So I thought I'd make one."Įach of Virginia's three soda makers came up with his flavor in different ways.Ĭarver's recipe wasn't new at all.
But I didn't remember any root beers in the last decade tasting like that. I remember it being creamy, with a wonderful, aromatic quality. "It was a treat for the family to go for a drive and have a carhop serve frosted mugs of root beer. "I wanted to make something like I remembered A&W tasting like when I was a kid," said Jerry Bailey, the president of Old Dominion Brewing Co. And the Old Dominion Brewing Company produces Dominion Root Beer in an industrial park in Ashburn, a half-hour's drive from downtown D.C. A family-run bottler in the Rappahannock River town of Montross makes Carver's Original Ginger Ale in a ginger-scented 1932 factory. Few states are blessed with a crop of visionary sodaphiles as diverse as those in Virginia. In Dallas, an ex-advertising man has opened a boutique called Ifs, Ands & Butts that sells only fine tobacco and 125 different brands of sodas you've probably never heard of.Īnd then there's a special breed: the entrepreneurs who created their own gourmet concoctions from scratch. Soda pilgrims are flocking to such places as the bottling plant in Dublin, Tex., where Dr Pepper and several nearly extinct soda brands are still being made with treasured cane sugar, rather than the near-universal corn syrup.Īrchaic regional brands from around the country-such as Moxie, Cheerwine and Vernor's Ginger Ale-are hot once again. In some places, old-fashioned soda fountains-the kind run by "soda jerks"-are being refurbished and reopened. After decades of consolidation in the soft drink business, some consumers are bucking that trend and seeking variety in their sodas-and people like New are rushing to fill the void. New isn't the only entrepreneur who's taking the humble soda to refined heights. Now, five years later, New's Root 66 Root Beer has established a loyal regional following and is preparing to undergo a national expansion. "The name," New said to himself, "has got marketing potential like you can't believe." Unable to get the old song, "Route 66," out of his head, New had a sudden vision: a root beer called Root 66. The notion remained unrealized until one day when New was shingling a roof. He began toying with the idea of creating his own line of root beer. When New stumbled upon a really good keg of root beer at a local festival, he was seized by inspiration. Six years ago, David New lost his job as a field representative for Arizona Iced Tea, just around Christmastime.
0 kommentar(er)
