SODA BRAND MUSINGS (an observation)................

[Marshwheeling]

Cel-Ray used tohave a real distinctive celery flavor. These days, it's jus sugar water.

My pop used to get Blenheim Hot Ginger Ale by the case. The ginger will snap your head back if you inhale the vapors in the top of a glass. It's made in S. Carolina, can't get it around here unless you order it. For a locally available substitute, Aldi sells a very good ginger beer that has a good ginger kick.

I drink a lot of Trader Joe's sparkling water, $0.79 a liter. I cut it with a couple of fingers of grapefruit juice or their Ginger Lemon Echinacea juice in a pint glass.

Day in and day out, I opt for Diet Dr. Pepper.

 

[lkabug]

Born and raised in West Virginia we never had seltzer. Our water was from a mountain stream, just as pure as one can get. At least in West Virginia. We did have royal Crown and Coke-Cola in those small glass bottles (5 cents). A bottle of pop and a candy bar, or moon pie was a big treat. Used Mason jars were used by the older folks for their home made libations. Those were fun times.

 

[quikdraw67]

I haven't see RC Cola in years. Do they still make it, or am I in the wrong part of the country?

Available in NEPA.

I'll drink it over Pepsi anyday.

 

[rockquarry]

A few comments...I drink a lot of seltzer water. The cheapest brand I can find (Kroger's) has a good fizz that will easily last a few hours after opening.

Sweet tea... indeed nasty stuff; guess you don't like tea if you drink it sweet. Sort of like ruining something with Miracle Whip, Velveeta (the one some think is cheese), or Ranch Dressing.

How long does the fizz last in a carbonated drink? We don't drink many cokes, etc., but one time left an eight pack of Cokes in plastic bottles untouched. Not a scientific test, but there was no fizz - completely flat- after six months.

 

[Chubbo]

I haven't see RC Cola in years. Do they still make it, or am I in the wrong part of the country?

RC Cola is sold in Kroger stores here in central Ohio. My wife and daughter-in-law like it.

 

[wood714]

I'll take Mexican Coke.

This is what real Coca Cola tastes like.

The **** in the cans and plastic bottles is high fructose corn syrup swill.

Never cared much for Coca Cola, but I liked Sprite pretty good.

I won't drink any Coca Cola product anymore.

I'd say why, but might not be allowed.

I love me some Pepsi with ice, and a can of Mt. Dew. Use to drink a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi a day. Cut down to one can a day now.

 

[Redbert31]

Well, I don't know where you fellas were born and raised, but in NY where I was born and grew up, Seltzer was as common as breathing! My parents would get a case of Seltzer delivered every week (the bottles that were refillable glass with the squirt valve lever on the top and delivered in wooden cases). They actually only got to drink a portion of them if I was around with my friends in the Summer. We use to have Seltzer fights - fun for us UNTIL our parents came home that is!



PS: When I went to College I discovered just how "local" some things can be. When I went into the local eatery for a burger and asked for an Egg Cream they looked at me and said, "what the heck is that"? I had to explain that it is a Chocolate Soda with milk added in just the right amount. The Soda Jerk said I was welcome to make it myself - which I proceeded to do. I'd bet many here have no idea what an Egg Cream is.....

I grew up in the Bronx and had many egg creams. The candy store on Kingsbridge Road near the Concourse put the chocolate syrup in first, then the milk. They mixed it with that chopping motion from back to front like mentioned in the you-tube that you provided, and then added the seltzer straight from the fountain till it just went over the top of the glass. They gave it a quick stir so as not to lose the fizz in the chocolate and milk in the bottom and the"head" just formed at the top. Heaven! I've had it made with Fox's U-bet or Hershey brand syrup and they're both good. I'm going to have to get the fixings and make one real soon. The candy stores also made something called a Cherry Lime Rickey in the big metal milk shake glasses. As much as I can remember, they made a cherry soda with lots of crushed ice, added fresh lime juice, shook the heck out of it and garnished it with fresh lime slices. If anyone of my Bronx friends has an exact recipe for that, please pass it along. That was my treat that I'd stop for in my way home after my piano lessons. I hated the piano lessons, but loved my Lime Rickey!
My Dad had a bakery on the Grand Concourse near Fordham Rd. and he had cherry syrup around and I did the egg cream thing with the cherry syrup instead of the chocolate and also with orange syrup instead of the chocolate syrup. Torani orange syrup is available and it works fine. The orange one is like a creamsicle. The cherry and orange ones were my creation that I made for my Daddy. He died young in 1978. His 100th. birthday would have been 4/21/2021 and Wednesday I thought of him and my soda creations that I made for him. Miss him a lot[emoji178][emoji178] Thanks for the trip down memory lane [emoji16][emoji16][emoji106][emoji106]

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[Redbert31]

I too am a big seltzer drinker. Vantage is a decent one, but lately, I have been buying the Poland Spring brand.



Schweppes is another good one to try.



I usually get whats ever on sale.



My real favorite is Hals.



I really dislike ginger ale, maybe because my mother would give it to me as a child when I would throw up... ecccck...



My wife lover ginger anything, her ginger ale is a treat for her. She buys some small brand in cans, they seem to only have root beer and ginger ale



Do enjoy the occasional cream soda or root beer.



Anyone like a nice cold Cel-ray?

Oh yes, and in the Bronx we loved Dr.Brown's Cel-Ray! I grew up with it and once when we took our kids to New York and let them taste the Cel-Ray, you'd think I gave them poison, lol! It's an acquired taste, I guess if you never had it as a kid. It had to be very cold or it was yucky. Memories.....[emoji16][emoji16][emoji106][emoji106]

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[chief38]

The Fellas & Gals who have never tried one, owe it to themselves to make an Egg Cream!!! The only MUST MUST MUST is you HAVE TO use Fox's Ubet Syrup. If it is not available locally, you can order it from Walmart or Amazon. You will love it - but follow the guy in he video I posted above. Hershey's and other brands just won't cut it!

 

[Rustyt1953]

I rarely drink sodas anymore but in my traveling days I think I covered the majority of them.

As a boy growing up in a small coastal village we had the Corona Man come door-to-door every day singing "Cah-roh-nah". Kids would run into the street to buy some. It was always a treat.



I have also introduced this southern treat to my kids and grandkids. They went nuts for it.

 

[SMSgt]

I haven't see RC Cola in years. Do they still make it, or am I in the wrong part of the country?

It's on the shelf, right next to the Moon Pies.

 

[sceva]

Can't speak on Seltzer but I do have opinions on Soda Pop

Ginger Ale; There is only one VERNERS, anything else pale in comparison.

Cola; I'm a Pepsi guy but as a kid I like 3V Cola because the bottles were bigger.

Barq's Red Cream Soda is good.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I, too, like Vernor's. Another favorite "ginger beer" (as mom puts it) is this local favorite from Winchester, KY.

Good stuff.

 

[kaaskop49]

Re YouTube video above: Maybe that's how egg creams are made in Brooklyn, but NOT in the Bronx! Too much syrup, way too much. After the syrup, fill the glass halfway with seltzer and stir. Add the milk and top it off with seltzer while stirring. BTW, regardless of the 'proper' ingredients, it's nearly impossible to make a true egg cream at home. Don't believe everything you see on YouTube.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

 

[Rustyt1953]

PS: my mom still makes shandies in the summer. Half ginger ale/half beer. As a young woman that was her drink of choice in the pubs.

Refreshing yet it wouldn't take your landing gear out.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I haven't see RC Cola in years. Do they still make it, or am I in the wrong part of the country?

We can still get it here in the middle of nowhere Western Texas high plains.

 

[Redbert31]

Re YouTube video above: Maybe that's how egg creams are made in Brooklyn, but NOT in the Bronx! Too much syrup, way too much. After the syrup, fill the glass halfway with seltzer and stir. Add the milk and top it off with seltzer while stirring. BTW, regardless of the 'proper' ingredients, it's nearly impossible to make a true egg cream at home. Don't believe everything you see on YouTube.



Kaaskop49

Shield #5103

I lived in the Bronx too and they made the egg creams a bit different like I mentioned above. I lived on Grand Concourse between Kingsbridge Rd and 196 St. There were so many neighborhoods in the Bronx and everyone made egg creams a bit different (like pizza) After we got married, we lived in Brooklyn while we finished school and the egg creams were different there . P. S. I cleaned everything out of my PM. Thanks for letting me know[emoji16]

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[Redbert31]

PS: my mom still makes shandies in the summer. Half ginger ale/half beer. As a young woman that was her drink of choice in the pubs.



Refreshing yet it wouldn't take your landing gear out.

I should try what your Mom made. I'm not a beer lover, but I love ginger ale. I bet I'd actually like the beer then. I've always wanted to like beer but never developed a taste for it. I do drink other kinds of alcohol though, so I'll give Mom's shandies a try!

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[Rustyt1953]

I should try what your Mom made. I'm not a beer lover, but I love ginger ale. I bet I'd actually like the beer then. I've always wanted to like beer but never developed a taste for it. I do drink other kinds of alcohol though, so I'll give Mom's shandies a try!

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Schweppes is her first choice, Canada Dry being second.

Fresca with a wee bit 'o gin and a lime wedge is another one she likes.

 

[326MOD10]

RC Cola is my favorite. In the City where I used to work we had card fuel pumps to fill up our patrol cars. They had an RC machine there.

Nothing better than 3 AM in the dead of winter and you could get an ice cold RC out of that machine.

The Coke in bottles on ice in a bucket from the real Mexican food trucks was a close second.

 

[chief38]

When I was a Tot, I use to get a kick out of watching my Dad mix Coca-Cola with about 1/3 Dr. Pepper. Today that is known as a Cherry Coke.

We use to always make Ice Cream Soda's using Coke and Vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm.

 

[hemiram]

Not a seltzer fan at all.

My sister loved and still loves Vernor's. I never liked it at all. If I was going to drink Ginger Ale, it was Canada Dry for me. Better it being pretty much tasteless than mild cough syrup like Vernor's was.

But to me, nothing beats Pepsi. I don't care if it's the corn syrup or the cane sugar kind, I love it better than anything. Fountain the best, if it's done right, but bottled is fine. Not a huge fan of it canned, it's just off a little. Still better than any other cola. I like Cheerwine a lot too. Shasta Cola was OK, better than Coke or RC, or Faygo, etc. At this point, I have one Pepsi a week or so, but I was bad tonight and had 2. As far as sugared drinks go, mostly I drink Lipton Pure Leaf Sweet Tea. I can't stand diet pop. Oh, even though I'm a fat old bald guy, my sugar is "Amazing" and my A1C last time from about 6 months ago was 5.0, down .1 from six months before that. I have so many type 2 diabetic friends who just shake their heads and didn't believe me, so I had to go to my doctor's patient portal to show them. I think if I ever lose a bunch of weight I'm going to be like my mom, who was a true hypoglycemic, who had to snack constantly, or she would be like a snapping turtle. Driving with her before we figured out what was going on wasn't fun at all.

 

[quikdraw67]

Never cared much for Coca Cola, but I liked Sprite pretty good.

I won't drink any Coca Cola product anymore.

I'd say why, but might not be allowed.

I love me some Pepsi with ice, and a can of Mt. Dew. Use to drink a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi a day. Cut down to one can a day now.

The Coca Cola company put food on my family's table for 40 years. So I'm pretty loyal to the product.

That said. I don't drink much of any brand of soda.

Glad you cut back your Pepsi consumption.

Soda really isn't good for you in that amount.

 

[pawngal]

Not sure if this was just a local thing or not but every year the Coca Cola truck would come to the schools here and all us kids got a free bottle of Coke and a pencil. Was my first taste of Coke and I thought is was horrible, have long since changed my mind. Is my pop of choice and besides that it goes with rum and Jack Daniels.

 

[Onomea]

PS: my mom still makes shandies in the summer. Half ginger ale/half beer. As a young woman that was her drink of choice in the pubs.

Refreshing yet it wouldn't take your landing gear out.

I was gonna comment that I thought shandies were lemonade and beer, then thought it unlikely that Rusty's mom would get it wrong. So, looking it up, I found this:

...in the UK, lemon-lime soda (like 7UP) is what is referred to as "lemonade" and so there was a lack of translation when this drink crossed "The Pond"! I explained this to the bartender who was curiously surprised. Instead of adding the US version of lemonade, he made the shandy with lemon-lime soda: a proper shandy (as proper as you can get in the US at a bar) and no complaints from the guest!...

How to Make a Traditional British Shandy (the PROPER way) - Christina's Cucina

 

[ladder13]

I grew up in the Bronx and had many egg creams. The candy store on Kingsbridge Road near the Concourse put the chocolate syrup in first, then the milk. They mixed it with that chopping motion from back to front like mentioned in the you-tube that you provided, and then added the seltzer straight from the fountain till it just went over the top of the glass. They gave it a quick stir so as not to lose the fizz in the chocolate and milk in the bottom and the"head" just formed at the top. Heaven! I've had it made with Fox's U-bet or Hershey brand syrup and they're both good. I'm going to have to get the fixings and make one real soon. The candy stores also made something called a Cherry Lime Rickey in the big metal milk shake glasses. As much as I can remember, they made a cherry soda with lots of crushed ice, added fresh lime juice, shook the heck out of it and garnished it with fresh lime slices. If anyone of my Bronx friends has an exact recipe for that, please pass it along. That was my treat that I'd stop for in my way home after my piano lessons. I hated the piano lessons, but loved my Lime Rickey!
My Dad had a bakery on the Grand Concourse near Fordham Rd. and he had cherry syrup around and I did the egg cream thing with the cherry syrup instead of the chocolate and also with orange syrup instead of the chocolate syrup. Torani orange syrup is available and it works fine. The orange one is like a creamsicle. The cherry and orange ones were my creation that I made for my Daddy. He died young in 1978. His 100th. birthday would have been 4/21/2021 and Wednesday I thought of him and my soda creations that I made for him. Miss him a lot[emoji178][emoji178] Thanks for the trip down memory lane [emoji16][emoji16][emoji106][emoji106]

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Great post Linda. I used to love watching egg creams being made.

Your dad died way too young, indeed.

I had been in the bakery, certainly walked by it umpteen times but don't recall the details. Maybe a black and white or two, or a linzer tart
I never had much of a sweet tooth. I do remember Gormans for hotdogs, delicious with the crunchy outside , and all the pizza joints nearby.

Lime Rickeys at Jahns.

I spent years on Fordham Rd going to movies, buying clothes, just hanging out or in between classes at Lehman.

What was the name of the other sweet shop near your family bakery?

 

[meaneyedcatz]

Flavored seltzer or carbonated water isn't bad. It might be an acquired taste.
I have IBS and seltzer water is like a 12 once alka seltzer. Settles the stomach.

 

[charlie sherrill]

I, too, like Vernor's. Another favorite "ginger beer" (as mom puts it) is this local favorite from Winchester, KY.

Good stuff.

They still bottle "A Late One" in returnable bottles. We went by the plant a couple of years ago and watched the process. I didn't much care for it straight up, bud it does make a decent mixer.

 

[charlie sherrill]

I always liked Barq's Root Beer or Creme Soda. It was invented by Ed Barq Sr. in Biloxi,Ms. back in the late 1800's. It was bought out several years ago by Coca Cola and can still be found in many parts of the country.

 

[ladder13]

I always liked Barq's Root Beer or Creme Soda. It was invented by Ed Barq Sr. in Biloxi,Ms. back in the late 1800's. It was bought out several years ago by Coca Cola and can still be found in many parts of the country.

The only Root Beer I ever drink is Barq's.