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 :-)

The joke concerning root beer originated on DS9 s4e1 "The Way of the Warrior"

Yeah. But if you drink enough of it, you begin to like it.

This specific root beer, the Bavarian nutmeg special edition, not the regular, is genuinely one of the most delicious beverages I've ever tasted.

Root beer is strange in that it has an enormous floor to ceiling range. Some of it is genuinely disgusting, but the best of it is amazing.

As a foreigner, that scene rings true in so many levels.

There's also 'birch beer,' little known outside of Pennsylvania

Episode wise any where they drink Klingon Bloodwine.

If you aren't aware. I've heard from Germans I know that the taste of root beer is similar to your cough syrup, so uh, good luck. It's my favorite soda though

You have the red birch beer. Connecticut has the white birch beer.

As a Bavarian, I have to say I am slightly flabbergasted to learn of the existence of Bavarian nutmeg root beer... 😆

I know a Frenchman who says it tastes of iodine.

It's not a joke though.

It's insidious.

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.

That was a joke about root beer, but there were also root beer jokes earlier in season 3, "Facets"

We occasionally see birch beer down here in VA, usually at festivals. Absolutely love the stuff!

Can't pretend to know anything about it, randomly saw it at a grocery store once and bought it on a whim and it blew my mind. Was truly devastated to learn that when they meant special edition, they meant it. I haven't seen it in over a decade, but I still regularly check for it just in case they ever decided to release a new batch, that's how incredible and memorable it was even more than 10 years later.

I'll contact my sources in the Nutmeg State to study the matter.

Be advised that a frozen glass mug is appropriate.

Apparently the actual chemical in sarsaparilla was banned in the US but this guy made his own.

https://inv.nadeko.net/SGmPJC0zu2g

I can get birch beer delivered here in NJ with pizza orders.

I prefer ginger ale but the birch is fine.

Foxon Park, baby!

Safrole is a precursor for MDMA

I find the original Virgil's to be really good too

Polar makes a white type sold throughout New England

Yeah the original is also very good, a high quality root beer. It just isn't transcendent like that special edition. But OP if you can find regular Virgil's, definitely give that one a try!

Try another can over a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Thanks for the suggestion!
That actually seems like it would the perfect episode to watch while drinking rootbeer!
(Found a nice blog post about the scene here: https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/star-trek-most-hilarious-scene.html )

But, although I remember the two-parter to be completely great, given that my children haven't seen a single DS9 episode yet, it seems like a bit context-heavy (and also quite dark as a first introduction to DS9).
So I decided to go with the silly "Little Green Man" episode instead, which mentions root beer at one occasion and starts with Nog going off to Starfleet Academy.

Given that the can in the pic is the first root beer I have seen in my whole life (and that despite actively searching for it), the chances of finding some specific speciality brand are probably pretty slim, I guess... :-)

Solid alternative. A great bottle episode, of which there are very few in DS9.

We will cautiously take some small sips of the base brew contained in the ice cooled specimen in the picture first, before considering moving on to the more advanced concepts... ;-)

bottle episode

Pun intended? :-)

That blog post is a little short on the details why the lines are not a joke. I recently saw a good video about it though. The Root Beer Doctrine: How the Federation Wins Without Firing

I figured, but in case you ever travel

Root Beer... It's got to be DS9.

Since you mentioned Academy, a red squad triple episode could be good: "Homefront", "Paradise Lost" (s4e11&12) & "Valliant" (s6e22).

Perhaps the best root beer moment in all of DS9 is in "The Way of the Warrior" (Season 4, Episode (1&) 2). [And watch the next episode after that for one of the best written and most poignant and unique DS9 episodes: The Visitor (s4e3)].

Also a fun mention when Alexander's trying to be a real Klingon. "Sons and Daughters" (Season 6, Episode 3).

:::: spoiler Spoiler about what root beer tastes like
Root Beer's basically Cola. Not much different. Barely different enough to warrant a different name. Kinda like Dr Pepper.

Just like The Federation.

A'ha! I suspected there must be an old legit good original root beer, not just the corporate commercial chemical syrup water crap.

Root beer is weird. Here in Denmark there are some shops that sell A&W. I've heard from Americans that's the best root beer out of a can, so it's not like we have some weird off brand stuff here...

But...

It smells like how denture tablets smell and tastes like blue mouthwash.

It's... A unique soda, I'll give it that. But when I think of "bubbly, sweet, and optimistic" I think of Orangina or Schweppes.

Root Beer's basically Cola.

No it freaking isn't! It's about as far removed from cola as Proxima Centauri is to being a cup of tea!

No it freaking isn’t!

I was ready to hear this out...

but then you said...

It’s about as far removed from cola as Proxima Centauri is to being a cup of tea!

Which is too strong a try-hard hyperbole to entertain.

Modern american root beer is just sugar syrup like cola because there is little to no sarsaparilla in it which is what is supposed to add the flavour. Modern american root beer is to true root beer what modern american ginger ale is to Jamaican ginger beer.

OP I don't want to spoil your good time, but you deserve to know, not all root beer is the same!

I do not know this brand, but the line between "bad" root beer and "good" root beer seems to be clearly split by a single ingredient: "Bad" contains high fructose corn syrup, "good" contains pure cane sugar. You should be able to check the ingredients on the can, and most with pure cane sugar proudly declare it on the front of the label (which makes me worried this one may not) and they typically use glass bottles. They are more expensive but are so worth it.

I say that to say this: If you try it and don't like it, and it does have HFCS, try it one more time but with the pure cane sugar, it really makes all the difference. My brand is IBC Root Beer, idk if you can find it or get it shipped to DE but I really won't drink many other brands tbh, Boylan is good too. Both are on Amazon, but I understand the hesitation there, and idk if they ship to DE.

That said, also, traditionally it was made with Sassafras oil, which was banned by the FDA in the 1960s, so I've never had the real kind either and we never will, pure cane is the best we can do T_T

I've heard from Americans that's the best root beer out of a can,

You've been lied to, there is no good canned root beer I'm aware of, afaik all the good stuff is bottled in glass (not that it has to be,) but more importantly contains Pure Cane Sugar instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup (and for some reason they bottle that instead of canning).

It still has the sassafras flavor to it (because that is what the "root" of the "beer" is, despite sassafras oil being outlawed in the 60s so idk how they do it now), but the HFCS just sucks.

You can still get good stuff, just gotta go glass bottle and pure cane sugar, avoid cans and HFCS.

Unfortunately you're correct that there's no longer sassafras, in the 60s the FDA banned sassafras because it contains safrole, a chemical that has been classified as a carcinogen. That said they still get as close as they can to replicating it somehow, and brands like IBC are still good.

Sasparilla however is actually a different drink, never was in root beer, though they do both have sassafras traditionally and are very similar drinks. You can still get it in some Asian countries under the names ...h/o gotta search it.. "Sarsi" or "Sarsae."

Even better if you add ice cream!

We've got a local root beer company, Fitz's. They're awesome

Is that the same company that has those glass soda bottles in variously expensive takeaways?

Well... It's Europe, so I doubt it's using high fructose corn syrup around here. Also, sugar itself is just one glucose and one fructose molecule glued together, which splits apart by itself if the environment's acidity is high enough, so I doubt that is a major contributing factor to flavour.

I did buy one pretty expensive root beer from the Candy Megastore on Nordre Fasanvej that was in a glass bottle, but it was identical to A&W. So I dunno.

I've been trying to find a root beer in Copenhagen that's called "Barq", which Danes say tastes better than A&W, but I've had no luck finding it...

High fructose corn syrup is thankfully not a thing here in Europe.
So no domestic German soft drinks use it and also almost all of the American soft drinks I have seen so far contain normal sugar (probably not made from sugar canes, though, but doesn't really matter), the root beer in the picture included! :-)
We will try it during our relaxed evening TV session, so I will be able to tell more in about two hours or so...!

Both Orangina and Schweppes have a more or less pronounced bitter aftertaste, though (which is actually part of the reason they are so great!).
So they might well agree with Cardassian taste expectations ;-)

That's why I'm not sure, if it were a US can I'd bet $10 on it just based on

A) It being in a can

B) It doesn't say "made with pure cane sugar" on the front.

But in Europe they may not have to, idk! I tried looking up the ingredients online but it was inconclusive. I hope everything there is real sugar I just don't know.

But I'll push back on it not affecting flavor, it very much so does, trust me as someone in HFCSland. I've taste tested normal coke and cane sugar coke in my house with some friends and we could all tell the difference.

Barq's is just a coke product, A&W is pepsi. Neither are really good, both HFCS, idk I guess if I have to pick one it would be barq's but really it's all about IBC, Boylan, or Virgil's.

Oh good, thank "Bob" lol, HFCS is a scourge upon humanity. Enjoy!