So I'm watching the Quark/Garak root beer scene again and one of the comments mentions that a lot of Europeans don't like root beer. I decided to investigate (or as Ashens might put it, I spent ten seconds and Googled it)...
Root beer contains an ingredient that is present in many medicines.
You'll recall that in its earliest days carbonated beverages were medicinal, not recreational. Therefore root beer had this methyl salicylate stuff added to make it smell like medicine.
So I suppose modern Americans drink this stuff enough as a child so that the particular scent is associated with "root beer" and not "medicine." And if Europeans in general don't drink it, that switch isn't flipped and so they hate it.
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