Not wine at all, similar to Dr. Pepper both being cherry based soft drinks. Originally from North Carolina but now sold throughout the Southeast.
New England has a specific regional soft drink also, ‘Moxie’. Another old time drink, Moxie made famous by the Mad Magazine jokes and the old expression ‘show some Moxie’.
Why ‘show some Moxie’ ? It is basically a rebranded paint remover that only a few die hard Yankees would consider putting in their mouth. We have a few in my family and a can or two show up once in a while. Below is a good description.
Wikipedia;
‘Moxie is a brand of carbonated beverage that is among the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It was created around 1876 by Augustin Thompson as a patent medicine called “Moxie Nerve Food” and was produced in Lowell, Massachusetts. The sweet soda is similar to root beer, with a (really) bitter aftertaste and is flavored with gentian root extract, an extremely bitter substance commonly used in herbal medicine.’
Given a choice which would you choose, Cherry Soda or Benzene.
Just sayin.
I grew up drinking Moxie. Also, I used to watch a TV station as a kid that had only one sponsor. Moxie! They ran the same Moxie commercial over and over, during the kids’ shows I watched, with Dwayne Hickman (Dobie Gillis) doing modern dances through the 20th century decades.
I was waiting for you to comment, just knew you grew up with it LOL. My Mass. and Maine family will drink it.
Raye’s Mustard from Eastport Maine makes a Moxie flavored mustard. While a big fan of Raye’s I consider Moxie Mustard a ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’.
Thanks for not disappointing me 🤣🤣🤣
Think I’ll pass on the Moxie, although that Cheerwine looks interesting.
I have read it’s becoming more popular and being distributed outside the Carolinas now. Coke owns them at this point. Cracker Barrel restaurants offer it nationally.
Just saw Cheerwine for the first time at our local Schnucks store!
😂😂, it’s creeping out from the south. Let’s hope the next thing heading your way isn’t our gators.
It hasn’t made it up here yet. Perhaps a good thing, eh 😏
😁, I’m sure you have plenty of sugary drinks without adding another. LOL
Cott made a Cream Soda and Cherry Coke. You couldn’t ask for anything sweeter😊
Cream Soda… ‘It’s Cott To Be Good’ !!
Couldn’t resist the old slogan. We had Cott in NYC when I grew up. I haven’t seen it in years, not in the south for sure.