Rikster’s drink sounds a lot like what I remember drinking in Chi, so I could be wrong about the location. I did spend some months in Brooklyn, in and around the old Navy shipyards. Sweet and syrupy, with a definite cola flavor.
It’s been 35 years or so, and it was a generational favorite back then. Just like SCHAEFER beer. No accounting for taste, huh? Do they still drink that stuff, er, I mean beer?