Waialua Pineapple

The bottled beverage trade has had a rich history in Hawaii with several hundred companies having come and gone between the 1860's to the present. In 2003, husband and wife team Karen and Jason Campbell opened Waialua Soda Works and began making sodas inspired by Hawaiian ingredients. The Hawaiian islands are well known for pineapple crops and appropriately the first offering from this company was a pineapple soda. They now have four other flavors including root beer, mango, vanilla cream and lilikoi.

I like pineapple juice at breakfast and I love a good pineapple soda on a warm day. Today it was sunny and began to feel more like summer again as I drove on the highway with my windows down and the temperature passed 80˚  for the first time in ages, so it's a fitting day to add this one.

This bottle has a sugar-sweet scent and a light color, no neon yellow for these folks. There's a great balance of carbonation in this drink as it fizzes up a little when tipped back. It's deliciously sweet but very tasty and they really hit the pineapple flavor well with a ohh-so-tiny creamy finish. As I savor this soda I can clearly imagine laying on a remote Hawaiian beach sipping away at it. I'll be looking for their other flavors in the future and if you happen to find a bottle on vacation in the islands I'd recommend an ice cold bottle of this. 

Ski

The other day I made a trip out to a little town in southern Illinois called Breese. Here in this small town sits the Excel Bottling Company. Excel is a soda bottler in the good old fashioned sense. Locals here put down a deposit on a wooden crate of 24 bottles which they can mix with whatever combination of flavors they want. When the bottles are empty they return the bottles for a refund on their deposit or pay for another round of full bottles. The empty bottles are washed and refilled with any of a number of flavors. Not many bottlers exist like this anymore. I've personally tasted most of their offerings. Among flavors such as grape, root beer, pineapple, orange, cream soda, and strawberry, Excel licenses and bottles regular Double Cola as well as the Double Cola-owned Ski soft drink. 

Ski has a fanatical following and was created in 1956 by the Double Cola company. I will have to address Double Cola on its own entry someday but Double Cola began in 1922 as the Good Grape Company in Chattanooga, TN. 

Ski has a unique citrus flavor and is made with orange and lemon concentrate, a little of which is visible in the bottle. The taste of ski is one of those which is difficult to describe. It smells like lemon and orange and has a good carbonation level in that it tingles when held in the mouth. The lemon flavor is more noticeable than the orange. I think some of the difficulty in describing the flavor comes from the confusion that it looks like the lemon-lime flavors most people are more familiar with so when their palate gets a hold of Ski it doesn't quite know what to make of it. The orange in it is what I think lends the "frosty" overtone to it. What I mean by that is that there are some new drinks out there of various chemical origins which have "ice" or "frost" in their name to smooth the flavor and this soda reminds me of that albeit with natural flavors. Ski is primarily made by smaller, regional bottlers like Excel to the point that some think their local area is the drink's origin, but in fact it's just a highly regionalized offering. So if you stop in a small town in one of the Southeastern states look out for Ski signs, I definitely recommend giving it a go. 

Boylan Cane Cola

Boylan Bottling Company was founded by William Boylan in 1891 and oddly enough their first offering was a birch beer soda. Boylan uses cane sugar in all their varieties. I have always appreciated their vintage styling but am not a fan of all their flavors.

This posting relates to one of my favorites from Boylan, their Cane Cola. It has a sugary cola scent and is one of the sweetest tasting colas I can remember drinking in a long time. The cola flavor isn't as deep as Coca-Cola, and yet it still seems like just the right balance. There is a very tiny metallic after-taste but most would probably not notice that unless they really took their time savoring it. The sweetness of the cane sugar and level of acidity are very close to the taste of Royal Crown Cola. I can tell you that there is something about the finish of this drink that isn't easy to pinpoint and yet strangely makes me think of smoke-filled flea markets and I have no idea why. I should note that most cola's obtain their caffeine from the kola nut, which is a natural source of caffeine, but strangely the label on this cola makes mention that the caffeine is from coffee. It makes me wonder if this affects the flavor in any way. Either way, if it was possible to make this soda zero calorie without sacrificing an iota of it's flavor I'd probably be drinking more of it. If I'm ever able to locate their Diet Cane Cola I'll just have to put that to the test.

Crush Cherry

It seems like all sodas with a fruit flavored line up started with orange, and Crush is no different. And just like Fanta, Crush now has a wide variety of flavors, though many are only available in specific regions. Crush began in 1916 as Ward's Orange Crush but is currently owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

This was my first taste of Crush Cherry. I found it at a small gas station during one of my forays into downtown for work. Any time I need to pull off the road for a quick stop or have a few minutes to kill I like to pop my head into small gas stations along the highway or in parts of town I don't often frequent because you never know what they are going to have in their refrigerators. I have found everything from obscure glass bottled sodas to my first tastes of Fanta Pineapple.  So if you're looking for something different I advise you to do the same.

I found Crush Cherry to have the scent of grenadine and an average level of carbonation, maybe even a bit on the low level for a plastic bottled soda. It has a very rich cherry flavoring that might even make some people sick after drinking too much. It's similar to drinking cherry flavored candy. I know I've used that analogy before but sometimes the sweetness of a beverage only lends itself to that kind of connection. All in all it's not a bad departure for someone that already enjoys cherry cola.

China Cola

China Cola was developed by the Hangzhou Wahaha Group of Hangzhou, China in 1998. Hangzhou Wahaha focuses on the food and beverage industry and China Cola takes third in market share in China behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In China the product is sold as "Future Cola" and uses a nationalist marketing campaign by naming it "The Chinese people's own cola". In America, China Cola is a licensed product of Reed's, Inc., which makes several beverages of its own. The bottle seen here to the left shows a bit of an asian theme. In China, where the copyright laws are more lax the packaging resembles that of Coca-Cola.

There is no sudden release of carbonation when opening a bottle of China Cola but you can still feel the effervescence in your mouth. Unlike some colas this drink has a rather light cola aroma. Upon first taste I find it to have a pleasing cola flavor with a very light herbal finish. There is no herbal after-taste but you will be able to taste it in the finish as it passes the rear of the tongue when you swallow. Among the cane sugar, this cola also contains an interesting variety of ingredients including: szechuan peony root, cassia bark, malaysian vanilla, oil of lemon, lime and orange, nutmeg, cloves, licorice, and cardamon. The herbal finish I mentioned earlier definitely tastes of nutmeg and cloves of which I am so familiar with due to my penchant for pumpkin pie. The list of included herbs were, according to Reed's, chosen for "their effect on digestion and the liver". In researching the ingredients it appears that peony root is believed to relax muscles, cleanse the blood and act as an emotional stabilizer. Cassia is a cinnamon tree, and may have some effects on blood sugar. In traditional Chinese medicine, cassia is considered one of the fifty fundamental herbs. Cardamon, also called cardamom, is of the ginger family and used as an antiseptic, antispasmodic, and digestive among other things. Nutmeg is often used to lower blood pressure or soothe stomach aches and generally to detox the body. Nutmeg is often used as an analgesic and is believed to prevent blood clots. Overall, I'm a fan of this drink's distinct flavor. It isn't overpowering but more "flowery", a good blend. I would definitely suggest trying some if you have a chance.

In the future I will be reviewing Cherry China Cola.

Abita Root Beer

Abita Root Beer is interesting in the fact that it comes from a beer brewery. Abita Brewing Company started in Abita Springs, Louisiana in 1986 by brewing beer using the town's artesian well water. They now have several different flavors and in 1995 began brewing a non-alcoholic root beer with local cane sugar.

I like the look of this bottle. The label makes me think of 1920's-30's advertising. Abita has a little less carbonation than some root beers, but a rich aroma. The ingredients don't list a specific root extract, merely "root beer flavor". It has a heavy flavor and tingles the tongue perfectly. It is a pretty basic American root beer, but would go well with any vanilla tinged dessert, including a heavy dollop of ice cream if you're a root beer float fan. The heaviness of this root beer will leave you sated by the end so sip slowly and enjoy.

Cricket White Peach

Cricket released it's first soda beverage in 2002 with an aim to make a cola healthier than your average soda. Their soda's contain no phosphoric acids, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors or artificial colors. Their sodas are also enhanced with 2 cups of green tea.

Today I am tasting their White Peach variety for the first time. My first impression upon opening was a nice carbonation release. A nice amount of carbonation, which is different since I find fruitier flavors tend to have less carbonation than your colas and root beers. It has a nice peachy aroma. You can also tell right away that their claims of no artificial flavors are true because there is actual fruit pulp in this drink. It's not orange juice pulp, but there is fruit sediment in the drink when means you should tip the bottle before opening to let it mix, but don't shake it. I am not one for drinking tea, hot or iced, and this drink has a definite tea finish. After the fruit flavor passes the tongue you will taste the tea in the mix. I have to say though that the novelty of a peach soda offers a nice change. It instantly reminds me of hot summers as a kid with a bowl of cold fruit salad. I image this would be a great drink for a hot July afternoon.

Pig Iron Cola

Today's selection is Pig Iron Cola. This bottle came from a random selection I bought from Galco's. In trying to find out more about this brand I visited the website listed on the bottle for Pig Iron BBQ, which is the home page for a Barbecue joint in Seattle, WA. There is no information whatsoever on their site about the cola and it doesn't even appear on the menu posted there. Even a Google search turns up squat.

**** The following paragraph was added 3/27 ****

I contacted Celeste Lucas from Pig Iron BBQ who tells me that they developed this drink with Orca Beverages in 2006 because they were no longer able to get RC Cola in glass bottles in their region. Celeste says, "We wanted a cola that had plenty of carbonation and was sweetened with real sugar, also needed to have a bit of a bite... not too sweet and that complimented our barbeque. We really like soda out of [sic] bottle, it tastes better and has a nostalgic feel." She also informed me that while it is primarily sold out of the restaurant, Orca also distributes it to the rest of the US.

******

This is a cola with a greater than average carbonation level. When twisting the cap it's always nice to hear the gases within sound as if they were being released by NASA and it tingles nicely on the tongue. As for the taste, it is very much like Pepsi so no surprises with weird herbs or after tastes. I like a cola with a heavier beef or pork meal so I can imagine it goes nicely with a pulled pork sandwich or some brisket. I also find that the acids in colas cleanse the palate from heavy sauces well, I like to imagine they "burn off" the particles in the mouth rather than merely rinse them away like a lighter beverage. As for the packaging... What's not to love about an ugly pig winking at you? Now, if I'm in Seattle I'll have to try their BBQ with another bottle.

Mason's Root Beer

First introduced in 1947 by Mason & Mason, Inc. of Chicago, Mason's Root Beer is one of a handful of classic American root beers. In the 1970's the Rheingold Corporation purchased Mason & Mason, Inc and in 1975 was Rheingold was acquired by Pepsi Co. The Federal Trade Commission forced Pepsi Co to sell off some of it's holdings and so in 1978 Mason's was sold to Monarch Beverage. Monarch had purchased Dad's Root Beer in 1986 and subsequently ended the production of Mason's Root Beer.

Although shelved by Monarch, it is possible to to procure Mason's from a company called Real Soda which licenses and recreates some older brand sodas. Danny Ginsburg started collecting bottle caps much like me as a kid and in his efforts to collect more caps began traveling around buying bottled sodas. Danny founded Real Soda as a distributor of bottled sodas and grew to the point that he began licensing older brands to recreate, bottle and sell as well.

The aroma of Mason's is rich and bold with a lower carbonation level than usual for a root beer. It tastes like an old-fashioned root beer and would be more at home in a root beer float than some root beers I've tasted. I can pick up a small hint of a licorice-like finish but it doesn't ruin the flavor. Over all it's a good root beer, not great, but good.

Ruby Red Squirt

Ruby Red Squirt is a citrus flavored drink and I may be getting ahead of myself by discussing a spinoff before the original but as fate would have it, I had a bottle of Ruby Red Squirt around. The Squirt brand has changed hands several times over the years and is currently produced under the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group umbrella of products. Ruby Red was introduced in 1993 and is labeled as a citrus-berry flavor. The drink has the citrus scent you'd expect from a citrus soda and I found it to have a slightly higher amount of carbonation than your average soda. It has a sweet grapefruit flavor without the pucker-inducing tartness. While they may have intended this to be a different flavor, in my opinion the difference from original Squirt in flavor is pretty negligible, however Ruby Red includes caffeine, which the original does not. That being said, it is a good choice for those who drink soda with breakfast or are looking for a mid-morning refreshing beverage.

Bundaberg Root Beer

In Bundaberg, a moderately sized town in Queensland, Australia the Fleming family started Bundaberg Brewed Drinks as a family business in 1960, producing Ginger Beer as it's first soda. Today the company makes several flavors, including Peachee, Burgundee, and Apple Ale which is exports to several countries.

Upon opening this bottle I found it to have a rich aroma of sarsaparilla with a light vanilla scent. The carbonation is average for a root beer, but it will still give you the burp you expect from drinking root beer. It has a light root beer flavor with overtones of herbs. These herb overtones made me look to the ingredient label which shows that it includes sarsaparilla root (where the "root" flavor comes from), ginger root, licorice root and vanilla bean. The distinct difference in flavor from the more well known American root beers is definitely traceable to the hints of ginger in the drink. If you hold the drink on your tongue the ginger flavor becomes more pronounced. It's difficult to taste the licorice but it's there along with vanilla. The unique taste of this drink makes me think of a moderate meal pairing, something like turkey or possibly chicken... to me, it's too heavy to drink with fish, but too light for beef.

Tab

Initially diet drinks often replaced sugar with artificial sweeteners called cyclamates and sometimes mixed with saccharin. The sweetness of cyclamates were discovered by accident in 1937 who apparently did not mind smoking in the lab since it was there that he was working on creating an anti-fever medicine when he tasted a sweetness after picking up his cigarette. In 1966 a study found that cyclamates were linked to cancer and in 1969 it was banned by the FDA. After the ban on the use of cyclamates diet drink makers, including Coca-Cola, turned to saccharin (also known as Sweet 'N Low) as a replacement artificial sweetener but this often lead to a chemical or bitter taste. The FDA also wanted to ban saccharin in 1977 due to correlations in cancer research until further review could be completed. They were unable to ban saccharin but food using it had to carry a special warning label, which was later repealed in the 1990's. By that time nearly all diet drink makers had already been using another artificial sweetener called aspartame (also known as NutraSweet). Diet Coke which was released in 1982 uses aspartame as a sweetener which is what leads to it's distinctively different taste from Coca-Cola Classic.

The first diet soda drink was a giner-ale called "No-cal" sold by Kirsch Bottling Company of Brooklyn, New York in 1952 and was originally made for diabetics. In 1958, Royal Crown Cola came out with Diet Rite. By the 1960's so-called "diet" products were increasing in popularity and Coca-Cola entered the diet soda market with Tab in 1963.

The name Tab has also offered some debate, but when Tab was created the Coca-Cola company had rejected the idea of calling it Diet Coke but agreed that it should have a short name. Coca-Cola used an early IBM computer to churn out a list of words no longer than 4-letters, but excluding any that were unpronounceable or too similar to other products. After paring this to a short list Tab was chosen as it was able to be used as a play on words - to keep "tabs" on your weight. The pink-hued packaging is likely a relic from it's creation in the marketing department's attempts to focus on weight-watching women customers.

When Tab was first introduced it too featured cyclamates and changed to saccharin when the FDA banned cyclamates. Tab still uses saccharin (mixed with aspartame) as a sweetener today but was overtaken by Diet Coke in the 1980's as Coca-Cola's major diet soda brand. At it's apex the Tab brand included Tab Lemon-Lime and Tab Orange. In the early 1990's when Pepsi released Crystal Pepsi, the short lived Tab Clear was sold but was pulled within a year. Tab has a dedicated fan following which keeps it going and is sold outside the US in Spain, South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana. Recently a Tab energy drink was also released.

Most people today are familiar with Tab as a cola, but most remember it as a fad or relic from their past due to it being harder to find in some retail locations than others. My own grocery store carries it, but my mother, a Tab fan, goes to specific retailers to find it. I find that Tab has a distinctly chemical flavor to it which immediately reminds me that I'm drinking a diet soda. While the sweeteners may vary it is very similar to a Diet Pepsi flavor. The carbonation is rather average. I tend to steer clear of Tab because it gives me strong headaches between my eyes as though my blood vessels are squeezing tighter, making it harder for blood to move through, but this effect is not equal as some people drink it regularly.

Following, are two Tab caps currently in my collection...

Bubble Up

Bubble Up is a lemon-lime soda with the famous motto "A Taste of Lemon, A Taste of Lime". Bubble Up began in 1919 and was originally bottled by Sweet Valley Productions in Sandusky, OH, two decades before 7 Up was introduced. The drink was later produced by the Bubble Up Company in Chicago and in 1978 was purchased by The Monarch Beverage Company of Atlanta, GA before being sold to Hedinger Brands in 2007. Hedinger licensed it to The Dad's Root Beer Company. 

Bubble Up has a perfect blend of lemon and lime flavors, it isn't sharp and is caffeine free. The carbonation feels higher than in many bottled sodas but isn't overpowering. This is a good drink to cleanse the palate, settle the stomach or just have a refreshing sweet drink. 

Watch a Bubble Up Commercial from 1980

Fanta Orange

Fanta Orange tastes every bit the flavor of orange, there isn't any chemical finish that some drinks have. Although the artificial color is nothing natural. The carbonation is light but not flat. The sweetness is not overpowering like some other fruit flavored sodas which are able to make you sick after drinking too much. Fanta has been in America since the 1960's, but since the 1980's Coca-Cola's starting line-up of fruit flavored sodas in America was Minute Maid. Coca-Cola began phasing out the Minute Maid line in the mid-2000's since both brands were owned by Coca-Cola.

Most American's don't know that Fanta began in Nazi occupied Germany between 1940-1941. Coca-Cola began operating under the Coca-Cola GmbH company in Germany in the 1930's. This german division advertised heavily throughout Germany and it's media outlets with pro-Nazi bias and helped sponsor the 1936 Berlin Olympics. German born, Max Keith, took over the german Coca-Cola GmbH operations in 1938 when the previous director died. Due to import restrictions at the onset of the war Coca-Cola could no longer get the syrup needed to keep producing it's signature cola.

With no way to continue making Coke, Max Keith looked to create a new product to sell in Germany from the ingredients that he could find. Using things like apple scraps, whey and other fruit by products as they were available they formulated a new orange soda. Common lore states that a salesman named Joe Knipp devised the name Fanta after Max Keith began a naming contest directing his staff to "use their imaginations". The word imagination in german is "fantasie". Because they needed to make the drink with whatever scraps and ingriedients were available at the time the actual flavor of the Fanta orange soda varied during the war. Although Max Keith had a lot of influence in Germany at the time, he is not said to have ever joined the Nazi party. It has also been reported that the Coca-Cola GmbH company took advantage of forced labor during the war years.

Because Max Keith gave the company's earnings to Coca-Cola after the war one might say that they profited from it on both sides. Many American companies provided products to G.I.'s during the war and due to heavy support by the company for the Allied forces during the war, which included building entire bottling plants overseas to provide continuous supply for the troops, Coca-Cola benefitted from supporting both sides of the war. Although I have not found proof of the fund online, it's reported that Coca-Cola has paid into an account for reparations to the forced labor from the war.

Coca-Cola purchased Fanta in 1960 and is currently sold in more than 150 countries in some 70 flavors. Many flavors are found only in specific regions or countries and include Aloe Vera Muscat, Banana, Pineapple, Grenadine, Honey Lemon, Lemon Lime Mint, Floral Lemon, Bubble Gum, Cranberry White Grape, Tamarind, Bitter Water, Blackcurrant, but Orange is still the most popular.

Red Flash

I'm still in San Antonio and learned that the soda Big Red which I remembered from my childhood has it's origins in Waco, TX not far down the highway from here. However being that I was preoccupied with other things until late today most stores are closed. I went to a nearby vending machine to find something called Red Flash. I had not heard of this drink before.

Red Flash is a Coca-Cola product introduced in the Southwest to compete with Big Red which has a large fan following here due to it's regional origins. Red Flash, is a red cream soda. It has a good amount of carbonation, I'd say just a little more than an average Fanta. This red cream flavor is quite difficult to describe as it does have creamy overtones, but isn't really like a true cream soda. It's probably best described as tasting like "bubblegum". It reminds me of the bubblegum flavorings in many candies and even the bubblegum floride my dentist used to apply to my teeth. The Coca-Cola website describes many of it's drinks, but leaves little about the descrption of this soda. In my opinion, go with the original and support diversity, Coca-Cola has enough market share anyway.

Fanta Pineapple

I'm on the road this week in San Antonio for work, so I've got to improvise. Luckily, as San Antonio lies in the South I have access to Fanta Pineapple. Fanta dates back to the 1940's and I will go into their history more in the future, but many of Fanta's wide variety of flavors are only available regionally. Fanta Pineapple is primarily found in the Southwest here in the U.S. as it is targetted towards Latino consumers. Fanta is not the only company which sells product flavors regionally. Hostess has flavors of cupcakes like Dolce de Leche which is also sold in the South.

My first discovery of Fanta Pineapple was on a prior trip for work a few years ago to El Paso where I found it in a local convenience store. I liked it immedately. It is lightly carbonated and very refreshing. It is much sweeter than eating an actual piece of pineapple. It's really like drinking a pineapple Lifesaver candy. I have yet to find Fanta in any of it's current incarnations in glass bottles. The next time you are in the American Southwest or in Latin America, look for this flavor, it's perfect on a warm day.

Moxie

I thought that Moxie would be a fitting place to begin this blog because it was one of the earliest mass produced soft drinks in America. This entry will be a two-parter since I will be discussing one of my favorite caps from my collection as well as reviewing my first taste of the drink itself, Moxie. 

Carbonated beverages owe their beginnings to old world cultures which considered bathing in or consuming the mineral waters in natural springs to be beneficial to health. The practice of bathing in mineral springs continues to this day. The earliest "soft drinks" are often considered to be sherbets developed in arabian cultures. The ingredients were grown by the doctors of the Ottoman Palace and were cold drinks made with rose hips, cherries, rose or licorice and various spices. Sherbet and the word syrup share this etymology. In the 13th century a drink call Dandelion and Burdock arose in Europe made from fermented dandelion and burdock plants, the drink was naturally carbonated. This concoction shares its origin with other drinks made from root extracts like root beer and sarsaparilla and usually contained a slight wintergreen flavor. 

In the 18th century the ability to create man-made bubbling water through the process of carbonation was discovered. This was soon called "soda water" and became a commodity due the belief in the health benefits in consuming spring waters. Before long the pharmacists selling soda water and all manner of tonics and elixirs combined the two, creating soft drinks. This is why soda fountains were common in early drug stores. 

In 1876, Dr. Augustine Thompson created Moxie in Lowell, MA as an elixir, the kind of "medicines" popular at the time and sold as panaceas for all types of illnesses. It wasn't until 1884 that the elixir came to be a carbonated soft drink. There is debate as to why the drink was labeled Moxie, however it is not due to the definition of the word. Rather, the term "Gee, that guy has a lot of moxie!" came from the drink itself. The drink was said to have such an unusual taste that not all people enjoyed it, so if someone were to have more than one of the drink they were said to have moxie. Thus the term entered the American vernacular and so someone with moxie has "nerve, determination, or force of character". 

The cap shown here is one of my favorites from my collection and has been with me since the very beginning, see my earlier post "The Start". In the early years of my cap collection I had no idea what flavor Moxie was. Eventually I learned the story about this "usual flavor" from someone and how the term entered regular usage from the name of the drink and I knew I had to taste the stuff. With the recent surge in popularity from fans of the drink it has seen a small resurgence and those not near a retailer suppling the drink in the New England market can order Moxie from a half dozen or so websites, including www.sodapopstop.com, where I procured a couple of bottles. 

Upon first sip of the Moxie… it has a licorice flavor to it, but finishes with more of a cherry cough syrup taste. It isn't overly carbonated. This is obviously a flavor derived from the Gentian Root Extract listed on the ingredients. Gentian extracts are harvested for use in flavoring bitters or the liqueur Suze. It almost tastes like an antique store. I'm a little curious if the flavor of modern cough syrups derives something from these extracts given the history of tonics. A google search reveals that the name of the herbs is a tribute to Gentius, an Illyrian king though to have discovered that the herbs have tonic properties. I have to admit that after years of waiting to see what this tastes like, I am not very impressed. It isn't something I would consider sitting down to drink with a meal or even for refreshment. It seems like an antiquated novelty. Nevertheless, I am still fond of the Moxie caps in my collection and the very essence of the word. Moxie is one of those words that matches it's meaning so perfectly. Now, towards the end of this bottle it reminds me more of potpourri, so perhaps take a good whiff and if you are so inclined, try a bottle some day if only for the experience of soda history. 

The Start

I've been collecting soda bottle caps off and on since I was about five or six. It all started during one of those familiar neighborhood garage/lawn sales back home in northern Indianapolis. Of course being a curious kid I'd been around to all the neighbors and the fellow living next door to us had a stack of several old shirt gift boxes filled with old bottle caps. I'm not sure what drew me to them, maybe it was the sheer quantity, or perhaps all the little logos, or maybe just the sound of all the metal clinking together. I got a couple of dollars from my Dad, though I don't recall him knowing what I was buying. I came back from next door proud of my purchase and my parents asking why I bought these and what I planned to do with them. I hadn't given it much thought but somehow my Dad suggested collecting them. But, he said it might be better to keep just the non-alcoholic (read non-beer) caps because it's harder to find them. And in the year 1985 that was about right since by then most soda was sold in cans. Although the local Kroger still had a little window in the back wall for bottle returns, the only thing they still sold in glass bottles was Coca-Cola. So it was at that time that the collection began and not long after my Dad gave me a small foam-lined display case to keep them in. The collection grew slowly for many years and sometimes was just plain shelved among all the junk kids keep in their rooms.

Several years ago while sipping on a cream soda I got around to thinking about how people "pair" different kinds of wines with meals. I have never been much for alcoholic beverages but always seem to enjoy a soda and I remember thinking that a cream soda seems very dessert-like, and then I realized that soda can be paired with meals too. For instance, I, in particular would not usually think about drinking a light drink such as 7-Up with a cheeseburger, but a heavier soda like a cola or root beer seems more appropriate. I generally consider any cream soda like plain cream soda or orange-cream soda too sweet for drinking with a meal and usually enjoy them as an after dinner drink much like a dessert. Lemon-limes and ginger-ale are better for light meals like fish or a sandwich meal.

I try as much as possible to taste whatever it is I'm getting a cap from for my collection. Sometimes this just isn't possible, especially for the older brands that aren't made anymore. I've noticed how different the flavor of one root beer can be from another, or how some people just refuse to drink one cola over another so I wanted to start this blog to share my reflections on different soda's I try and occasionally plan to include details on some of the caps from my collection, which as of today is over 830 caps.
And just for those wondering, I only include uniques in my collection. I only collect what I refer to as "uniques", in other words I don't keep multiples of the same cap. But will often sell or trade my duplicates when I am able. While there are several "crown cap", that's bottle cap to the layman, collectors out there, including a few small clubs of collectors, I have yet to meet or find anyone that only collects non-alcoholic caps.