Gnomad -- to add to your worries, there are Wintergreen LifeSavers (hard candies)! They spark in the dark when you bite 'em!! (Really!) And taste great. Wintergreen is a small (a couple of inches high and wide) Ericaceous plant (same family as heather). The leaves when broken or bitten give off the distinctive odor and taste, which is vaguely akin to mint. I suspect that if you've only ever encountered a "wintergreen" liniment that you've had the wonderful smell adulterated by menthol or something strong and icky like that.

At the Farm and Wilderness (summer) Camps in Vermont (a major part of my folkie/hippie youth), the Saltash Mountain campers would make homemade root beer every year for the summer's-end country fair put on by all the camps. They called it Saltash Mountain Dew, of course, and we always sang the old song with the extra word in the name. It seems strange to me to sing it without. (There's your music content for this thread!) I never heard of anyone being affected by the alcohol in the brew, but there are lots of stories of bottles exploding on the way home, or at home before being consumed.

*Sigh* More nostalgia!

~ Becky in Tucson