The Pennsylvania Drink That Tastes Like Tree Bark In The Best Way Possible

Pennsylvania has a boozy staple that deserves more recognition: Birch beer, a carbonated beverage concocted from regional vegetation that has a spicy, earthy flavor.

Originally, locals would boil the sap and bark of the black birch tree. Early methods for brewing the drink required yeast to ferment the mixture, giving it a low alcohol content.

Birch beer tastes consistently minty from brand to brand. That's because America's sweet birch trees have methyl salicylate in their bark,

which lends a wintergreen flavor.

Birch beer is still produced by a number of companies in the Northeastern U.S., including Appalachian Brewing Company, Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer, and Boylan Bottling.