When I was growing up my home town (population circa 15,000) had its own soda company, which provided soda for local ball games and the like. It appears to have been an outgrowth of their beer bottling company (which I don’t recall being active when I was a kid)
Sadly, they’re gone now.
Actually, looking them up on line, I find that there appears to have been more than one soda company in town (The bottles don’t appear to differ because of company name changes).
Upon a little further research, at some point, probably in the 80s, they were bought by and are still owned by Canada Dry.
But as far as I can tell, it’s not sold anywhere but here.
Nearby Spring Grove, MN has https://springgrovesodapop.com/
Brian
Portland, Maine has Captain Eli’s.
The small village of Random Lake, WI once made Jolly Good soda for a few decades, starting back in the late 60’s or so. It was recently revived and lives again!
And Milwaukee had Black Bear up until a few years ago. We still have Dang root beer which seems to do very well.
My husband grew up with theA-Treat beverage company. My favorite flavors are grapefruit and birch beer, which is difficult to find outside the greater Pennsylvania Dutch area.
Nickle Brook Brewery makes a wonderful root beer.
I can assure you that Coca-Cola is the locally made soda in this area. (But you should pronounce it “co-cola”.)
The Moose’s Tooth pizza place in Anchorage, AK has house-made root beer.
Ale-8-One in Kentucky.
I searched for soda makers here in Amateur County and found a Jackson Soda Works but with no references after 1920 so I guess we’re stuck with stuff from Sacramento. Lots of local beer breweries, though. But no sarsaparilla.
There used to be Frank’s soda when I was growing up in Philly and while they made a full range of flavors, the one to die for was called black cherry wishniak. But it was sold to a Baltimore company in 1990 and they charge, according to the web site I found, $80 for a case.
I wonder if its related at all to the Jones Brewing formerly of Smithton PA; think Shirley Jones.
The only one I know around Pittsburgh these days is Red Ribbon (I believe) although you don’t see it in the stores I shop at.
We have Ski soda in southeast Ohio. Popular in east Ross county but 20 miles to the west it seems nobody has heard of it
My wife told me about this soda just before our trip to New Zealand back in 2013. Our first day in Auckland we were wandering around the Sky Tower area and I stopped in a store for something to drink. Bought me an L&P. My first sip made me wonder who would drink something so nasty. After a few more sips the flavor reminded me of drinking Windex. A local watched me drinking it and asked me my opinion, he wasn’t surprised by my response. He then told me about his first trip to the states and his first taste of root beer. His said his response was the same as mine, root beer tasted like crap to him but he enjoyed drinking L&P.
Not my city, but nearby Akron has Norka Soda: “Tastes Better Since 1924!” http://www.norkabeverage.com/
In the form we drink it, soda that comes from a fountain is locally made right there on the spot. The water, carbon dioxide, and flavoring all come from different sources. Beer isn’t like that. So, doesn’t anyplace big enough to have one soda dispenser qualify?
Berlin still makes Fassbrause. Rixdorf, to be precise. Amazing that there is a Wikipedia page in English about that.
Not in my city but the state of NC has cherry soda Cheerwine