Cheerwine: The Nectar of North Carolina
Created in 1917 in Salisbury, North Carolina, Cheerwine owes its abundant popularity, in part, to a time of scarcity. Because of extensive wartime rationing, Carolina Beverage Company founder L.D. Peeler needed a way to produce soda with less sugar, so he began blending his beverages with cherry flavoring he bought from a traveling salesman. These experiments culminated in Cheerwine, which is widely credited as America’s first bottled cherry soda.
Now more than a century later, the company behind the iconic “Nectar of North Carolina” is still operated by Peeler’s descendants, making it the oldest continuously family-run soft drink business in the nation.
The National Barbecue and Grilling Association announced Cheerwine as its official soft drink in 2015, cementing a longstanding relationship between barbecue and the beverage that’s often referred to as the “Southern handshake.” In 2017, for Cheerwine’s centennial, Salisbury, North Carolina held a celebration which became an annual event, even attracting visitors from outside the state as of 2025.
Moxie: Maine’s Official State Soda
The soda was created in 1884 by Maine native Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union, and is among the first sodas ever to be produced. Moxie has a unique taste that is both sweet and bitter, featuring gentian root extract, and was originally marketed as a medicinal “Moxie Nerve Food,” accompanied by claims to fix a variety of ailments.
By the early 1900s, Moxie had become the nation’s favorite soft drink, outselling modern giant Coca-Cola, which first hit the market in 1886. That dominance didn’t last, but the brand refused to disappear.
The beverage name is the source of the word “moxie” in the American English vernacular, a noun meaning energy, determination, and spunk. Moxie was designated the official soft drink of Maine on May 10, 2005, and it continues to be regionally popular today, particularly in New England states.
While it was once available in more than 30 states and parts of Canada, today the memorable soda is almost exclusively found in the six New England states.
Ale-8-One: Kentucky’s Best-Kept Secret
Ale-8-One, pronounced “A Late One,” is a ginger-ale soft drink bottled by the Ale-8-One Bottling Company in Winchester, Kentucky, and is distributed primarily to retailers in Kentucky. The formula for Ale-8-One was developed by soda bottler G. L. Wainscott in the 1920s.
Wainscott later sourced recipes for ginger-blended drinks while on travels to northern Europe, developing a drink described as “a combination of ginger and citrus” that is “not too hot and not too sweet.” Wainscott began bottling Ale-8-One in 1926, and sponsored a naming contest for the drink, with “A Late One” chosen as the winning entry, suggesting that the product was “the latest thing” in soft drinks.
It is the only soft drink invented in Kentucky still in existence. In July 2024, StrawMelon Ale-8 was released as a limited edition, showing the brand still actively innovates while holding tight to its regional roots.
Faygo: Detroit’s Pop in a Bottle
Faygo was founded in Detroit, Michigan, in November 1907, as Feigenson Brothers Bottle Works by Russian baker immigrants Ben and Perry Feigenson. The original flavors of Faygo, including fruit punch, strawberry, and grape, were based on cake frosting recipes used by the Feigensons in Russia.
Because the drink had a limited shelf life, the company sold its products only in Michigan until the late 1950s. Company chemists later resolved this issue by installing a filtration system to remove impurities from the manufacturing plant’s water system.
The expansion increased company sales from $6 million in 1966 to $20.4 million in 1971. As of 2025, there are 57 beverage options offered by Faygo, a staggering lineup that remains a point of real civic pride in Michigan.
Big Red: The Taste That’s Simply “Red”
Big Red was invented in a Waco laboratory in 1937 by Grover C. Thomsen and R.H. Roark, 52 years after Dr Pepper’s birth in the same city. It was originally called Sun Tang Red Cream Soda and was marketed exclusively in Central and South Texas and around Louisville, Kentucky.
Though often thought to be bubble gum, its flavor is actually a combination of lemon and orange oils, mixed with vanilla. That combination produces a taste that is notoriously hard to categorize. This incandescent red soda is so ingrained in Texas culture that Texans who grew up on the stuff report that its flavor simply tastes “red.”
It took off in San Antonio like nowhere else, where it’s still the second-best-selling soda overall behind Coca-Cola. Especially popular with blue-collar and ethnic drinkers, Big Red is a must at any Juneteenth celebration, along with ribs, beer, and watermelon.
Grapico: Birmingham’s Grape Soda of Record
While it can be found in many stores across the South, Grapico is commonplace in the city where it debuted and remains a bestseller more than a century later: Birmingham, Alabama. While early marketing materials suggested that the carbonated soda was made in part from real grape juice, it never was and isn’t today. Grapico is extremely sweet, artificially flavored, and tastes a lot like grape candy or frozen grape juice concentrate.
Since 1916, Grapico has made itself part of Birmingham history and pop culture, advertised with a piece of commissioned sheet music called “Meet Me in the Land of Grapico,” referenced in the classic Southern novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop CafĂ©,” and its name pasted onto the sides of Grapico-branded airplanes which now reside in Birmingham museums.
A diet version didn’t debut until 2005, but any variety of Grapico is part of a trio of a common Birmingham fast food meal, along with a hot dog and Golden Flake chips. It’s the kind of regional belonging that no national brand can replicate.
Manhattan Special: Brooklyn’s Espresso Soda
Marketed as “The World’s Most Delicious Pure Espresso Coffee Soda,” this isn’t just coffee-flavored soda. It’s a carbonated soft drink made primarily out of very strong coffee, which is brewed from whole beans and combined with real cane sugar and seltzer water, and it has been made in New York since 1895, specifically in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The bittersweet espresso Manhattan Special takes its name from Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where the drink has been made since 1895. It was invented by an Italian immigrant named Michael Garavuso and an osteopath named Dr. Teresa Cimino, and Cimino’s great-grandchildren currently run the company, with the simple bottled drink created primarily to serve the Italian immigrant community who preferred espresso to American coffee.
It’s been made in Brooklyn since 1895, long before cold brew and sparkling coffee started making headlines, and it hasn’t changed much since then. It’s available in its original form and strength as well as in sugar-free and decaffeinated versions.
Why Regional Sodas Still Matter
The soft drink market is dominated by national and even global brands that have been around for more than a century, going beyond just mere beverages to reach iconic cultural status. Yet the regional brands on this list have outlasted dozens of challenges, mergers, and changing consumer tastes.
Some regional sodas have found popularity over the years in other parts of the country, while others have stayed pretty much in their home areas. That stubborn localism is part of what makes them worth seeking out. A bottle of Cheerwine in Salisbury or a cold Ale-8 in Winchester tastes different precisely because it belongs somewhere specific.
In an era when a handful of multinational corporations supply most of what Americans drink, these seven sodas serve as a small reminder that geography still shapes flavor. Some things simply can’t be franchised.
