Soda Pop of the Week: Stewart’s Soda

Stewart’s Soda

“Original Fountain Classics”

Back in 1924, in Mansfield, Ohio, schoolteacher Frank Stewart was looking to earn additional income during the summer months when school was out of session. After considering what kind of business would do well in his area, he decided to invent his own recipe for a root beer. Stewart opened a chain of roadside root beer stands called Stewart’s Drive-Ins where he sold mugs of root beer and popcorn. The popcorn was salted and helped boost root beer sales.

Stewart realized he needed to formulate his root beer in order to compete with all the other root beers that were available at the time. He enlisted the help of flavor experts and a chemist, J. Hungerford Co., to develop a unique root beer made from a proprietary blend of roots, herbs and spices. It was hugely successful and continues to be sold today. By 1989 there were about 70 franchised Stewart’s Drive-In Root Beer Stands in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Until then, Stewart’s Root Beer was only available as a soda fountain beverage in Stewart’s restaurants. In 1989 the Denver-based Cable Car Beverage Corporation approached them about producing and bottling the root beer for mass distribution. By 1991 Stewart’s Original Root Beer in bottles was being marketed in 13 states, and in 26 states the following year. It was also being carried by grocery stores.

Stewart’s Original Root Beer remained the brand’s only soda flavor until 1992, when it was joined by two additional flavors, Cream and Ginger Beer. Orange ‘N Cream was added in 1995 and Grape in 1998. Additional flavors available today are Diet Root Beer, Key Lime, Peach, Cherries ‘N Cream, Black Cherry and Birch Beer. Stewart’s has built on its long history as a successful soda manufacturer and has a reputation of making a great old-fashioned flavored soda. Today Stewart’s is a registered trademark of Stewart’s Restaurants, under the ownership of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Cable Car Beverages
Denver, Colorado