I don’t know about you but I have to a soft drink, preferably a Diet Dr Pepper, at some point during my day. You could say I’m addicted.
That’s nothing new I hear since the first marketed soft drinks appeared in the 17th century. I was astounded to learn that they’ve been around so long. In 1676 the Compagnie de Limonadiers of Paris were granted a monopoly to sell lemonade soft drinks. Vendors toted tanks of it on their backs and sold cups of it to thirsty Parisians.
But far earlier in the timeline, enterprising men discovered mineral water, which is the basis for soft drinks, found in natural springs contained bubbles caused by carbon dioxide. People long believed the natural springs held medicinal properties. I guess they figured if it was good enough to bathe in, it was good enough to imbibe.
In 1832 John Matthews, the Father of American Soda Water, built a carbonating machine. Early soda water was served cold and unflavored. Yuck! That probably tasted like a dose of medicine.
A few years went by and American pharmacists began adding medicinal and flavorful herbs to unflavored mineral water. Some of the earliest flavorings came from birch bark, dandelion, sarsaparilla, and fruit extracts. The pharmacists began tinkering with the concoctions as a way to get their customers to take the awful tasting medicines of the day. They sold their creations for 5 cents a glass.
In 1835 the first bottled soda water in the U.S. was produced.
In 1866 Vernors Ginger Ale (the oldest soft drink in America) was produced.
In 1876 Root Beer was marketed.
In 1885 Charles Alderton, a pharmacist in Waco, Texas, came up with Dr Pepper.
In 1886 Dr. John Pemberton discovered Coca Cola in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1898 Caleb Bradham added Pepsi Cola to the list of soft drinks.
Vernors Ginger Ale was created pretty much by accident. Pharmacist James Vernor mixed together ginger, vanilla, and a few other ingredients in an oak cask then enlisted to fight in the Civil War. When he returned home and opened the cask, the aging process had created the famous ginger-flavored soda. I’m not a big fan of Ginger Ale. Don’t like the taste particularly.
I believe sarsaparilla was the first soft drink to make it to the Old West and it was served in saloons because of the scarcity of pharmacies (or apothecaries) at the time. Sarsaparilla was used during the Civil War as a treatment for syphilis. It was touted as a blood purifier. I’m told it tasted a lot like Root Beer.
An interesting side note: Dr Pepper drinkers were urged to consume at 10, 2, and 4-a reminder embossed on early bottles-to prevent energy slumps. Supposedly. But I see it as an excellent marketing strategy. They were able to increase their sales this way. Charles Alderton was no dummy.
For those who might’ve heard that Coca Cola actually contained cocaine in it….Snopes.com says it was true. The two main ingredients were extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. Just how much cocaine was originally in the formula isn’t known, but traces remained in it until 1929.This is hardly surprising though seeing as how it was considered a patent medicine in the beginning.
But once sodas were here, there was a problem with distribution. People wanted it bottled to take home with them. The early bottles had to be blown by mouth. And because the carbonated contents were under immense pressure, they couldn’t find a way to keep it from blowing the corks out of the bottles or preventing the bubbles from escaping. That is until 1892 when William Painter patented his Crown Cork Bottle Seal. It marked the first successful method of keeping the carbonation fresh until opened. After that, the industry really took off like a shot.
And I’m really glad it did. When I grew up in the 50’s, I remember that a dime would buy a bottle of refreshing Coca Cola. Even though it was so cheap it was a real treat to get one. People didn’t keep them in their refrigerators like they do now. Maybe that’s why they were appreciated a lot more back then.
Another favorite memory was when we used to make our yearly trips to California to visit my grandparents. We’d always stop in Arizona for a bottle of Delaware Punch. That was so good. I never saw it sold anywhere though other than Arizona.
Do you have a favorite memory involving soft drinks? Which ones do you prefer? And do you call it a soft drink, pop, soda, or just lump everything together like I do and call it a Coke?
Here in the Texas Panhandle, we do love our cowboys. There's just something about a man in a Stetson and jeans that makes my heart beat faster. I'm not much of a cook but I love to do genealogy and I'm a bit of a rock hound. I'm also a NY Times & USA Today bestselling author of historical western romance. You can contact me through my website and I'd love to connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and more. HAPPY READING!
https://petticoatsandpistols.com/sweepstakesrules/
Great post! I use to drink at least a six pack of Diet Dr. Pepper a day. Now I can only drink Diet Rite as it contains Splenda and all other soft drinks have Aspartame and I am allergic to it. 🙁 When I was in high school my favorite teacher (choral music) would always buy an ice cold bottle of Dr. Pepper and he enjoyed it so much that I though I would try some one day…HOOKED!
I have always referred to any sodas as COKE. I am originally from Californis and most people I know back there do the same. 🙂
Have a blessed day!
I drink Diet 7 UP. I’m originally from Wisconsin, I call it soda.
Love this…and I knew about Coke and all but nothing about the others! One of my memories as a kid was my mother getting cola syrup from the pharmacy for our upset tummies. My kids just had flat cokes. But that has gone by the wayside as I can’t have high fructose corn syrup and had to give up sodas.
Loved gingerale punch my mom made with sherbet and brown cows…rootbeer floats. Black cows were with Coke.
And then there was walking down to my uncle’s country store for a tiny bottle of coke or a Nehi orange soda.
My husband used to drink Mountain Dew like crazy in college but had to finally give it up due to kidney stones. That stuff was the original Red Bull!
From the south, so it was always soda.
Thanks for a great memory starter!
Peace, Julie
so, it’s actually a health drink, eh?
lol
very interesting!
i don’t drink it…i swear the stuff is evil and at the root of the nations health crisis
(i know i know–not making any friends here)
here in my part of iowa we call it pop
Hi Linda,
Loved this post! I am a Dr Pepper fiend. Also a COKE fiend.LOL
When I was little, I remember my mom pouring DP into a saucepan and heating it with lemon sliced in it–this was supposed to help a cold. I think that’s how I got hooked on DP. LOL My husband can’t stand it–says “it tastes like cough syrup…” Well? And he expected, what?????LOLOL
I’m from Oklahoma, and here we call everything a “coke” — “Do you want a coke? What kind?” LOL I think Jeff Foxworthy has a joke about that.
When I was a little girl, my mom’s parents lived on one end of a small town, Calera, OK, and my dad’s parents lived at the other end. I was sooooo lucky, because no matter which cousins I was running around with, we always had a destination to walk to! And there was Petey’s store in between. We would walk to Petey’s and he had one of those old coolers with the sliding top, filled with ice and cold bottles of pop. That was back when bottles brought a deposit if you turned them in. My cousin Julie (who was a few months older than I) and I would “escape” the younger kids and walk down to the store, buy a coke and candy bar (I usually got an orange crush and a Hershey bar) and then would walk over across a 2 lane hiway to the railroad tracks. It was the only place we could be completely alone (She had a lot of little brothers and sisters)and of course, there we could share all our secrets. We were always vague about where we were going to walk to, because we knew our parents would just croak to think of us going to the train tracks. LOL
My daughter doesn’t drink anything carbonated because when she was about 2 she had to have hernia surgery and the nurse gave her a drink of 7-up right after the surgery. Her throat was raw from where they had put tubes down it, and she has never wanted anything carbonated since then.
Great post, and just full of information! I remember those DP bottles with 10 2 and 4 on the big clock face. They used to have a little jingle, “At 10, 2 and 4–you’ll always want more, more more! Not a cola, no not a cola, just a blend of deep fruit flavors.” LOL Funny what sticks in your mind.
Cheryl P.
Diet Coke is probably at the top of my list, or Diet Pepsi. I don’t taste much of a difference, and it’ s what I usually order in a restaurant, fast food place, etc.. Can’t have pizza without coke!
In the evenings, though, I mix things up. Lastest favorite is Minuite Maid Lo-Cal Lemonade, but I like Diet Orange Crush, too. And Diet A&W Root Beer. Do you see a pattern? Regular soda is too sweet for me these days.
Childhood memories . . . The A&W Drive-in out on Highway 126 in SoCal . . . Drinking Orange Crush out of those tall bottles.
Thanks for a fun post, Linda!
Linda, You have really brought back memories today.
And Cheryl P, you could have lived just down the street from me. Our memories are so similar. My aunt had a restaurant and she kept “sody pop” in an old chest type cooler. Sliding an Orange Crush or Grapette through that icy water on a hot day was a little bit of heaven. And they had Chocolate Soldiers in the machine at the roller rink. I switched to Tab in high school.
My so sophisticated college roommate called 7 Up white soda and I’m afraid I picked up that habit from her. Sprite is my drink of choice these days.
Oh Judy, I remember TAB, good lord that stuff was horrible. But I drank it like crazy, even so! I’m glad to know I have a kindred sister out there somewhere! Chocolate Soldiers–I had forgotten those until my kids came along. That became a big treat for them–and they were hard to find by then. I’m not sure where you can get them these days, even. Yes, that old chest type cooler and the icy water inside of it. We used to pull out our drinks and then lay our wet hands on our face to cool off. Great memories!
Cheryl
What a great post, Linda. I had no idea those drinks had been around so long. I remember riding my bike to the store to pick up a pack of 6 Coca Colas for my mom, who loved it. The Coke was in glass bottles and made the bike basket so heavy that I’d wobble all over the road. But somehow it seemed to taste better in glass than it does now in cans and plastic.
I’ve been a Diet Coke addict forever, trying to wean myself away from it, but still drink it in the car.
Love the post, Linda. Being from Texas, when I was growing up we went on Coke dates … whether you drank DP or root beer made no difference. Even today around these parts, you can almost tell a foreigner (someone not raised in Texas), if they ask for a soda or a pop LOL. Yikes, just the thought of TAB makes chills run up my spine. My first diet preference was Dr. Pepper, but Coke has always been my favorite. And, I like Ginger Ale every now and again. Interesting post, and I would have never associated Log Cabin with sarsaparilla. My first book was dedicated to my wonderful DH because he’s so kind to make sure that I always have a fountain Coke within reach while I’m writing! Linda, thanks for sharing. Hugs, P (who is still recuperating from our big weekend at the National Cowboy Symposium. Lordy, lordy I’ve never seen so may cowboys, American Indians, and Texas Rangers in such close quarters being so polite to one another! It was a fantastic weekend. Right Linda?)
Hi Cindy…Although I drink just about anything diet I really do like Dr Pepper and will choose it anytime I have a choice. My mother was a huge Coca Cola fan. She hoarded cases of it at all times. I never once saw her drink anything else. A lot of people are allergic to Aspertame. I didn’t know Diet Rite contained Splenda. Thanks for letting me know. I might try some. I prefer Splenda as a sweetner over all the others.
Have a great day and keep those Diet Rite coming!
Hi Laurie G….Diet 7-Up is really good. I drink that sometimes to settle my stomach and I always want it when I’m sick with a cold or flu. It just seems the thing. Thanks for dropping by to comment.
Growing up, Coke was my preferred soda, but after I married and started having babies, I tried to be good and eliminate caffine. I switched to Sprite. Now I’ve lost the taste for anything else. I try not to drink them very often because of the sugar and calories, but pizza and burgers just seem to taste better with them than without.
I’ve been to those old-fashioned soda shops where they mix the drink for you right there, and for some reason seeing the syrup separate from the carbonated water makes me squemish. I’d much rather have it pre-mixed and know that the proportions are correct. Ever gotten a mouthful of carbonation when the syrup ran out of the dispenser? Ick! Medicine taste, indeed.
Hi Julie….Glad you enjoyed my blog today. Sorry you had to give up sodas. It’s strange how our bodies just rebel on us out of the blue. Yes, I, too, remember my mom buying cola syrup from the pharmacy. It sure worked well. I wonder if they still sell it? I like that Ginger Ale punch with orange or lime sherbet. Good stuff. I’d forgotten about that until you reminded me. I never drank many floats though. I just preferred my soda without the ice cream. Oh, and Mountain Dew is extremely high in caffeine. I can drink one of those be wide awake for days. You’re probably right that it was the start of Red Bull.
Have a wonderful day!
I went to a one room country school house through eigth grade in rural Nebraska.
At the end of every school year we’d have a weiner roast. Our school board president. The farmer who was my best friend’s dad, would come up and build a roaring bonfire and we’d bring sticks to roast the hotdogs and marshmallows and we’d each get a bottle of pop.
(It’s called pop in Nebraska)
And about a week before, I remember it like it was a ritual, the teacher would go around the room and ask us how many hot dogs did we want and what flavor of pop. We all said grape or orange. YUMMY! I remember the first time someone said Coca~Cola. We didn’t think that sounded very good at ALL!!!!!!!!!!! So boring.
That was it for the year. One bottle of pop a year and we SAVORED it.
Later in life…like when I was in high school, my dad would occasionally bring home a case of cream soda. He always said he did it because none of us liked it so there was more for him. But we fooled him and learned to love cream soda and I still love it today.
Oh, and we had to bring a dime to school for the pop. No tax dollars were used. 🙂
Hi Tabitha….no, you’re not making any enemies. We love everyone here. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and we respect other’s viewpoints. You’re probably wise to not get hooked on the stuff. I have to have some everyday or I’m really grouchy. Guess you can say I’m addicted. Makes me wonder what’s in my Dr Peppers.
Enjoy whatever refreshment you drink, my dear, and come back often. We love seeing you here.
And I am from a family of eight brothers and sisters, plus Mom and Dad. So a case of 12 ounce cans didn’t give us a whole lot of it.
Hi Linda, what a terific post! Brought back a ton of memories…one from eons ago and one just now.
First off, when those Cokes were ten cents a bottle…sometimes the Coke machine man at my dad’s work would sell him a case, I imagine at discount. Oh, those ice cold Cokes! I still feel ’em going down my throat.
And on our recent wagon train trip: the last day, we had homemade root-beer, ice cold from dry ice. It was magical!
Right now I can tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi and prefer Pepsi LOL. oxoxxo
I remember reading a western-historical and the heroes came in from the range and a brother met them at the door with bottles of beer.
I always thought that was a little weird. Did they really have bottles of beer back then? It was post Civil War but not much.
And did people bring cases home?
And have a bottle every night at the end of a hard day?
Plus it was summer and sure, they could have an ice box or a cold spring somewhere but nothing was said about it, but it was a cold beer. I always figured that wasn’t quite right.
Hi Cheryl P….what wonderful memories you have growing up. I, too, remember that that bottles were returnable. My sister and I would gather up all we could find and sell them. Then we’d use the money we got and buy a Coke and a candy bar. Took us a long time to get enough bottles though so it was a real treat when we did. Strange that your daughter doesn’t drink sodas. That must’ve been a very traumatic incident. But I’m learning today that quite a few people don’t drink sodas. I thought everyone had the same addiction I do.
Thanks, Filly sister, for putting that Dr Pepper jingle in my head. LOL 🙂
Hi Vicki….soft drinks just go with Pizza. Ummm, that’s good. I prefer the taste of diet drinks over the regular because like you the regular is too dern sweet. We had an A&W in the small town in New Mexico where I grew up. Remember those frosted mugs of Root Beer they served? There was nothing better to quench my thirst on a hot summer day. Oh the memories. It was an innocent time but we did have our share of guilty pleasures. Strange that I don’t recall feeling deprived. I accepted that a cold soft drink was a rarity so didn’t bug my parents about buying them. We were really poor. But it taught me to appreciate sodas more. It’s so commonplace now that kids take Cokes for granted.
Enjoy your day!
Hi Judy H….glad you liked my subject today. Boy, do I remember those sliding Coke boxes! Seemed like those sodas were really cold. I never drank many Grape Nehi or orange either. And I’ve never had a Chocolate Soldier to my name. Just never appealed to me. I mostly stuck with colas. But I do drink 7-Up or Sprite sometimes for a change of pace or if I’m sick.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Elizabeth….seems like everyone has a favorite memory today. I can just picture you on that bike with the six pack of Coke in your basket. Bet you were cute. It’s hard to wean yourself off sodas. All I’ve managed to do is cut back. A diet Dr Pepper just makes my day complete. They touted soft drinks as an energy booster and I believe it. It sure picks you up. I agree that it tasted better in the glass bottle than it does in a can or plastic. Just not the same. If I’m at home, I usually pour it in a glass over ice.
Hope your day is going well!
Hi Phyliss….yes, we had a great weekend at the Cowboy Symposium. Just regret that we never got across the road to the chuck wagons and things going on over there. Hard to find time when you’re selling books and when your boots are killing your feet. Ha! My feet still haven’t gotten back to normal. Lots of cowboys to please the eye. Didn’t matter if they were young or old. They still had the magic. And I sure wish we’d have gotten our picture taken with those Texas Rangers. Wow!
I do remember your dedication in our first anthology. It’s so sweet of your hubby to make sure you have a Diet Coke! He’s a keeper.
Wishing you lots of inspiration today!
Hi Karen W….glad you enjoyed my blog. Yes, I remember the yucky taste of pure carbonation. Oh my gosh, that’s horrible stuff! That’s why I can’t imagine that anyone would like the taste of unflavored carbonated water. But I guess if they considered it as a medicinal drink they just held their breath and downed it. Funny what we consider as good for us and we do it whether we like it or not. I’m finding a lot of people on here today prefer 7-Up or Sprite. I didn’t know there would be so many. Coca Cola added a caffeine free version to their line now. Too bad it wasn’t available when you were younger.
I sure enjoyed your book, “The Tailor-Made Bride.” It was sooooo funny. Your H/H were hilarious. Can’t wait for your next release.
Hi Mary…..I didn’t know you went to a one room school house until 9th grade! Amazing! I’m sure you have tons of stories you could tell. That must’ve been a neat experience. And with eight brothers and sisters you just about made up the whole school. No, I imagine you didn’t get pop very often. That would’ve cost your parents a fortune and I’m sure they had no money to buy much of it. You were poorer than I was. LOL Our circumstance sure made us appreciate things a lot more. I remember my older sister who married at 14 used to trick me and my younger sister into washing all her dirty dishes (sinks and sinks of them) by offering to buy us a Coke when we got done. Boy, we sure earned that!
About that historical that had bottles of beer in the story…..that was wrong. They didn’t start bottling the stuff until well after the turn of the century. Whoever the editor was didn’t catch that. The only beer served in the 1800’s was in a saloon in glass mugs. If I had started reading that book I’d have put it down when I came across that. Such glaring errors really stop me dead in my tracks.
Cream soda is really good. Sometimes for a change, I drink one now and then. I always go back to my Dr Pepper though.
Hope your day is full of laughter and fun!
Hi Tanya….glad my blog brought back memories. It’s always fun to return to your roots I think. So you’re a Pepsi drinker. I think you’re the first one to say that today. Guess it’s not as popular as the others. I do drink them occasionally. After all, I don’t want to get stuck in a rut. 🙂
How neat that you got homemade Root Beer on your recent wagon train experience! That must’ve been awesome. In fact, the whole trip must’ve been extremely fun and satisfying. I’m just curious how homemade Root Beer tastes. If you check back in a while you’ll have to tell us.
Hope you’re having a fantastic day, Filly sister!
Mary, Prior to 1850 beer was mostly sold by the barrel, after that it was not uncommon to sell bottled beer. I agree that the scenario you describe seems unlikely and I doubt it would happen that way. I think beer was usually kept in the cellar, but an icy beer does not ring true. But being of German descent, I can tell you that early German settlers often made their own beer or had a small brewery in the community, and a drink a day would not have been considered excessive.
Does anyone remember when the town and state of the bottling plant was on the bottom of Coca Cola? I used to like to try to see if I could get one from every state. I’m not sure if Dr Pepper did that too, but I think Coca Cola was the only one.
Also, before any western writers get the idea to put soft drinks in their stories……even though they were around for a while, they didn’t make it West until well after the turn of the century. All except Sarsaparilla. The others were served back East in the bigger cities. And even though Dr Pepper was invented in Texas it wasn’t available to towns other than Waco. The way I understand it, the concoctions were limited to the pharmacist who made them.
Hi Linda – your great post brought back lots of fun memories.
Like someone else mentioned in an earlier comment, my mom used to to serve us homemade cokes (made with syrup she purchased at a pharmacy) when we were sick. Since we didn’t get soft drinks much when we were kids this was a special treat. To this day when I’m not feeling well, I want a coke. And for some reason they always taste better coming out of those small glass bottles than they do from a can or plastic bottle. They’re hard to find, but when I do find them I stock up
Judy H, thanks for clearing Mary’s question up further. I’d forgotten about the German immigrants who made their own beer. From what I’ve read, most of the beer was served at room temperature. Only rarely would it have been cold. But beer definitely wasn’t bottled until after the turn of the century. My daddy was a bootlegger and sold beer out of our house.
I rarely drink “pop” but it’s mint gingerale if I do. It was something my dad always bought and it is soothing to the stomach. My husband moved to Pgh. from NY and he always called it soda but he now has learned the correct term lol.
Hi Linda, re: the rootbeer! It was a taste of heaven. Hubby isn’t home right now but when he gets back, I know he remembers the recipe. The dry ice had preserved our food for the four-day trip, so they could use it for chilling the root beer as that was our last lunch.
Boo hoo. I’m so sad it’s over.
I’m sure part of its charm and deliciousness had to do with not having icy drinks on the trip, due to weight limits on what could be brought and the ice being necessary to keep the food fresh.
I’ll be back with the “recipe” later. oxox
Hi catslady….I’m finding quite a few people today either don’t drink “pop” at all or only rarely. I’m not a Ginger Ale drinker myself but I’m sure it would soothe an upset tummy. My uncle used to make a mixed drink out of it by adding his whiskey to it. Since I don’t drink spirits I have no idea what it tasted like.
Glad you got your husband straightened out on the correct termonology for soft drinks. LOL But he appreciated that.
Hope your day is just perfect!
Tanya….I can’t wait to get the recipe for the homemade Root Beer. I can just imagine the taste of it gliding over your taste buds. Man, that must’ve been good. I’d have been in serious withdrawal after being so long without a Coke. Sounds like the perfect ending to an unbelievable trip.
Linda,
Per your last comment, Rye and ginger is pretty good, as is Seagrams and 7-up, and rum and coke. Haven’t had any of those in forever.
Coke is a favorite and what we usually call colas. We seldom had soft drinks when I was a kid. It was a treat and we usually went to the soda fountain. A & W Root Beer opened their drive-ins and we used to go their, still do when we can find one.
We made home made root beer one year. Potent stuff. As it “brewed”, the pressure built. I can remember hearing the pops as the tops blew off the bottles.
We were at a park on the west coast (don’t remember which one, it has been 25 years or so). There were carbonated water springs in several places. We put lemonade mix in our water bottles and glasses, then went to the springs and added the carbonated water. Instant lemon soda. The kids loved it. I think we experimented with different Koolaid flavors, too.
At our last house, there was a small sassafras tree in the back yard. The roots of young trees and bark of more mature trees are used for root beer. You could break off a piece of root or bark and it has that wonderful smell to it.
Thanks for another fun and interesting post.
I love soda… any flavor diet, but Diet Dr. Pepper is one of my favs… back east, my parents always went to this place in Delaware that sold Birch Beer… love that drink. Can not find any out here… you ask some specialty stores and they have no clue what you are talking about!
Of all the things there are to be addicted to, Dr. Pepper, or pop in general, seems pretty harmless.
Kind of like reading too much or buying too many books. It’s not such a bad thing. It’s gotta beat spending the grocery money at a casino.
Hi Patricia B….wow! You made your own soft drink. I’m sure the kiddoes really thought that was fun. I’m sure lemonade and Koolaide worked very well. You’ve had some neat experiences. And having a sassafras tree in the backyard of your last house was awesome. I’d love to smell and taste those roots and bark. Root Beer has a unique taste I think. Those frosted mugs of it at A&W are wonderful! Oh, the memories.
Glad you enjoyed my blog. Have a great day!
Hi Colleen…..while I was looking up some facts in order to write this blog I ran across a place online that sells Birch Beer. I’d never heard of it before. But you can order it. I’m guessing it might taste like Ginger Ale? Or is it similar to Root Beer? The name doesn’t sound appealing, but birch was used in the concoction of several different soft drinks.
As always, it’s a pleasure to see you here. Hope your day is going as smooth as silk!
Mary, I couldn’t agree more. Everyone has to have their guilty pleasures and drinking soft drinks is pretty harmless. It’s much better than doing drugs or gambling away money you can’t afford to lose.
I’ve been meaning to tell you I read THE HUSBAND TREE and really enjoyed it. I don’t know where you get your ideas. The characters were awesome, even the baby who didn’t talk. It was funny and exciting and a bit sad in places. A very touching story.
Linda, I love ginger ale, and ginger beer–which isn’t beer but rather soda. And sasparilla does taste like root beer, just a little milder.
Great blog. Thanks for the info!
Hi Tracy….glad you enjoyed my blog. Interesting about the taste of Sarsaparilla. I’d love to taste it sometime. I’ve never seen it sold though. Guess I just haven’t been to the right places. Looks like these historical frontier towns would sell it though. Bet they’d make a ton of money. I can’t be the only curious one.
Hope you’re having a wonderful day!
Way back in the day, my favorite soda was Orange
Crush which I drank quite often. Today I won’t
touch an Orange Crush, some how the flavor is
just not the same! Someone has altered the formula
or something, it just tastes different!
Pat Cochran
I drink Diet Pepsi. I call it soda.
Uh-oh. he doesn’t quite recall the proportions but it took a whole bottle of root beer extract (you know, the vanilla size), a ton of sugar and fresh water. It tasted fizzy because of how it got mixed up. I didn’t watch though so I can’t remember. But yeah, it was spectacular.
I’m with Estella. I drink Diet Pepsi and always call it Soda.
Hi Pat C…..I think a lot of things have been altered, some without us being aware of it. I know there was a huge difference between the cane sugar they used to use and syrup they now use as a sweetner. It’s not the same. But then few things in life stay the same. It’s sad to see the changes though.
Hi Estella…..so you’re a Diet Pepsi drinker. Interesting. Of all the ones to comment today only two people have said they prefer Pepsi. It’s pretty good stuff. Not a lot different from Dr Pepper.
Tanya, wow a whole bottle of Root Beer extract! That’s quite a bit. But then you probably had quite a few people in your party. Thanks for getting back to us on it. Take care, my Filly sister.
LINDA–interesting and it triggered a lot of memories. I loved those little Grapettes when I was a young girl. We didn’t drink “coke”, or any soft drink at home–mother wouldn’t buy those or candy or potato chips. Everything had to be homemade and healthy–this was a looooong time ago. But if we were sick, she’d go buy a Coke–that brand–and allow us to have it. So, now I don’t care much for Coke or any soft drink.It reminds me of being sick. Celia
Linda, your post brought back memories. My dad used to take us for a drive on Sunday afternoons and we’d stop and get a soft drink. Sometimes in the hottest part of the summer, friends and I could walk three blocks to the grocery store and buy a Coke and a nickel box of peanuts. Did you ever pour salted peanuts into a Coke? The peanut containers sometimes contained money, so occasionally we’d get a nickel back. I never got more.
Linda,
I don’t have a favorite memory about soft drinks, per se, but I do have an aspiration regarding them.
I want to get my PhD, so the students will have to call me a soft drink name. Who else could do that, right? LOL
Pepper 🙂
Hi Linda,
I live in AZ and the other day I went into a small store and they had Delaware Punch. Now I will have to try it.
I alway call all drinks diet Pepsi
I always love your post
Walk in harmony,
Melinda
I have always loved my pop. Seldom had it ween I was very young but as a teenager two of my favorites were a marshmallow coke or a green river at the local drug store after school!
very interesting post!
Hi Celia….glad you liked my subject today. Always good to have you stop by and comment. I can see how you relate Coke to being sick. That’s awful. I guess you drank a lot of Koolaid growing up. That was really better for you. Doesn’t rot your teeth like soft drinks. Take care.
Hi Caroline….goodness yes, I remember putting peanuts in my Coke! I hadn’t thought of that in years. It sure was good. I don’t remember that sometimes you got a nickel back when you bought peanuts though. Bet that was a real treat. A nickel seemed like a lot of money in those days.
Hi Pepper….love your name and yes, I can see why you aspire to be called Dr Pepper. Ha! That’s too cute. Hope you reach you dream!
Hi Melinda….gosh, it’s good to have you stop by! Always a treat. I cannot believe they still sell Delaware Punch in Arizona. I wonder if the plant is in your state. I’ve never seen it anywhere else. Yes, do try it. I think you’ll agree it’s pretty good stuff. May you keep following your shining star!
Hi Connie…..I’ve never heard of a Green River drink. I can’t imagine what it’s made out of. But if you like it, it must be good. Marshmallow Coke is good, but I always preferred Cherry Vanilla Coke. Thanks for stopping by.
Birch beer is closer to root beer… never heard or tasted Delaware Punch… will have to look for it… also will see about finding Birch beer online! Thanks!!! 😀