So if you’re looking for a sweet treat without any added jittery energy, Mug Root Beer is the way to go. If you’re not a fan of normal soda drinks like coke or pepsi, then mug root beer may be your go-to beverage for some added sweetness to your day. Probably not, since the brand is proud of using real cane sugar, ‘unlike rivals who stuff their brewing barrels with fructose and corn’.

It’s a brand brewed for the US so it may be uneasy overseas where penalties against safrole and sodium benzoate are harsher than here. PepsiCo is a well-known company that manufactures a variety of different soft drinks, as well as other products. While most people know that other varieties of soda often contain caffeine, many are unsure about the caffeine content of root beer. The regular root beer comes in a 12-fluid-ounce bottle and has 40g of carbs and 40g of added sugars.But it’s defined as a ‘beer’ because traditional teas and ‘ small beers’ were safer and healthier than untreated water.

Root beers, cream sodas, and fruit-flavored sodas are usually caffeine-free, but Barq’s regular root beer, Sunkist, and Diet Sunkist are caffeinated. Different Campodonico family members continued to operate the New Century Beverage Company until they finally sold the company to Pepsi in 1986. According to reports, the reason for the possible discontinuation is concerns about the safety of sassafras bark. At left: The remains of an ad for Belfast Old Fashioned Mug Root Beer near the Fruitvale BART station, after it was uncovered in 2019.However, foods that contain added caffeine, including certain varieties of root beer, are required to list it on the ingredient label.

George Rackensperger of Frostie Enterprises brewed his first ‘prison batch’ in 1939 as a soda fountain concentrate. Many of these drinks are labeled as “energy” or “sparkling” root beers, and they usually contain stimulants such as guarana or taurine.

Mug Root Beer also contains natural extracts from plants like wintergreen and licorice root, which contribute to its signature flavor. By the time Campodonico purchased the Belfast company, he experienced success with a different soda that is also still sold to this day: Crush soda. Then in 1936, Campodonico sat on a gold mine when the New Century Beverage Company gained permission to franchise Pepsi-Cola products and became the Bay Area arm of their operation, under one condition: He had to sell 1,200 cases of Pepsi a month, a huge sales number at the time.

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. Allen teamed up with a man named Frank Wright, and the two of them began bottling and selling Mug root beer. A character with a buzz cut tells the reader, “Anybody who doesn’t drink Belfast Old Fashioned Mug Root Beer is a square,” while another character who’s dancing proclaims, “The whole gangs drinking Mug Root Beer these days. The drink was originally brewed by Edward Barq in 1898 and has 160 calories (44g sugar and 44g carbs to make 16%). We know that you may be having trouble finding some of our products and we are diligently working to ensure our production and inventory keep pace with the heightened demand.It’s not particularly spicy, but its flavor pairs well with the extreme seasoning preferences of the bayou. The recipe for Coca Cola’s root beer is a secret, but it is known that the drink contains high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, sodium benzoate, and caffeine. Although many soft drinks contain caffeine, several caffeine-free alternatives are available in a wide range of flavors across different brands.