Here are a few more words on soft drinks. I found out about nine years ago that root beer doesn’t have any caffeine and stopped avoiding it, especially since I really like it with pizza (caffeine just makes me jittery). But I am disappointed when the root beer being offered is Barq’s, because that is the one brand that does have caffeine (after all “Barq’s has bite”). However, as I was poking through Coca-Cola’s site looking for Mr Pibb info, I discovered that Barq’s has about half the caffeine of Coke, and eight ounces has less caffeine (15 milligrams) than 1 ounce of semi-sweet dark chocolate (20 mg), which I definitely do not avoid. So I may relent and drink Barq’s. According to the Coffee and Caffeine FAQ, caffeine is added to Barq’s “as a flavouring agent for the sharp bitterness”.