Barq's is an American soft drink. "Barq's" was long the name of the company's signature product, now known as Barq's Famous Olde Tyme Root Beer, a brand of root beer notable for having caffeine. It has been bottled since the start of the 20th century and is currently sold by The Coca-Cola Company. The Barq's Brothers Bottling Company was founded in 1890 in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, by Edward Charles Edmond Barq and his younger brother, Gaston. The Barq Brothers bottled carbonated water and various soft drinks of their own creation. Early on their most popular creation was... an orange-flavored soda called Orangine, which won a gold medal at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. Edward Barq moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1897 with his new wife. The following year he opened the Biloxi Artesian Bottling Works. 1898 is often given as the debut year for what was later to be known as "Barq's root beer," but some sources say this particular product was not produced until some two years later. For many decades Barq's was not marketed as a "root beer.
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