lot of time in the woods in Maryland as a kid. I'd pull up a sassafras sapling wash it off in a creek and chew on the root. I think it was mostly the smell instead of flavor. This was more than 50 years ago.
Here in California, my family and I used to go up to a friend of the family's cabin in gold country. They still had some "ghost towns" (the most famous being Columbia State Park) that were surviving off tourists trades and a few would sell Sarsaparilla in the saloons and of course Sarsaparilla and Root Beer concentrated extract so that you could make them both at home after the trip. Very, very tasty. :) Thanks for the video and all my best to yourself and your sister. Carpe Diem!
seeing the surprise plug for your sister's book about her struggles with mental health made me, a woman who struggles with her own mental health and making art/creating, well up with happy tears. im so happy that she has you
Honestly, this was all news to me, as I had no idea it was banned. I just figured modern Root Beer distanced itself from "Sarsparilla" drinks because consumers like it more. For that matter, want even aware that the ""Micro-Brew"" Sarsparilla markers likely weren't using it in their sodas! _(what even do we call small-scale soda makers? lol)_ In other words: I'm similarly jealous! 😅
@@JB-fh1bb Yea man! Total 🤯 (or that safrole is a precusor to making MDMA, coming from the comments here; or that pepper is as well, for that matter! 🫨🤪)
I used to make sassafras tea. The old "cowboy" name for root beer is "sarsparilla" or "sasparilla." You see it mentioned in old time cowboy TV shows and movies - it was a non-alcoholic beverage. A lot of the time a character would go up to a bar and tell the bartender he wanted a sasparilla and the entire bar would break out laughing at him, for not ordering alcohol.
Grew up making sassafras tea, never knew it was banned. Great video, so wholesome you gave your sister a shout out, I wish her the best and sounds like a good read.
Americana brand rootbeer still uses sassafras, and thus is my favorite rootbeer. Unfortunately it's very rare to come across (usually vintage style soda shops). I actually forage for sassafras to make homemade rootbeer
My great-aunt use to make Sassafras tea every summer when I would go stay with her in the summer when I was a kid, she had sassafras trees on her land in the eastern Kentucky Appalachian mountains. IT IS ADDICTIVE! Nothing tastes quiet like it, and the concentrate you can buy in the store just isn't the same as getting fresh roots yourself.
I just stumbled on this video, and enjoyed it. In the early '80s, I attempted to make root beer "tea" by boiling sassafras roots, but it didn't come out well. I'd heard about the natural stuff being considered carcinogenic, and figured it was probably about like with cyclamates, so your description was no surprise. If you're going to make more carbonated soft drinks, I suggest putting together a simple force carbonation setup. I used to make seltzer at home, using an ordinary 2L bottle, a CO2 bottle, and some fittings and hose. I'm sure you can find various examples online. I used a tire valve fitted into the lid of the 2L bottle, and an inflator fitting on the hose from the CO2 bottle. This way, you get better carbonation than by adding carbonated water (or club soda, which has more to it) to a flat liquid.
It's rather funny that both of the names of root beer are references to ingredients no longer in the stuff. Root beer used to be called sarsaparilla (the "sarsa" is pronounced as "sass") which is also in reference to being made from sassafras roots.
Cola also isn't made from Kola Nut anymore. It's just cheaper for big companies to make artificial food than to continue selling what the original product was.
Stuff like this is what keeps me coming back to youtube in spite of their ridiculous policies and politics. Who knew some smart chemist would go through all this to make a little old fashioned root beer. And by the way, the dummy version of this also works pretty well and I did it a few times as a kid. By that I mean just digging up sassafras roots, chopping them up, putting in a pot of boiling water and after 15 minutes of boiling remove the roots and boil away a lot of the water. Add sugar you you have good tea that everyone always says "tastes like root beer" and ain't too bad!
My dad made root beer as a kid. He dug up roots, came home, cleaned then boiled to roots. Added sugar to it and I think yeast for carbonation but I’m not sure. He died a few years ago and I forgot what he told me. He said it turned out great.
When I was a child in the 1940's my mom made root beer. It came in a forrm that looked like brown clay. I do not know the methods used to make the root beer, but I do remember how good it tasted. I do remember it was actually brewed, something like beer.
I love your video. As a retired chef I find your method and results fascinating. Have you ever tried a root beer brand called "Teddy's"? About 15 years ago several of my friends and I formed an informal root beer drinking club which only lasted for about 8 months. We had parties 3 or 4X a week where we ate various foods and had long bouts of intense laughter. As they say, all good things come to an end. Congratulations on successfully making your own authentic safrole root beer.
At one time sassafras was economically as important as tobacco in the south. A made up study that made it look far worse then it is allowed them to ban it and force the use of a synthetic form. You can conclude that someone in the gooberment was getting kickbacks from the company that made the chemical!
we would pick wild blue berries the first week of August. My grandmother would search for a sassafras tree. I would dig the tree out get all the roots. homemade is so much better than anything you could find in a store.
This is awesome! One note: I think you might get closer to root beer by using a soda stream (or similar) as it tends to create "large"-feeling bubbles, and that's the mouthfeel that root beer tends to have :)
Yesss, thank you so much for posting this. Never should it be illegal to harvest these psychotropics. I hope to God this doesn't get flagged and banned from UA-cam.
The banning of Safrole was officially justified by psuedoscientific rationale. "The controversy lies in the fact that further research from a third party(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) discovered that Safrole is no more likely to cause cancer in humans than indoor air, or tap water. The rats in the original study were fed impractically high amounts of safrole, even if you drank Sassafras tea every day for your life you would not be anywhere close to the amount of safrole that those rats were subject to. But the primary reason why the conclusion was in error is because when safrole breaks down during the rats digestive process it produces a possible carcinogen called 1-hydroxysafrole, This chemical is not produced when humans digest safrole nor are there any other potential carcinogens produced. On the contrary, some similar chemicals to safrole have even been proven to help humans protect against cancer, and safrole may do the same when consumed in proper quantities." Others believe it was banned because it can be used in MDMA production. This is similar to the 2A gun debate of whether or not should the majority lose rights because of the crimes of a few. "“Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under the omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” "
Awesome video! I love your video topics and constant skirting of the sometimes absurd laws. 😂 Btw, you could have made wintergreen oil from aspirin by hydrolysis and methylation. Dunno if it would've been natural enough to play the part though. Big props to a fellow chemist!
As a kid, my grandfather used to make sassafras tea. Hot or cold, good stuff. Sassafras grows wild all over our farm. He also made Sassafras wine. Man, that stuff will knock your socks off & then some. Interesting video. Most sodas today are super flat (no fizz & no bite) compared to the 50s & 60s bottled sodas. And all of them have that (slimy feeling). P.S. All the best to your sister in life's health & prosperity.
My great grandfolks made Dandelion Wine in the summer and I guess it was strong enough to put Pa under the table a-time-er-two! I Would love to try a nip of sassafras wine... bet it's amazing!
Great video! Your expositions for your techniques are very clear and I appreciate that. May I suggest using a soda siphon to add the fizz? Cold filtered water in a CO2 pressurized canister (ala, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd)? Thank you for explaining the choices you make as well, giving insight to us viewers is really helpful and also gives us the opportunity to occasionally depart from what you show, to discover something differerent. Thank you!
If you want to improve it try using a thickener like vegetable glycerin. If you want to go truly traditional you can use the banned (for this purpose) egg whites. Thickeners are always used in sodas to help the flavor coat the inside of you mouth. Since you were talking about adding wintergreen, keep in mind that wintergreen was not actually originally part of root beer, it was only added after the ban on safrole so if you want the original root beer flavor you wouldn't need it, just adding it to get that slight minty taste is fine if you like it though.
This plant is really great. It's amazing how particular the scents of this plant are. The roots smell like cola and the leaves smell like fruit loops. The roots also numb your mouth if you chew on them.
Rootbeer is by far my favourite soda. After watching this I was curious why the word for rootbeer in french (quebec) is "racinette", so I looked it up. "Racine" means root, and "ette" is a diminutive ending (basically a smaller version of the thing). In this case "ette" instead of meaning small, means condensed (referring to the extract) so the word "racinette" roughly translates back to english as "root extract", or more literally as "condensed root".
For future note,if you have any birxh trees in the woods where you found the sassafras, birch sap is wintergreen flavored. Don't tap too much, and sterilize your tap between uses, and enjoy.
Absolutely loved this & wish I knew how to do this kind of stuff myself! Lol. I hope your sister finds great success in her writing! You're a great brother!
I live in Florida but while I was in Ranger school up in Georgia, I would find my own sassafras plants and pull off the root, boil it and make my own root beer.
Growing up in NJ, there was a tree that smelled/tasted of sassafras. We would chew on twigs to get the flavor. Not sure if these trees were sassafras, but they tasted like it. I see that the tree is indigenous to NJ, so it likely was the real deal. Then there is the story of following the DDT spraying trucks on our bikes...66 years old and still alive.
When my dad was in Viet Nam they were driving down a road and one of the guys jumped out of the truck and ran into the forest. Everyone was like WTF? 10 minutes later he came back with a bunch of roots. He chewed on one and passed the rest out. It was sassafras.
It Probably has some amazing health benefits. Like how Amygdalin in Peach and Apricot pits and other stone fruits pits, or Bitter Almonds cures cancer. Spread the word. Godspeed
I grew up taking sassafras root in late winter just as the sap began to flow. This gave maximum flavor concentration in the root which we used for tea and root beer on into the summer. Yeast had to be added to get the carbonation right.
when i was a kid you could get sassafras tea concentrate at the store and it was really good. i do love a good root beer, i think my favorite currently is probably Virgil's, but Barq's is good too, it has that bite from caffeine
I remember having A&W rootbeer in the 60s from a local stand. I remember that taste and the heavy vanilla notes. I haven't found anything like it today, although I did buy a couple ounces of sassafras root at a local herb collective in the late 70s. The tea from that was quite calming.
Good first steam distillation. Since it's water, I always forego the use of a thermometer and attach a dropping funnel with a standard taper connector at the still head. Then, water can be added during the distillation without removing the heat at any time, because there's no need to open the apparatus. Give it a try sometime. Good work as always! Edit: actually I forgot. I've been using a Claisen adaptor in recent years to attach the dropping funnel. But I don't think it's super important to do so.
Very nice, didn't think the steam distillation would be that efficient! Wintergreen is not really a subtle flavor in root beer tough, it's an essential part! Your version might be something for the European market, as almost anyone rejects the wintergreen flavor here.
My general intuition would tell me that steam distillation is the way to go for refining natural oils. But I probably would have started with soxhlet extraction. That way, you can get almost all of the oils out of the root without having to use insane amounts of water.
@@piisfun Pretty much every root beer has some level of wintergreen. Believe me, I smelled mine versus plain old A&W, and the wintergreen content was obvious. It just meshes so well with the other herbs/spices (or extracts of them) that you don't generally think "mint" when you drink root beer!
It is always great to see a fellow root beer connoisseur. Trying to find the holy grail of root beer has been a goal of mine, but there's just so many different ones lol
Culver's restaurant chain made their own recipe for their Root Beer and it's the best I've found so far. I wish they'd sell it in local grocery stores. Sprecher also makes some fantastic soda - root beer, cream soda, orange dream...
We used to make sassafras tea when I was a kid. It literally grew everywhere around our farm. We could literally go out at most anytime with shovels and get sassafras roots. We would boil the roots in big batches in giant pots. The smell through the whole house was heavenly for days after we would make it. One of my first times getting a little drunk was when my dad let me have a couple coffee mugs of “Sneaky Pete” while we played DK3 together. My parents made their own soap, and made bars of it with a bit of homemade sassafras extract. It was definitely my favorite scent of soap I’ve ever used in my life.
Awesome! I love Sassafras and Root Beer too-- I can get Bundaberg (Australian imported) Root Beer that uses the actual Root along with Licorice Root, very very tasty. Really cool you made your own. Cheers!
I grew up making sassafras tea.. we made it alot simpler, we washed off the roots from the mud/dirt,, chopped up the roots bark and all to pieces about 5-6inches long, threw them into a large soup pot full of water, boil for an hour, let it sit and cool down on its own, take roots out of it add sugar , stirr,,,,,,,back in the late 70's, we would go fishing and digg roots
When I was a little boy, my grandmother in Kentucky occasionally made sassafras tea from the roots. She boiled the roots and poured off the liquid. She may have had to skim it, I don't remember. But add sugar, and it tastes much like root beer.
All my life, I've never been able to tell the difference between Sarsaparilla and Root Beer, which makes me think I have never had a traditionally flavoured version of either.
Sasparilla is a lot more bitter. I like it occasionally, but it's no where near as good as root beer. Oklahoma has good sasparilla. If you can't find real root beer, a&w in a 2 liter is as close as it gets. And no, it does not taste as good as the real stuff.. but it's as close as you can get. Go ahead and try them all. You'll find the same results. There's even a different between a&w in a 2 liter vs cans and smaller bottles.
I am a root beer connoisseur and have found Virgil's, both regular and Bavarian nutmeg versions to be quite good. I would use licorice root extract, not anise and would use real vanilla extract. I like that you had a little molasses from the brown sugar. I also like a touch of spice: clove, allspice, cinammon and nutmeg. Mainstream commercial products are all wintergreen and little else. I don't mind a little wintergreen but prefer a stronger licorice flavor. I hope you will do further experiments with this.
@@KJ6EAD Oh, I definitely recommend giving it a try, then. It's not too hard to find in the Upper Midwest. Outside the Upper Midwest, though, it is rare or unheard of. I'm sure you can order it online too.
To address some of the comments I've been getting (I wish I could address all of them personally, but there are quite a few lol):
1. Yes, I know safrole is used to make MDMA/MDA. But that is NOT why it is banned in food. You'd have to process thousands of liters of natural root beer to get any meaningful amount of safrole out, and even then, it would be contaminated with stuff like anethole (licorice/anise), which poisons the various drug syntheses with undesirable and toxic PMA. It would be completely impractical to spend thousands of dollars on root beer when you can just uproot or cultivate a few plants for free. Some have mentioned that old-fashion root beer extract was a contributing factor, since it would've contained much higher levels of safrole that could be extracted and used. Well...then why haven't they also banned almond extract? That stuff is basically a concentrated solution of benzaldehyde, and believe me, people have used it to cooked amphetamines that are much more notorious than MDMA. And again, root beer extract would still contain all of the hard-to-remove poisonous contaminants that I mentioned before, so even that would be a sub-optimal source compared to sassafras.
AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF (thanks to a commenter who brought this up): although it was made decades before, MDMA wasn't even a scheduled substance until the 80's...20 years after the safrole ban. It's therapeutic effects weren't even examined until the 70's. So as far as I'm concerned, there's no real correlation between the ban and safrole's use in drug synthesis.
2. Safrole was banned because it CAN be harmful if ingested in high doses. In low doses, it's fairly safe, which is why you can eat stuff like cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper without suffering from liver failure. That being said, safrole/sassafras is not a health food, medicine, or cure-all. It doesn't "purify the blood". It is still toxic, and any benefits from taking it are outweighed by the damage it does to your liver.
3. Plenty of you have asked about my root beer preferences and which ones I've tasted. My favorite is probably Hank's Gourmet, but A&W and its Great Value knock-off are solid choices. Some honorable mentions are: Frostie's, IBC, Barq's, Sprecher, Bawls Guarana, Triple XXX, and Sioux City...and probably more that I'm forgetting, lol. Least favorites are probably Dad's, Boylan's, and Mug (I'd still drink them though). Virgil's Bavarian Nutmeg was good, but a little weird, imo.
3.5: I recently tried birch beer, as many of you suggested, and it was pretty good! It tastes kind of like Listerine mouth wash, since the essential oil of birch is the same as wintergreen, but it wasn't bad. I still prefer root beer though!
4. When I mentioned going to Europe for "real" root beer, I was basing that comment on the fact the some countries (like Germany, according to a German chemist I know) still allow safrole in foods. It can't be added to food, but it doesn't have to be removed from it either. In other words, you could use sassafras to make root beer in some European countries. Of course, I've been told root beer is somewhat unpopular over there, so...
5. Here's why I made my root beer the way I did: this is a science/chemistry channel, therefore my focus was on extracting the safrole, not making old fashion sassafras tea the way your grandma did (hence why I didn't just steep the roots like most people do). Also, I don't have a soda stream, nor do I have the money to spend on one, so I used club soda. I've tried fermenting root beer before, and it throws off the flavor. I could've used dry ice, but that's harder to get and working with in under pressure is unnecessarily dangerous. My goal was to make something that tasted and looked like store-bought root beer, not to make a 100% all-natural brew. Hence why I was not ashamed to add extracts and food color. I tried a few other recipes found on UA-cam, but they all fell flat (sorry "Glen and Friends Cooking", cinnamon DOES NOT belong in my root beer!).
6. To everyone sharing cool stories, giving helpful advice, and complimenting me (or my sister) in any way: thank you very much, I wish I had time to personally thank all of you!
Also, to the few people complaining and insulting me because I said the words "my family's lake cabin": get over it. Not everyone on UA-cam is trying to show off. I'm not rich, and I only included that because it seemed relevant to the story.
Poor me, theyre canceling me!! Poor poor me! Oh woe is me!😂
If i'm remembering correctly its a mutagen under the ames test, it was massively used widespread in household products as an ( unsafe ) additive before it was banned.
This is kind of misinformation. There are multiple lines of research establishing the harmfulness of safrole. a single drink might not kill you, but before the ban people were exposed through multiple avenues than just root beer. It was in candles, foods, furniture polish. People did routinely Get safrole poisoning.
The point of the rat tests is to try to mirror longterm lifetime exposure in humans.
This kind of denialism is of the same chararter tobacco companies used to deny cancer claims.
Considering your love of root beer ( and it was formed without using safrole ) the ban was enacted to protect people like yourself who would have massive doses relative to body size in childhood, and would be biased to develop cancer later in life before they are 18 , and able to make their own decisions.
Consider the workers at the factories used to make these things, their doses would have been much higher, esp as a volatile oil.
@@sideeggunnecessary you making fun of him for calling out the haters?
Haha I feel bad for the losers who would get upset over the lake cabin thing, I mean jeeze. Subscribing
I liked your video. scr3w all the uptight as2h0les. Some people are just miserable.
My great granny would dig up sassafrass trees in the mountains of north Georgia and make her own sassafras tea. Died of a stroke in her sleep at the age of 93. She lived on her own until the age of 91.
I can hear the banjos now.
It was the root beer that killed her!
Availability heuristics
More like shrubs 😉
@@wesstubbs3472 No, I think it was her tired of hearing crappy jokes like yours.
I've drank sassafras tea all my life (69) and have made authenic root beer for decades. I use dried roots, brown sugar, anise but I naturally carbonate mine using champagne yeast. It doesn't add off flavors and is closest thing I've found other than the old fountain style A&W, sold at roadside stands
Exploding bottles is quite scary when it happens.
@@BonafideToolJunkie Does that happen when using an airlock?
@@BonafideToolJunkie thats why you make relief valves
Did you add more sugars to sweeten it after brewing? How did it come out?
I tried brewing hard cider using DADY, and it made the cider very tart. It really did remind me of a champagne. Tried again using Nottingham Ale Yeast, and it tasted closer to my expectations, but I somehow totally failed with the bentonite clay, and got a bit of a muddy mess.
I might try something with black cherry extract, molasses, and some type of yeast (DADY?), but I don't know if this is worth pursuing without distilling it afterward. Just a black cherry wash might not be the most appealing.
Can you share a recipe mate? I’d appreciate it, my late great grandmother used to make it for me. But she did it by heart. And my family hasn’t an understanding on how to make it.
I grew up in New Orleans, and we had a very large sassafras tree in our backyard. One day, I was playing with a post hole digger and dug up some of the roots and told my mother that it smelled just like root beer. She told me that her mother showed her how to make sassafras tea from the roots. I dug up some of the roots for her, and she showed me how to do it. It tastes just like root beer but without the fizz. It's been a long time since I've seen someone do this. Thank you for this content. This brought back so many memories for me.
in New Orleans we know of Sassafras because that is where file comes from.
I do miss the gumbo and crawfish boils.
@Hydrokracker1 what part are you from? I grew up in downtown just off Elysian Fields Avenue on the corner of Music and Selma.
We also had a Bay tree growing in our backyard, and my mother would pick the leaves and dry them. Almost every Monday as tradition, she would cook red beans and rice and use the Bay leaves as seasoning.
LOL. Is it still there? If so....a little extra chemistry could make for a good time.
I grew up drinking sassafras tea as a kid. My uncle would dig up a couple small pieces of root, we'd clean it and make tea. Soooooooo good
We need good pure sassafras oil to make the good extacy like we had back in the 80's
My grandma was 3/4 Cherokee. She taught me how to make sassafras tea 45 years ago! She said it was good for the body and soul! I have taught my daughter and grandsons how to make the tea! Thank you sir for bringing back some memories
Thanks for sharing 🙏
I grew up on sassafras tea just north of where the tree is common. It was precious to us and we put effort into obtaining it. Hoktahay
cringe
hahahah. yal are high as hell.
Post the recipe for me please
The wintergreen you're missing is the thing they replaced sassafras with when it got banned. You should try birch beer and spruce beer and other alternatives to get a sense of the variety.
Birch beer is amazing it's just hard to find
@@Thehumplik I remember that from Royal Castle.
i'm big on the ginger beer lately. lots of native sassafras in my area, though, so i'm going to play chemist.
They replaced Sassafras with Sarsaparilla, which is a different but similarly flavored plant
@@pb_cheetah3844 Sarsaparilla is a similar but distinct beverage, though some would consider it a type of rootbeer. Apparently in the US it's actually usually made with Birch oil, though the Sarsaparilla and Birch beer soda extracts I have are quite distinct from each other.
You need to try sassafras tea, you basically boil the root in water, sweeten with sugar. We did this as children, such lovely memories.
It can also get you high if you have the right genetics or medication
@@2010RSHACKSI'm willing to test that theory. For science.
Mom Mellow Yellow!
We added ginger and sweetened with honey
@@sjb3460no no no sassafras is actually one of the softer of hardwoods. Easy to work and a remarkable smell.
I am part Cherokee 25% from the Carolinas and I love sassafras tea made it myself 68 years old I'm living the life a very healthy man
I'm a woodworker and years ago a friend gave me a bunch of sassafras lumber. When working it, the smell of root beer was all around the shop. What a great smell...and great lumber to work with.
Try milling Yellow Alaskan Cedar! its fowl😂
@@the_famous_reply_guysounds good for anti pest and rodent uses
There’s an old house on the Natchez trace near me. It was framed with sassafras, poplar, and oak.
"It's banned because, uh... cancer. Definitely not because MDMA. We're always here to help." - The Government
Shoutout to the FDA. Protecting the American citizenry from cancer for countless generations. Nicotine? No way thats a drug, no way that can give you cancer. Better get rid of this saffrole thing tho
There are many similar mistakes without any connection to any drugs.
At least you also know the real reason why it’s banned. It’s a damn shame.
There is always that one loud mouth a$$ in every crowd 🙄
It was banned from food way before they started using it as a MDMA precursor, they didn't get around to banning sasafrass oil until about 2005.
"Government-Banned Root Beer" is a phrase I never thought I'd ever read.
What about government banned gooseberries?
Now "Goverment-Banned Cola" is something ive been waiting for
Gov banned poppies.... smh
@@killpidone
What about Kinder Eggs?
There’s so much stuff the FDA has banned that have since been proven to be safe. The one that gets me is bisongrass.
Back in the 70's my grandfather was just starting to close down his birch still. They produced birch oil for many years for soda companies. Black Birch logs were stripped of bark and placed into copper lined boxes and steamed. The liquid after steaming was heated and condensed into a wooden box that had a collection jar. It operated the same way as a corn mash still. Artificial flavoring did them in but the still was still standing till mid 80's and you could still smell the birch smell.
So sad. Especially since artificial flavorings are toxic to the body, but herbal ones offered some nutritional components.
What sodas was birch oil in? I just got some birch beverages I ordered from Poland that I'm trying later today (not for b.fast!). I remember root beer tasting quite different as a kid in the early 60s - far less sugar and more spice. It was always my favorite. It wasn't really like pop. It was something different. Now it has antifreeze in it (so does ice cream), which I think is sweet. Which is why if your pet licks it off the garage floor it's extremely dangerous - kidneys, I think. But yet it's allowed in our food.
@@Lee-jh6cr Any Birch flavored soda had it in it. Now you can only find it in small batches of specialty soda.
@@Lee-jh6cr there are several forms of antifreeze, one type is harmless the other toxic, the food grade one is Propyl en glycol, the lethal one is Ethylene Glycol, both are sweet to taste
Very informative. For those interested, harvesting the sassafras root toward the end of winter is the optimal time. Since all of the sassafras tree’s nutrients, like safrole oil, are concentrated within the root system, as the tree “hibernates” during winter.
Though this makes it more difficult to identify, and must be found via bark pattern identification.
Put ribbons on them during the summer. :)
My grandma would always tell me that when she was a kid, durring chistmas, her dad would harvest sassafras root and they'd knaw on it as a winter treat. I was able to experience that myself a few years ago and all i got was funky tasting wood.
@@marklucas3140
You took the words out of my mouth. 🤙
idk if its true but i heard when it comes to harvesting some wild plants you're supposed to use that to grow 5-10 generations till its "clean" or free from whatever contaminants might've been where it grew. is that true or just a suggestion?
ua-cam.com/video/s3foM-WRGNs/v-deo.htmlsi=zAQzs1U2WErLlYr8
When I was a kid A&W had home brewing kits in grocery stores. I had it once and it was the best tasting drink I ever had. The key that you missed is actually brewing it with yeast. This creates a carbonation with really small bubbles and thuse a super smooth taste. Despite that, great video.
Was going to come down here and say this. My grandfather brewed his own with yeast used to make the carbonation a couple times when I was young. It really changes the flavor, not that underlying "minty" root beer flavor, but it adds notes of regular beer flavor, that yeasty bready flavor. It was... so incredibly good.
My mom made it a washtub. It was warm uncarbonated, and terrible. Taste like shit.
makes me wonder if you could just substitute it with Malt? I always find malt powder to smell and have some notes in some root beers i've had
@@davidglenn6219 😂
@@davidglenn6219 - You've eaten some pretty interesting things huh?
Thanks for the support, Zach
Hey Moriah! Already subscribed to your newsletter.
(Guys, as Zach said at the beginning of the video, you're giving away a lot of personal information. Be careful please!)
Good luck on your journey to publishing! There are a lot of folks out there unknowingly waiting to support your work
As a fellow sufferer, I wish you all the best, and may your book become a best seller! 🤞😌🤞
I must say it's a good title. Ad(at/in/of) bellum(war/battle/struggle). Best of luck with the publishing.
How long is your book "Ad Bellum"? Like word count : )
I used to love rootbeer floats with A&W rootbeer and french vanilla ice cream... The ice cream would crystalize and taste sooooo good... Thanks for all the info on how to make rootbeer... 🙂
OMG! Rootbeer floats are the best! 😊
While at Boy Scout Camp Garland in Oklahoma during the 60’s I found some sassafras saplings and dug them up. It was east to identify sassafras by its leaves, as you showed. And the aroma and flavor of the roots confirmed the identification.
Naturally I shared the roots with my troop members, kids my age. The taste was really delightful!
There was a downside, though. One kid peed his sleeping bag that night. The root contains a diuretic.
Thanks for sharing! Fun chemistry demo!
Pee pants!
ua-cam.com/video/s3foM-WRGNs/v-deo.htmlsi=zAQzs1U2WErLlYr8
@@BladeRunner25463cis that what they use to call you in 1954?
Good to know thanks
@@LuccianoNova led poisoning workin overtime.
Sassafras leaves, when dried and powdered, are known as "Filé", which is used as a seasoning and thickener in Cajun food like gumbo.
Is that what File is ? I used to live in Texas and had a good friend from Louisiana. I was told “ file “ was a required spice for Boudin.
@@bluecollar58it's a finisher put it on right before you eat it to your desire thickens it also 😋
jambalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo...
file goes on top of the gumbo
I legit never heard of any of these foods. What's a gumbo??? 😅 filé for me means fillet
You’re a great brother! As a father your support for your sister brought a tear to my eye.
❤
I signed up for the newsletter. I’ve got some mental health challenges and like to support people who want to reach out and help others.
I tried making my own rootbeer when i was in the seventh grade.
Thats been 45 years ago.
Enjoyed the whole video, very informative.
Again, super job on the video.
You can make original rootbeer in a similar fashion to ginger beer: make a tea with your sassafrass bark and other desired herbs, use demerara sugar for extra goods. Add some homemade gingerbug to ferment the fizz into it, bottle it up and let it ferment for a few days to a week. The fermented fizz gives it a wonderfully olde timey flavour.
The way he refines it makes me think of the moonshine made with ethanol.
@@craigb8228 I mean, it's just a steam distillation yeah? Not so different with how you make hard alcohol. I have a friend who makes absinthe by steeping the herbs in everclear than steam distilling it and diluting to the desired ABV.
Ummmm roots produce more pronounced flavor.
@@joeyl.rowland4153 Thats what i meant, sorry XD
You must be a bit careful . Once it's fizzy enough , store it somewhere cold or drink it up quick , If it keeps fermenting , it will get so it all fizzes out when opened , The next stage is bottles exploding like small grenades !!!
When I was a teenager I discovered sassafras trees back on my family's property and actually made my own rudimentary root beer. I simply boiled the roots because that's the process I had and I have to say, your process is much more elegant and I love it!
At a rainbow gathering they spent a long time boiling it and made some tea.
@@desperadodeluxe2292bro I went to the rainbow gathering in Bristol TN in like.. 2012-2014? I can’t remember exactly. But we drank SO MUCH sassafras tea too! 😂 🙌
@@classydarktoys5731 I went to katua near Asheville. Back in..I forgot nationals was in VT. Was it 2015? Or 16?
All kinds people showed up for a small gathering.
I was also at nationals in MT back in 2012? I can't remember. It was out of Missoula.
@@classydarktoys5731I was at the rainbow gathering in Grand Marais Minnesota in 1990. I dropped a lot of acid.
From Applalacia , we make sassafras tea pretty often. Using the bark of the larger root that is washed lightly then fully dried, it turns into red bark pieces that are sweet. You can make sun tea or boiled. Ends up a beautiful color and mild sweetness. It's a natural blood thinner, so it seems like it cools you down in the summer. Do not drink if you are already on blood thinners ! I know you were making root beer, but small roots, not dried , too much shaved off IMO. Just use the bark that shaves off and be sure to dry it. For flavor and color.
YEP! Same here growing up. I miss it now,
You can do the same with Birch. Those ole Amish and Mennonites still make it to this very day
Used to drink it as a kid, it gave me a bloody nose when I drank it
I grew up on it too. If you get the notion to make it.. Try a little tickle tongue, in the tea. Its pretty good.
@@tommysmith3514what’s tickle tongue?
I remember buying licorice root to chew on, and maybe also sassafras. In the 70s ginseng was popular. Back in the day you could buy sugar canes to chew on, and honey in the comb - you'd chew the honey out and be left with beeswax.
I make sassafras tea just by boiling the roots for 15/20 minutes. Has a nice red color that old time birch beer used to have. I highly recommend trying it.
Mental health is one hell of a struggle, and its auch a strong opponent to face. Its a horrible thing. As someone that had her fair battle with it, im really happy to hear about your sister's book. I hope that she will be able to publish it! And thank you as well for helping her, it's an amazing thing.
It's as much of a struggle as you make it for yourself. It's a problem as old as civilization itself. The solutions have been offered for thousands of years, but instead people rely on their own perception of the issue (that's a trap, don't do it), or "modern fixes" like mind-altering drugs. Research the philosophical fixes to mental issues and then put in the work, things will improve. This guys sister might not fully understand it but she seems to be moving into the right path: progressing as a human being and working towards higher ideals.
Having too much idle time, thinking about existential nihilism and stagnating as a human being are the 3 things that will send you right to the depths of hell mentally. There are external drivers as well, but unless they can be changed only focus on what's in your control.
@chrishayes5755 That’s a very based comment, I completely agree. There are exceptions though, like schizophrenia.
@@chrishayes5755As someone whose mental health has taken a major nose dive... I could've disagree more with what you've said. 😞
When your mental state saps every ounce of interest in everything, and robs you of motivation and desire, it becomes impossible to force yourself to do the things you mention which will "cure" (or alleviate) one's depression!
Yes, for some, it's not a struggle, and those things will undoubtedly help them...
For others, like myself, I laugh at the audacity to claim such things.
My uncle (who I never met) began to distance himself from my mom's side of the family and eventually fell off the radar around his late 30s. Despite my mom's best attempts to track him down and/or his fate, she's been unable (any records are sealed and unobtainable, for whatever reason).
Sadly, I'm 100% confident that he took his own life... Because, unfortunately, that's where I'm at. I'm 40 now, but the last 2 years have seen a sharp drop in my mental health, despite medication which had been working fine. Before, I wanted to get better, whereas now, I inexplicably_DON'T_ want to. My *genuine desire* is to cease to exist. Strangely, the thought of *_that_* is what makes me feel happy... 🤷♂️
Something in my brain has tripped, and I'm certain that happened to my uncle as well, given I have the same desire of wanting nothing to do with anyone and everyone. I just want to die, or baring that, be completely alone and isolated. (my only interest in communicating with others is through YT comments; probably due to it not being personal and the anonymity)
I only say this, to educate you, that you're not as right as you think you are. Because yes, I'm sure mental health problems ARE as old as society is... But society also did not have the lifespans that we do today. Just as well, I'm sure suicides have also been a part of society for equally as long, and just further prove that what you say is not as correct as you may feel it to be.
I briefly had a doctor like you, who thought she had ask the answers and refused to continue writing the one prescription for the medication that actually helped me... So arrogant in her analysis of my mental health. Worst doctor I've ever met, simply because she wasn't open minded.
I don't expect you'll actually take to heart what I've told you, which is fine as you're probably no different from that doctor. Assuming you even made it this far down this wall of text... 😊
_[note: to anyone else reading this - rest assured, this is _*_not_*_ a 'cry for help' by me; I'm just trying to enlighten this person, which simply requires total honesty and transparency on my part.]_
@@moriahthewriter Hi 👋🏻 Moriah 😊, I just found this channel today, this homemade Rootbeer video is the first one I’ve watched. Your brothers videos are interesting, highly entertaining and informative to watch. Judging by the comments section a ton of people seem to agree. It’s filled with comments from people of every age from kids to 90 year olds ! 😄 Pretty rare to have such a large cross section of people all talking about the same thing.
Nice of your brother to mention what you are going through as I’m sure it’s not easy at times and also to try and get some help to have your book published! 🙂 He obviously cares about you a lot! ❤️ as a Big Bro is supposed to! ( I love my little sister too! she’s an awesome person and I will do anything I can to help her no matter what it is. All she has to do is ask and tell me what she needs from me and I will do it ! ) It is nothing to be embarrassed about. Just worry about being a good person and dealing with things the best way you can while you seek help and work your way through it all. Remember to not be too hard on yourself and give it some time. Everyone has problems of some kind no matter who they are ! ( those who say they don’t , have other types of problems in their life , or they are easily able to hide it or just plain lying) I myself suffer from crazy 3 day long brutal migraine headaches due to overly stressing out about way too many things all the time but I am slowly learning to deal with that as I get older . In my case doctors weren’t a lot of help they mostly just wanted to keep prescribing pills ( which I took for years until it started affecting my stomach lining in a bad way ) looking back in hindsight a therapist may have been a better idea! I just didn’t think of that. I’ve had them ever since I was young and just a few years ago I finally figured out what is actually causing it! Far Too much stress! 😵💫 most of it self imposed unfortunately! 😄. I read something about that a long time ago but I didn’t really think much about it until I noticed one day, that is exactly what was doing it! it’s way worse for you than most people think it is. a small amount of the of the right type of stress is actually good for you , but that was definitely not what I was doing to myself all these years ! So now I just try to be a more mellow person , stay as relaxed as possible and not over react to things I can’t control and just work on things that i can do something about, almost like magic way less headaches ! 😊. Just know that you are not alone in having those issues and that you are on the right path in seeking help to deal with it. Congratulations on your #1 first new book ! That’s really impressive ! 👍🏻 I’ve always wanted to write one ! ( but I haven’t yet 😢 so you are way ahead of me there 😄 ) I hope you are doing well and continue to get even better. I also hope your new book does really well in the future and that you become a very successful world renowned writer with a great rewarding career that you love ❤️ doing something that truly makes you happy 😊, Say hello your brother and tell him to keep making interesting videos! 🙂 they really are very well done 👍🏻, best regards from B.C. 🏔️ Canada 🇨🇦 , Andy 😊
This man loves walking the razors edge of legality and I love it. Always wanted to try the old school root beer.
Did you quit making content EM? Haven't seen any vids from you in a while.
We are free men in America. He can do what he wants as long as he doesn't harm others. Learn the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
@@offgridatliberypointI did hurt anyone doing heroin but they still threw my ass in jail.
@@offgridatliberypoint You mean those pieces of paper that every single politician and judge ignores whenever they feel like it? yeah, real effective those.
@@offgridatliberypointexactly
I also love Root Beer. I live in S.C. and they have a soft drink called Sundrop. We've all heard of a Root Beer Float. Well I came up with the Sundrop Float. It's Sundrop with Lime Sherbet. It's fantastic
To those who don't know, the sassafras tree has 3 different leaf shapes, all possible to appear on the same tree. Duck feet, mittens, and regular ovals. Most trees will have all 3. The leaves have an interesting sweet smell
The dried, crushed leaves go in my gumbo.
Elm leaves resemble poison ivy
And when young are great to chew !
@@kretieg Wait! Don't just stop there man! Why would you do this to me? What effect do you get out of the dried crushed leaves? I am in the Great White North.... BUT! thankfully I live in the ONLY part of Canada that has this tree. So.... teach me. That I may crush my neighbors in the surprise dinner wars.
Old timers used it for toothpicks
I'm almost 70 and I remember drinking home-made rootbeer "way back when" and it absolutely gave me a nice "buzz" similar to that which beer and other alcoholic stuff did when I had my chance to start 'sneakin'' it a few years later.
I'd love to try the real stuff
As I remember, it wasn't as sweet-tasting as the A&W and Hires Root Beer. But, it sure didn't take long to get used to it! There was a slight "yeast" taste to it. Apparently, my friend's dad lost several bottles of that batch due to pressure build-up in the bottles.@@GodOfLovers1111
When I was a kid my Aunt use to make homemade root beer she used hops and sugar and the roots! It was always Awsome! Unfortunately I don't have her recipe ❤❤❤❤
Bros account is like the ultimate form of all the other science youtubers past and present. The king of random, styropyro, Nilered, extractions and ire. A true student of the internet. I applaud you man
When I saw the title I thought it was a Nilered video. Happy to add more like it to my sub list
I liked the Nilered reference right at the end about making soda flavouring out of plastic gloves, this man clearly knows the ones who came before him
If styropyro made this, homeland security would've had to get involved before the resulting WMD got into the wrong hands.
I make my rootbeer extract with wintergreen, sassafras, sarsaparilla, cherry bark, and ginger powder. You can get safrole containing sassafras from most small farms- since they don't have the ability to extract the safrole before sale. I use an ethanol and PG mix in a drop funnel to extract. Turns out pretty awesome tbh.
Whats PG ?
And tbj
@@michaelvaldez3684 propylene glycol, and tbh means "to be honest"
@@michaelvaldez3684
To be honest.
@@michaelvaldez3684
Propylene glycol
Love that you’re supporting your sister. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety and i will definitely check out the newsletter.
I grew up drinking sassafras tea. I was always told it's best to dig the roots in the winter when then roots have a higher concentration of the good stuff.
Badass move posting your sister's work for your followers. Clearly a good brother indeed 👍
That's why I subscribed both channels
Can you post his sisters link?
I remember my grandma making sassafras tea when I was a kid. She'd get me and my brother to dig up roots from the sassafras trees in her back yard. I will never forget that amazing smell.❤
I was taught 60yrs ago in scouting that the best way to harvest sassafras is early spring. A walk thru woods with it you'll notice if your paying attention you can find it by smell!! Also the sap has begun flowing so you get pungent root!! I've heard the herb can build up in you if you drink it like a beverage for an extended time.
Safrole is bad for you in excess....."here's some yellow number 5 and 6" - the government
Yup. Companies have to change the ingredients to sell overseas. They won't allow their people to be poisoned.
Not to mention sulfates/sulfur dioxide, and many other preservatives.
Safrole is the precursor of ecstasy. It's banning had nothing to do with health affects. They aren't going to tell you it's basically MDMA
@@Roosters-rants1977for reference; drinking 2 sodas a day would give you diabetes in around 5-14 years
32 a day would kill you from a overdose of sugar.
The only reason is because they don’t want you taking mdma, because as a drug it makes you empathical. Which would mean you would not agree with the government. Since they are immoral
If the US government banned it, it's because some corrupt Tammany hall-style democrat owned a chemical plant for the substitute and wanted it gone so he'd make a fortune. That's how the US works. This is still PT Barnum's country and it ALWAYS will be
I have mental health troubles too and please tell her that i want to congratulate her for writing a book and I wish her all the best in getting the funds to self publish it and I wish her all the best in life. I know how hard life can be for people like us, and she is an inspiration that we can be great functional parts of society and that we can and should help each other too. I hope her suffering goes away or is able to be managed with medication and therapy. Also, she should be very proud of herself. Please pass this message on to her.
Thank you,
Kevin B.
I grew up drinking sassafrass tea - hot and cold - at my grandmother's table and have missed it for years. I recently discovered a plant known variously as root beer plant, holy leaf (hoja santa in Mexico) and Mexican pepperleaf. It's packed with safrole and smells an tastes much like sassafras.
I'll take a small leaf and crush it a bit, roll it up and stick into an bottle of carbonated water then seal it, leaving it for a day or so. Then I pour out a bit of the water and mix in sweetener with it then pour the rest of the infused water over the sugar mixture, stir gently and add ice. It makes a pretty good drink, real close to a good sassafras based root beer.
The root of a burdock is suppose to be similar.I haven't tried it yet but plan to very soon.
That's what I use!! Fizzy Water Kefir root beer!! YUMMY!!!
@@lissa755 I buy the healing liquid burdock root from pipingrock - yummy!
Great video and good job supporting your sister. I can assure you that your support means the world to her.
I’ve drank tea made from the root my whole life lol. The way you’ve made it is way more complicated. If you get the root in winter it’s way stronger. But I don’t use the bark I shave it off and let the root dry. Once it’s dried I split it and boil the root the longer you boil it the stronger the tea. After it’s finished I just add sugar to taste and chill it for a few hours.
I got my stuffs delivered discreetly by this mycologist whose got MDMA, chocolate bars, Isd, dmt, Mushrooms, cannabis etc
On Instagram or telegram......
@Pham_smart11
I’m 45 and remember when I was growing up, my mom used to go in the fall to the woods to collect sassafras roots to keep on hand for when were sick with colds, flus and upper respiratory infections. She had an old recipe for us to use from my grandma who was a healer in the backwoods of South Alabama. I don’t remember the way they made the remedy, but it cleared the cold and flu or upper respiratory infections quicker than using antibiotics or whatever the doctors gave us. I just remember how good it tasted when it was warm and the taste was delicious 😋.
I loved watching how you made the sassafras oil.
In 1986 I walked into my local town chemical supplier and bought a 500ml bottle of isosafrole. I had special ordered it. The guy looked ta me kind of weird, but we made the sale and off I went to make something out of it. There's probably a statute of limitations which has passed, but still just gonna say I never did complete the synthesis.
Right best to not get in trouble for making your root beer right?
This is the feds we are watching you 😊
@theodorekorehonen there are other things made from safrole
That was the "I know what you're doing, but a sale's a sale" look.
I love that you took the time and effort to make a custom label!!!
Also, the reference to Nile Red making normal stuff from weird stuff like gloves. Don't be hard on your self, he has an advanced degree and professional set up. But still you did something ridiculously cool!
I made sassafras tea throughout my childhood. I used to like the taste. Used to pound the roots to break up the fibre and add to boiling water. A bit of sugar and sometimes lemon juice. Yum!
I love walking through the woods and happening upon a sassafras tree. I’ll always grab several leaves and chew on the stems during my hike. I always referred to them as root beer trees, but never realized the flavor was concentrated in the roots. Awesome video!
I am retired, and I can remember when my grandmother made sassafras tea by boiling sassafras root, then remove the root from the tea. I can also remember buying concentrated sassafras tea in a glass jug. Be safe my friends.
Yeah that is no more because of our government.
I spent a lot of time in the woods in Maryland as a kid. I'd pull up a sassafras sapling wash it off in a creek and chew on the root. I think it was mostly the smell instead of flavor. This was more than 50 years ago.
I miss that smell and taste. Reminds me of my grandfather.
Here in California, my family and I used to go up to a friend of the family's cabin in gold country. They still had some "ghost towns" (the most famous being Columbia State Park) that were surviving off tourists trades and a few would sell Sarsaparilla in the saloons and of course Sarsaparilla and Root Beer concentrated extract so that you could make them both at home after the trip. Very, very tasty. :) Thanks for the video and all my best to yourself and your sister. Carpe Diem!
seeing the surprise plug for your sister's book about her struggles with mental health made me, a woman who struggles with her own mental health and making art/creating, well up with happy tears. im so happy that she has you
pretty much every person alive has some mental illness, it's all a matter of how much, what just happened and how you can handle it.
I've always loved the spicy smell of sassafras and wanted real safrole root beer. I'm jealous!
Honestly, this was all news to me, as I had no idea it was banned. I just figured modern Root Beer distanced itself from "Sarsparilla" drinks because consumers like it more. For that matter, want even aware that the ""Micro-Brew"" Sarsparilla markers likely weren't using it in their sodas! _(what even do we call small-scale soda makers? lol)_
In other words: I'm similarly jealous! 😅
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE Personally it blew my mind when I found out that root beer and a schedule 1 both have the same main ingredient
@@JB-fh1bb Yea man! Total 🤯
(or that safrole is a precusor to making MDMA, coming from the comments here; or that pepper is as well, for that matter! 🫨🤪)
I used to make sassafras tea. The old "cowboy" name for root beer is "sarsparilla" or "sasparilla." You see it mentioned in old time cowboy TV shows and movies - it was a non-alcoholic beverage.
A lot of the time a character would go up to a bar and tell the bartender he wanted a sasparilla and the entire bar would break out laughing at him, for not ordering alcohol.
Grew up making sassafras tea, never knew it was banned. Great video, so wholesome you gave your sister a shout out, I wish her the best and sounds like a good read.
Americana brand rootbeer still uses sassafras, and thus is my favorite rootbeer. Unfortunately it's very rare to come across (usually vintage style soda shops).
I actually forage for sassafras to make homemade rootbeer
Damn I wanna try real root beer so bad now
My great-aunt use to make Sassafras tea every summer when I would go stay with her in the summer when I was a kid, she had sassafras trees on her land in the eastern Kentucky Appalachian mountains. IT IS ADDICTIVE! Nothing tastes quiet like it, and the concentrate you can buy in the store just isn't the same as getting fresh roots yourself.
I just stumbled on this video, and enjoyed it. In the early '80s, I attempted to make root beer "tea" by boiling sassafras roots, but it didn't come out well. I'd heard about the natural stuff being considered carcinogenic, and figured it was probably about like with cyclamates, so your description was no surprise. If you're going to make more carbonated soft drinks, I suggest putting together a simple force carbonation setup. I used to make seltzer at home, using an ordinary 2L bottle, a CO2 bottle, and some fittings and hose. I'm sure you can find various examples online. I used a tire valve fitted into the lid of the 2L bottle, and an inflator fitting on the hose from the CO2 bottle. This way, you get better carbonation than by adding carbonated water (or club soda, which has more to it) to a flat liquid.
It's rather funny that both of the names of root beer are references to ingredients no longer in the stuff. Root beer used to be called sarsaparilla (the "sarsa" is pronounced as "sass") which is also in reference to being made from sassafras roots.
Cola also isn't made from Kola Nut anymore. It's just cheaper for big companies to make artificial food than to continue selling what the original product was.
Stuff like this is what keeps me coming back to youtube in spite of their ridiculous policies and politics. Who knew some smart chemist would go through all this to make a little old fashioned root beer. And by the way, the dummy version of this also works pretty well and I did it a few times as a kid. By that I mean just digging up sassafras roots, chopping them up, putting in a pot of boiling water and after 15 minutes of boiling remove the roots and boil away a lot of the water. Add sugar you you have good tea that everyone always says "tastes like root beer" and ain't too bad!
Basically what he did only using lab apparatus.
My dad made root beer as a kid. He dug up roots, came home, cleaned then boiled to roots. Added sugar to it and I think yeast for carbonation but I’m not sure. He died a few years ago and I forgot what he told me.
He said it turned out great.
I wish more people did things like this, just because they can and sheer curiosity.
When I was a child in the 1940's my mom made root beer. It came in a forrm that looked like brown clay. I do not know the methods used to make the root beer, but I do remember how good it tasted. I do remember it was actually brewed, something like beer.
I love your video. As a retired chef I find your method and results fascinating. Have you ever tried a root beer brand called "Teddy's"? About 15 years ago several of my friends and I formed an informal root beer drinking club which only lasted for about 8 months. We had parties 3 or 4X a week where we ate various foods and had long bouts of intense laughter. As they say, all good things come to an end. Congratulations on successfully making your own authentic safrole root beer.
Could you tell me which brands were decidedly preferred by your group? Thank you
At one time sassafras was economically as important as tobacco in the south. A made up study that made it look far worse then it is allowed them to ban it and force the use of a synthetic form. You can conclude that someone in the gooberment was getting kickbacks from the company that made the chemical!
Ah, there's why it was banned. Yeah like the US gov gives a SHIT about your liver or cancer or whatever, hilarious
we would pick wild blue berries the first week of August. My grandmother would search for a sassafras tree. I would dig the tree out get all the roots. homemade is so much better than anything you could find in a store.
This is awesome!
One note: I think you might get closer to root beer by using a soda stream (or similar) as it tends to create "large"-feeling bubbles, and that's the mouthfeel that root beer tends to have :)
A kid in my 6th grade class (1970);
His familyhad a tradition of making sasafras root beer.
It was delicious.
So was the tea.
Yesss, thank you so much for posting this. Never should it be illegal to harvest these psychotropics. I hope to God this doesn't get flagged and banned from UA-cam.
HALT! You have posted ILLEGAL information! You are now banned from UA-cam!
The banning of Safrole was officially justified by psuedoscientific rationale. "The controversy lies in the fact that further research from a third party(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) discovered that Safrole is no more likely to cause cancer in humans than indoor air, or tap water. The rats in the original study were fed impractically high amounts of safrole, even if you drank Sassafras tea every day for your life you would not be anywhere close to the amount of safrole that those rats were subject to. But the primary reason why the conclusion was in error is because when safrole breaks down during the rats digestive process it produces a possible carcinogen called 1-hydroxysafrole, This chemical is not produced when humans digest safrole nor are there any other potential carcinogens produced. On the contrary, some similar chemicals to safrole have even been proven to help humans protect against cancer, and safrole may do the same when consumed in proper quantities."
Others believe it was banned because it can be used in MDMA production. This is similar to the 2A gun debate of whether or not should the majority lose rights because of the crimes of a few. "“Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under the omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” "
Sassafras is not psychotropic
UA-cam downloader..What I use. I about a months worth of YT videos. 79% is gone. Keep that is mind
@robertunderwood1011 on its own, no. But it can easily be made into one, which is the reason it is still banned
Awesome video! I love your video topics and constant skirting of the sometimes absurd laws. 😂
Btw, you could have made wintergreen oil from aspirin by hydrolysis and methylation.
Dunno if it would've been natural enough to play the part though.
Big props to a fellow chemist!
As a kid, my grandfather used to make sassafras tea. Hot or cold, good stuff. Sassafras grows wild all over our farm. He also made Sassafras wine. Man, that stuff will knock your socks off & then some. Interesting video. Most sodas today are super flat (no fizz & no bite) compared to the 50s & 60s bottled sodas. And all of them have that (slimy feeling). P.S. All the best to your sister in life's health & prosperity.
My great grandfolks made Dandelion Wine in the summer and I guess it was strong enough to put Pa under the table a-time-er-two! I Would love to try a nip of sassafras wine... bet it's amazing!
Great video! Your expositions for your techniques are very clear and I appreciate that. May I suggest using a soda siphon to add the fizz? Cold filtered water in a CO2 pressurized canister (ala, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd)? Thank you for explaining the choices you make as well, giving insight to us viewers is really helpful and also gives us the opportunity to occasionally depart from what you show, to discover something differerent. Thank you!
If you want to improve it try using a thickener like vegetable glycerin. If you want to go truly traditional you can use the banned (for this purpose) egg whites. Thickeners are always used in sodas to help the flavor coat the inside of you mouth. Since you were talking about adding wintergreen, keep in mind that wintergreen was not actually originally part of root beer, it was only added after the ban on safrole so if you want the original root beer flavor you wouldn't need it, just adding it to get that slight minty taste is fine if you like it though.
This plant is really great. It's amazing how particular the scents of this plant are. The roots smell like cola and the leaves smell like fruit loops. The roots also numb your mouth if you chew on them.
Very unique. Nothing else in natural flavoring quite like it.
Rootbeer is by far my favourite soda. After watching this I was curious why the word for rootbeer in french (quebec) is "racinette", so I looked it up. "Racine" means root, and "ette" is a diminutive ending (basically a smaller version of the thing). In this case "ette" instead of meaning small, means condensed (referring to the extract) so the word "racinette" roughly translates back to english as "root extract", or more literally as "condensed root".
C'est bonne!!
For future note,if you have any birxh trees in the woods where you found the sassafras, birch sap is wintergreen flavored. Don't tap too much, and sterilize your tap between uses, and enjoy.
Absolutely loved this & wish I knew how to do this kind of stuff myself! Lol. I hope your sister finds great success in her writing! You're a great brother!
I live in Florida but while I was in Ranger school up in Georgia, I would find my own sassafras plants and pull off the root, boil it and make my own root beer.
Growing up in NJ, there was a tree that smelled/tasted of sassafras. We would chew on twigs to get the flavor. Not sure if these trees were sassafras, but they tasted like it. I see that the tree is indigenous to NJ, so it likely was the real deal. Then there is the story of following the DDT spraying trucks on our bikes...66 years old and still alive.
They used to spray ddt on the road sides in my county growing up.
Black birch or river birch most likely.
you are a respectful and educated young man. subscribing
When my dad was in Viet Nam they were driving down a road and one of the guys jumped out of the truck and ran into the forest. Everyone was like WTF? 10 minutes later he came back with a bunch of roots. He chewed on one and passed the rest out. It was sassafras.
The 3 hour Vietnam (and maybe subsequent Cambodia/ Thailand not being its proudest royal proud) movies we needed lol.
So, let me get this straight, Safrole is too dangerous to put in a soft drink but corn syrup is A-OK!
Don’t forget about high fructose corn syrup that’s ok too! Even though it’s illegal in most places. 🙄
It Probably has some amazing health benefits. Like how Amygdalin in Peach and Apricot pits and other stone fruits pits, or Bitter Almonds cures cancer. Spread the word. Godspeed
Monsanto Lobbyists…there’s your answer
It must have some good health benefits or they wouldn't ban it. I don't trust the government or big Pharma.
Corn syrup is exactly what the gov't wants us to poison ourselves with.
"It wasn't made from paint thinner or plastic gloves." I see what you did there! I love Nile Red. Subbed
I grew up taking sassafras root in late winter just as the sap began to flow. This gave maximum flavor concentration in the root which we used for tea and root beer on into the summer. Yeast had to be added to get the carbonation right.
10:05 NileRed references, took me by surprise lol
when i was a kid you could get sassafras tea concentrate at the store and it was really good. i do love a good root beer, i think my favorite currently is probably Virgil's, but Barq's is good too, it has that bite from caffeine
I remember having A&W rootbeer in the 60s from a local stand. I remember that taste and the heavy vanilla notes. I haven't found anything like it today, although I did buy a couple ounces of sassafras root at a local herb collective in the late 70s. The tea from that was quite calming.
You should try dandelion and burdock soda! It's almost the parent of root beer. I actually prefer it over regular root beer.
I have had burdock soda before. it was positively awful. Which is too bad, my yard was infested with the stuff for years.
I've had Kinpira Gobo which is made with Burdock, but I had no idea they made a soda out of it. It must taste weird.
Birch beer is good as well
@@ambulocetusnatans Nope, very similar to root beer.
Dandelion and burdock soda is great! I love Fentimans. They make the best cola too imo.
If you would like to get slightly more safrole from the roots, the best time to harvest is in the dead of winter
Good first steam distillation. Since it's water, I always forego the use of a thermometer and attach a dropping funnel with a standard taper connector at the still head. Then, water can be added during the distillation without removing the heat at any time, because there's no need to open the apparatus. Give it a try sometime. Good work as always!
Edit: actually I forgot. I've been using a Claisen adaptor in recent years to attach the dropping funnel. But I don't think it's super important to do so.
Took me a long time to pinpoint that that one tiny hint of flavor in root beer that I love so much is wintergreen. Absolutely must have it.
My grandma used to make sassafras tea and candies like.... 40 years ago. It was so awesome.
Very nice, didn't think the steam distillation would be that efficient! Wintergreen is not really a subtle flavor in root beer tough, it's an essential part! Your version might be something for the European market, as almost anyone rejects the wintergreen flavor here.
My general intuition would tell me that steam distillation is the way to go for refining natural oils. But I probably would have started with soxhlet extraction. That way, you can get almost all of the oils out of the root without having to use insane amounts of water.
@@piisfun Pretty much every root beer has some level of wintergreen. Believe me, I smelled mine versus plain old A&W, and the wintergreen content was obvious. It just meshes so well with the other herbs/spices (or extracts of them) that you don't generally think "mint" when you drink root beer!
It is always great to see a fellow root beer connoisseur. Trying to find the holy grail of root beer has been a goal of mine, but there's just so many different ones lol
To me it was Hires, but it's been discontinued since it was bought by Schwepps.
More of an afficianado myself, but I catch your drift.
New York Seltzer root beer soda is a clear favorite
Anybody who says BARQS is not a human and should be reported as a hostile alien invader
Culver's restaurant chain made their own recipe for their Root Beer and it's the best I've found so far. I wish they'd sell it in local grocery stores.
Sprecher also makes some fantastic soda - root beer, cream soda, orange dream...
We used to make sassafras tea when I was a kid. It literally grew everywhere around our farm. We could literally go out at most anytime with shovels and get sassafras roots.
We would boil the roots in big batches in giant pots. The smell through the whole house was heavenly for days after we would make it. One of my first times getting a little drunk was when my dad let me have a couple coffee mugs of “Sneaky Pete” while we played DK3 together.
My parents made their own soap, and made bars of it with a bit of homemade sassafras extract. It was definitely my favorite scent of soap I’ve ever used in my life.
Awesome! I love Sassafras and Root Beer too-- I can get Bundaberg (Australian imported) Root Beer that uses the actual Root along with Licorice Root, very very tasty. Really cool you made your own. Cheers!
We get Bundaberg in the UK supermarkets, it has that nice medicinal flavour, lovely stuff.
@@jimbo4375 Nice! Yeah it's really good, the Aussies did it right with that one.
I grew up making sassafras tea.. we made it alot simpler, we washed off the roots from the mud/dirt,, chopped up the roots bark and all to pieces about 5-6inches long, threw them into a large soup pot full of water, boil for an hour, let it sit and cool down on its own, take roots out of it add sugar , stirr,,,,,,,back in the late 70's, we would go fishing and digg roots
When I was a little boy, my grandmother in Kentucky occasionally made sassafras tea from the roots. She boiled the roots and poured off the liquid. She may have had to skim it, I don't remember. But add sugar, and it tastes much like root beer.
All my life, I've never been able to tell the difference between Sarsaparilla and Root Beer, which makes me think I have never had a traditionally flavoured version of either.
Sasparilla is a lot more bitter. I like it occasionally, but it's no where near as good as root beer. Oklahoma has good sasparilla. If you can't find real root beer, a&w in a 2 liter is as close as it gets. And no, it does not taste as good as the real stuff.. but it's as close as you can get. Go ahead and try them all. You'll find the same results. There's even a different between a&w in a 2 liter vs cans and smaller bottles.
@wesstone7571 I disagree, if the sasparilla is made right it can be just as sweet and not bitter at all. I prefer it from some makers.
@@cptblood1981 I guess I haven't had any that's good then.
This is awesome. It would be interesting to replace some of the sugars with molasses and you might be able to go without the food colouring.
I love this suggestion, but I don't know if I could handle the smokey flavor it would add. :)
Brown sugar is brown because it has molasses added to it.
I am a root beer connoisseur and have found Virgil's, both regular and Bavarian nutmeg versions to be quite good. I would use licorice root extract, not anise and would use real vanilla extract. I like that you had a little molasses from the brown sugar. I also like a touch of spice: clove, allspice, cinammon and nutmeg. Mainstream commercial products are all wintergreen and little else. I don't mind a little wintergreen but prefer a stronger licorice flavor.
I hope you will do further experiments with this.
Have you had the pleasure of trying 1919 root beer? It's by far the best I've had.
@@Swenthorian I don't think so. I had a spreadsheet of almost 100 that I'd tried, rated and commented on but left it in a computer at my old job.
@@KJ6EAD Oh, I definitely recommend giving it a try, then. It's not too hard to find in the Upper Midwest. Outside the Upper Midwest, though, it is rare or unheard of. I'm sure you can order it online too.