Why Brits Can’t Stand Root Beer (and Americans love it!)

To me, root beer used to be one of those flavours that didn’t need explaining. Growing up in Canada, it was there alongside Coke and Sprite, another kind of pop you could choose. Then British people started telling me it was vile, and I realised I couldn’t even describe what I liked about it properly.

By 2022, after six years living in the UK, I’d heard that disagreement often enough to want to understand it. I still loved root beer, particularly A&W, but people I’d spoken to compared it with medicine or mouthwash. Those were very different associations from my own memories of burgers and fries with my mom.

A food-court treat with my mom

When my mom and I went to the mall, we’d sometimes have lunch at A&W in the food court. A&W was a fast-food chain I liked, and we’d get burgers, fries and its root beer. That was one of the few occasions when I’d drink it.

It was always a treat rather than something I had constantly, partly because it was so sweet. I thought growing up with a flavour made a big difference to how ordinary it seemed. Root beer didn’t feel especially strange or foreign to me. It was just root beer.

Describing it to someone who hadn’t tried it was harder. I could get as far as an earthy, very sweet drink with vanilla and something that reminded me of molasses, a rich, dark sort of flavour. I even called it “brown tasting”, which probably tells you how difficult I found putting it into words.

Mouthwash wasn’t my first thought

Among the British reactions I found, people described root beer as medicinal. One person compared its smell with TCP, an antiseptic solution, while another described trying it in Canada and finding that it tasted like the mouthwash they’d had at the dentist. Those were their accounts, and I could understand why those comparisons wouldn’t make it sound appetising.

I wondered whether part of the dislike came from not growing up with it. I thought introducing an unfamiliar flavour as an adult could be difficult, and dandelion and burdock was my own comparison. I’d encountered that in my mid to late twenties and found it hard to get on board with, even though other people had grown up drinking it.

There were British people who liked root beer too. My impression came from the people I’d spoken to and the reactions I’d found online, so I wasn’t saying every British person had the same taste. What interested me was how something I regarded as a treat could remind someone else of something unpleasant.

Tracking down a can in England

For that account, I managed to find a can of A&W, my favourite brand. I thought it had cost about £2 for the single can, and it had taken quite a search. I’d checked two large supermarkets, including their American and international-food sections, without finding any root beer.

An import sweet shop with an American section finally had it. The can I found had come from Vancouver, and I was interested to taste it again after reading the descriptions that had made me think about mint. I’d never previously regarded mint as an obvious part of the flavour.

When I tasted it, I could sort of pick up something minty, but I wasn’t sure whether my brain was supplying that because I’d just read about it. I noticed the liquorice more than I remembered, which was particularly odd because I hated black liquorice. Apparently that didn’t stop me enjoying this drink.

I still loved it. My best description after tasting was liquorice and vanilla with that dark, earthy, molasses-like quality, and a lot of sweetness. I thought it was especially good with really salty fries and a meaty meal, perhaps a bacon cheeseburger, because I liked those flavours together.

For me, familiarity was still a big part of the difference. I compared it with growing up around Marmite, then trying it for the first time as an adult. That was my thought about why reactions might differ, rather than a proven explanation for everybody. I could understand the mouthwash complaints a little better, but A&W with salty fries still sounded very good to me.

Watch my original video about root beer memories and my A&W tasting.