Hires Root Beer was created by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles elmer HiresThe official story is that Hires first tasted root beer, a traditional American beverage dating back to the colonial era, while on his honeymoon in 1875. However, historical accounts vary and the actual time and place of the discovery may never be known. By 1876, Hires had developed his own recipe and was marketing 25 cent packets of powder which each yielded five gallons of root beer.At Philadelphia′s Centennial Exposition in 1876, he gained new customers by giving away free glasses of root beer. Hires marketed it as a solid concentrate of sixteen wild roots and berries. It claimed to purify the blood and make cheeks rosy. In 1884, he began producing a liquid extract and a syrup for use in soda fountains, and was soon shipping root beer in kegs and producing a special fountain dispenser called the ″Hires Automatic Munimaker.″ In 1890, the Charles E. Hires Company incorporated and began supplying Hires root