where did the name soft drink come from
Soft drink Soft drinks are called "soft" in contrast with "hard" alcoholic beverages. Small amounts of alcohol may be present in a soft drink, but the alcohol content must be less than 0.5% of the total volume[1][2] if the drink is to be considered non-alcoholic.[3] Fruit punch, tea, and other such non-alcoholic beverages are technically soft drinks by this definition but are not generally referred to as such.
Root beer Pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires was the first to successfully market a commercial brand of root beer. Hires developed his root tea made from sassafras in 1875, debuted a commercial version of root beer at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, and began selling his extract. Hires was a teetotaler who wanted to call the beverage "root tea". However, his desire to market the product to Pennsylvania coal miners caused him to call his product "root beer", instead.[6][7] In 1886, Hires began to bottle a beverage made from his famous extract. By 1893, root beer was distributed widely across the United States. Non-alcoholic versions of root beer became commercially successful, especially during Prohibition.[8][9]