Nehi Grape

In 1905, a pharmacist named Claude Hatcher founded the Union Bottling Works in Columbus, Georgia. Claude's company focused primarily on the production of his sodas Chero-Cola and Royal Crown Ginger Ale. Due to the popularity of Chero-Cola, the company changed its name to the Chero-Cola Company in 1912. 

By 1924, Chero-Cola Co released a line of flavored sodas under the name Nehi. While the name conjures something of an asian origin to my mind, lore holds that it had a more folksy beginning. There is more than one story, but the two major myths basically boil down to calling the competition "knee-high" in how they compared to their drink. The Nehi line up at the time included orange, grape, peach, and root beer. By 1928, Nehi drinks were outselling Chero-Cola and so the company again changed names to the Nehi Corporation. 

Nehi suffered from the Great Depression like most other companies and operated at a loss in 1932. When Claude Hatcher died in 1933, the new president of the company became H.R. Mott. H.R. Mott led the development of a new cola beverage and borrowing a concept from Hatcher, named the drink Royal Crown Cola. Never ceasing to ride waves of popularity the Nehi Co. changed its name again in 1955 to the Royal Crown Company. The company was later brought under the umbrella of Snapple, which was later acquired by Cadbury Schweppes Inc. which spun it off to the control of by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. Although Nehi can still be found today in some flavor variations, I doubt it is possible to still find it in glass bottles.

Perhaps Nehi is most well known from M*A*S*H, the television series which ran from 1972-1983 about an army surgical group in Korea. The character "Radar" O'Reilly was obsessed with Grape Nehi on the show. 

This bottle has a nearly non-existant level of carbonation, but a pleasant sugary, grape aroma. It has a sweet grape flavor like most modern American fruit-flavored sodas but isn't quite as overly rich as, say, a Welch's or the older Crush Grape which can sometimes make you sick by the end of a bottle.

Virgil's Diet Root Beer

Virgil's began in the early 90's as an independent microbrew soda by the Crowley's. It was sold in 1999 to Reed's Inc. who produce the Virgil's line up of flavors in the Los Angeles area. The flavor line up has grown over the years from Root Beer to include various cream sodas. 

While Reed's Inc. does "brew" it's sodas using old-fashioned methods adapted to modern machinery, they also claim to use authentic ingredients from all over the world. Of this I cannot speculate, but whether or not that makes for a better soda can be debated. I can attest to having had other "premium" or "micro-brewed" sodas that sometimes fail to impress. Although, due to using "all-natural" ingredients you'll generally find Virgil's beverages next to Reed's sodas in grocery store health food/organic food sections.

While most Virgil's sodas use cane sugar, because this is their diet version it is sugar free, but contains Stevia extract as a sweetener. It's only lightly carbonated. It surely tastes like a diet with a different flavor. Unfortunately I did not have the regular diet available to compare, but will have to locate some in the future. The birch flavoring is strong. It leaves a lingering after taste and strangely seems to have a small numbing sensation on my tongue, perhaps from the wintergreen. All in all, for a diet root beer it isn't too bad, but I prefer others. Look for my future post on the non-diet Virgil' Root Beer.

Americana Black Cherry

The Americana range of sodas is produced by Orca Beverages, who also bottle several of the older style sodas and names. The Americana line is small batch brewed using cane sugar. Other than the fact that they began in 1995 out of Washington state there isn't much out there on them.

This flavor opens with a sharp release of carbonation and the rich aroma of black cherries. The best part of this drink is right after it touches your tongue. The pleasing full cherry taste quickly deteriorates after that. I don't find it to finish cleanly either, with a slight residual cling of syrup in your mouth. It's not a bad drink, but it's nothing to remember either.