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 :-)
There's also 'birch beer,' little known outside of Pennsylvania
I always had A-Treat Birch Beer and the red cream soda when I visited my grandparents in PA.
Red cream soda??
NYC here. I've had vanilla cream soda, but not this red cream of which you speak.
You have the red birch beer. Connecticut has the white birch beer.
Here we observe two neighboring hives engaging in a ritualized threat display to assert territorial boundaries and secular pride.
To our senses, the minute and varied differences between these two colonies might not seem distinct enough, but to these groups they are essential to their identities, to their very culture.
Now, let's watch while they dismember each other in the thousands to prove their own group's collective worth.
Polar makes a white type sold throughout New England
I'll contact my sources in the Nutmeg State to study the matter.
Foxon Park, baby!
Hosmer Mountain all the way
I can get birch beer delivered here in NJ with pizza orders.
I prefer ginger ale but the birch is fine.
We occasionally see birch beer down here in VA, usually at festivals. Absolutely love the stuff!