Kitchen Chemistry:
Factors Affecting the Sweetness of Root Beer
Rebecca L. Peters
Lisbon Regional School

Abstract

This experiment was done to show how different sweeteners would make a difference in the taste of root beer. Eight different sweeteners were used to test how each would affect the sweetness. Sweeteners with higher sweetness indexes or sweeteners that the taste buds were more used to were the most popular. Although, sweeteners with too high of a sweetness index were disliked along with sweeteners with too low of a sweetness index. Keywords: sweeteners, root beer

Kitchen Chemistry:
Factors Affecting the Sweetness of Root Beer

Purpose The purpose of this experiment is to see how different sweeteners affect the taste of root beer.
Hypothesis
The effect of different sweeteners during the making of root beer will make a difference in the taste. Sweeteners that contain a higher sweetness index will be more popular.
Background Information Root beer is made by a process called fermentation. Fermentation also occurs in the making of wine and bread. Two products are made by fermentation: ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is what makes soda; it causes the bubbles that any fermented drink has. Originally root beer was made from the root of a sassafras tree or its bark, today however, there are extracts instead to make the process of making root beer more efficient (Fankhauser, 2000).
Barq’s and Mug, two popular American brands of root beer, both contain corn syrup as the main sweetener, although each mixes in a different mixture of flavors. The flavors may include a mix of vanilla, wintergreen, cherry, nutmeg, sarsaparilla, acacia, etc.; this causing the difference of taste between the two products (2014). Corn Syrup contains fructose which has a sweetness index of 1.7 (McCooey, n.d.). This is high compared to other sweeteners such as sucrose and some natural sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup which only have a sweetness index of 1 or 1.1(McCooey, n.d.). Since each contains different flavoring the preference to each will have a preference to each different type of sweetener substituted. While natural sweeteners, fructose, and sucrose obtain a sweetness index between 1 and 1.7, Equal, an artificial sweetener contains aspartame which has a sweetness index of 180 (McCooey, n.d.). Aspartame contains a very high sweetness index, which makes anything it is in have a sweet flavor (Domanico, n.d.). All of the sweeteners except for Equal have around the same sweetness index except each contain a different flavoring causing the difference in taste.
Materials
Mr. Root Beer root beer extract
½ teaspoon powdered baker’s yeast
Cold water
¾ cup of sugar
¾ cup of brown sugar
¾ cup of honey
¾ cup of maple syrup
¾ cup of equal
¾ cup of agave syrup
¾ cup of corn syrup
Procedure
1. All materials were gathered to conduct experiment.
2. ¾ of a cup of each sweetener, along with a mixture of ½ cup of white sugar mixed with ¼ cup of brown sugar, was added to each plastic 1L bottle.
3. ⅛ a teaspoon of powdered baker’s yeast was split between the bottles.
4. The bottles were shaken to mix the sweetener and yeast.
5. 1 tablespoon of root beer extract was added to each mixture.
6. Bottle was filled to the neck with cold water.
7. Bottle was then shaken to mix water with sweetener mixture.
8. Caps to all bottles were screwed down tightly.
9. Bottles were left at room temperature for 3-4 days until they felt hard when squeezed.
10. Once bottles were hard when squeezed the temperature around them was changed to a cooler one.
Data & Results
Root Beer Tasting on a Scale from 1-10
Data was collected from 9 testers.

Maple Syrup
Honey
Brown Sugar
White Sugar
Agave Syrup
Corn Syrup
Artificial Sweetener
Brown Sugar & White Sugar

Barq's
4
3
3
5
4
2
4
2
Barq's
6.5
5
4
6
4
1
1
6
Mug
1
1
1
6
8
1
1
4
Barq's
5
4
5
5
2
2
6
3
Mug
4
6
3
8
7
2
2
8
Mug
5
4
3
4
9
1
7
6
Barq's
2
1
3
3
6
1
2
7
Barq's
5
1