Virgil's Root Beer is a brand of

root beer Root beer is a North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree '' Sassafras albidum'' or the vine of '' Smilax ornata'' (known as sarsaparilla; also used to make a soft drink called sarsaparilla) as the ...

that originated in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The beverage was created in 1994 by Edward Crowley and Jill Fraser Crowley, owners of Crowley Beverage Company. In 1999, Reed's Inc. purchased the Virgil's Root Beer brand from the Crowley Beverage Company.

Flavors

Virgil's Root Beer contains a blend of spices that includes

anise Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, ...

licorice Liquorice (Commonwealth English) or licorice (American English; see spelling differences; ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring is ...

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

wintergreen Wintergreen is a group of aromatic plants. The term ''wintergreen'' once commonly referred to plants that remain green (continue photosynthesis) throughout the winter. The term ''evergreen'' is now more commonly used for this characteristic. ...

, cassia oil, pimento berry oil, and balsam oil. In 1999, Virgil's started making vanilla cream, black cherry,

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

lemon-lime A lemon-lime soft drink or lemon-lime soda (also known as lemonade in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and as cider in Japan and South Korea) is a carbonated soft drink with lemon and lime flavoring. Description Lemon-lime soft dri ...

, and

cola Cola is a Carbonation, carbonated soft drink flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, citrus essential oil, oils, and other flavorings. Cola became popular worldwide after the American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, a trademarked br ...

flavors. In 2018, the company made a zero-sugar product based on a sweetener blend containing

erythritol Erythritol (, ) is an organic compound, the naturally occurring achiral meso four-carbon sugar alcohol (or polyol). It is the reduced form of either D- or L- erythrose and one of the two reduced forms of erythrulose. It is used as a food ad ...

stevia Stevia () is a sweet sugar substitute that is about 50 to 300 times sweetness, sweeter than sugar. It is extracted from the leaves of ''Stevia rebaudiana'', a plant native to areas of Paraguay and Brazil. The active compounds in stevia are ...

, and monkfruit.

In popular culture

In 2014, the brewing and bottling process of Virgil's Root Beer was presented on season 3 episode 18 of the Biography Channel's

Food Factory ''Food Factory'' is a Canadian television series produced by Cineflix airing on the Food Network (Canada), and in United States on National Geographic, Quest, and FYI. The show features the industrial production lines of major food companies, m ...

, titled "A Taste of Japan."

Lawsuit

On November 19, 2018, a

class action lawsuit A class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage R ...

was filed against Reed's Inc., doing business as Virgil's Soda, alleging that the soda brand falsely labels products as preservative-free. The plaintiff alleges that the all natural, preservative-free labelling on Virgil's Root Beer and Virgil's Orange Cream Soda is fraudulent as they contain

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the formula . It is a Transparency and translucency, colorless Weak acid, weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in Citrus, citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, ...

, which is a synthetic compound used as a preservative. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations have designated citric acid as a preservative. The plaintiff notes a previous FDA citation against

Chiquita Chiquita Brands International S.à.r.l. (), formerly known as United Fruit Co., is a Swiss company producing and distributing bananas and other produce. The company operates under subsidiary brand names, including the flagship Chiquita bran ...

for falsely claiming a product as preservative-free when it contained citric acid.

References

{{Root beer brands American soft drinks Root beer 1994 introductions