homemade root beer

Breaking free of the cubicle to follow my dreams has been a series of countless joys, like for example, the time I spent three hours on a Tuesday afternoon looking for sassafras extract to make homemade root beer syrup.

What were you doing? Let me guess. Probably doing normal person things. It’s okay, I’ve made peace with my insanity.

I finally found it at a store that made yoda’s swamp hut look like Versailles. When I walked in, there was the token health food store cat staring me down (what up with the fact they are always fluffy?!) and two employees drinking mugwort tea while loudly over-sharing their home remedy stories for random aliments. They went on the whole time I was there, not even pausing when they rang me up. The cat was super pissed. I felt bad for the poor guy, I mean I would be too if I had to listen all day to how garlic solved your athlete foot problems.

Minus my regrets not saving the cat, it was totally worth it.

Oh man. This actually tastes like root beer! I don’t know why I’m so surprised, but I guess I had my doubts while counting out 12 individual peppercorns and adding them one by one to the pot like a witch brewing a potion. Look who’s been hanging out a little too much with the supplement sisters!

Root Beer Syrup
Makes 1 cup

Adapted from My Father’s Daughter

2 cups water
1/4 cup sassafrass extract
1 tablespoon honey
1/3-1/2 cup brown sugar
5 cloves
12 peppercorns
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

Combine all ingredients and simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Cover and steep for about 30 minutes. Let the syrup cool completely. Strain out the solids and pour into a cute lil’ bottle. It will store in the fridge for a few days.

To make soda, combine about 1/4 cup of the syrup with soda water and stir.