For quite a while I thought "root beer" to be a fictitious beverage, like Romulan Ale or Bloodwine.
Until I stumbled upon some comments by Americans mentioning it to be a real thing!
Only problem was that it is basically unknown and very hard to find here in Germany.
After unsuccessfully trying two special US stores as well as a couple of Asia markets (after someone mentioned that it is also a thing in some Asian countries) I basically gave up.
So imagine my excitement when accidentally coming upon this can in my local Edeka market (a type of German higher end grocery store)!
Now I and my kids are ready to try it, but this should naturally be with the right background.
So: Which Star Trek episode that references it should we watch while tasting it?
We are currently watching TNG, so this would be preferred (if it even appears in there?).
I would even be ok with a Wesley centered episode.. ;-)
Update:
First, thanks to you all for the suggestions! In the end we went with DS9's "Little green men", as other episodes would have required too much contextual knowledge (and are also much darker).
Individually perceived tastes of the Root beer varied somewhere between toothpaste and decomposed rubber.
Final verdict has been mixed:
My daughter completely hates it, my wife is not especially fond of it, I kinda like it and my son now has a new favorite soft drink :-)
Modern american root beer is just sugar syrup like cola because there is little to no sarsaparilla in it which is what is supposed to add the flavour. Modern american root beer is to true root beer what modern american ginger ale is to Jamaican ginger beer.
You can still get good stuff, just gotta go glass bottle and pure cane sugar, avoid cans and HFCS.
Unfortunately you're correct that there's no longer sassafras, in the 60s the FDA banned sassafras because it contains safrole, a chemical that has been classified as a carcinogen. That said they still get as close as they can to replicating it somehow, and brands like IBC are still good.
Sasparilla however is actually a different drink, never was in root beer, though they do both have sassafras traditionally and are very similar drinks. You can still get it in some Asian countries under the names ...h/o gotta search it.. "Sarsi" or "Sarsae."
Fun fact (which you probably know), sassafras grows all over the US and is easy to identify, and you very much can simply dig up a root and chew on it :)
Not exactly the same experience as the soda, to be sure, lol. I don't think most folks would enjoy it. But it's fun and a little trippy having grown up finding that flavor in cans and cups, to later go pull it outta some dirt.
I remember when I was a kid we would go on "nature walks" at summer camp (hiking, but with 7 year olds, so more like a leasurly stroll in the woods). Our camp counselor would show us where sassafras root was and we would pull some up, rinse it in the river, and chew on it whole we walked around. I always loved it. I was like "this plant tastes like root beer!" not knowing that it was the other way around.
I'm sure everything I just described is completely banned and possibly illegal in modern summer camps.
I have thought about making my own illegal root beer for personal consumption using wild sassafras but just never went anywhere with it lol. Never thought about just chewing the root though, might have to!
Sasparilla extract contains high levels of safrole, a potent carcinogen.