There’s something oddly comforting about a fizzy drink that feels like home. While Coca-Cola and Pepsi dominate grocery store shelves from coast to coast, the United States harbors a secret world of regional sodas that command fierce loyalty in their home territories. These aren’t just beverages. They’re liquid traditions, passed down through generations and woven into the cultural fabric of entire states.
Think about it. How often do you stumble across a drink so tied to a specific place that locals use it to glaze their holiday ham, or serve it at every backyard barbecue like it’s a sacred ritual? These sodas tell stories about the communities that embraced them, stories that big national brands simply can’t replicate. Let’s dive into three regional fizzy favorites that have stubbornly refused to go mainstream, remaining treasured secrets in their corners of America.
Cheerwine: North Carolina’s Burgundy Treasure
Cheerwine is a cherry-flavored soft drink produced by Carolina Beverage Corporation of Salisbury, North Carolina, and has been made since 1917. L.D. Peeler created Cheerwine in 1917 in Salisbury, North Carolina amid a sugar shortage, which forced him to get creative with flavoring.
A salesman from St. Louis sold him a wild cherry flavor that blended well with other flavors, and with its burgundy-red color and cheery disposition, the name “Cheerwine” simply made sense. The drink contains no alcohol despite what the name might suggest. Famous for its distinct cherry flavor and burgundy color, Cheerwine has enjoyed tremendous popularity among many North Carolinians though its reception and distribution outside the state has been limited.
Cheerwine is currently available in much of the southeastern United States, from Maryland south to Florida, but is better known in the Carolinas. Cheerwine is more heavily carbonated than the average soda, so bubbly that modern drink machines can’t always handle it, and some restaurants offering Cheerwine report buying old-fashioned soda fountains to serve it draft-style. Honestly, there’s something wonderfully defiant about a soda that refuses to play by modern equipment standards.
In North Carolina, this fizzy cherry delight transcends its role as mere refreshment. The National Barbecue & 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”. Salisbury has hosted an annual Cheerwine Festival since 2017, when thousands of attendees filled downtown Salisbury for the drink’s 100th birthday party.
Moxie: Maine’s Medicinal Marvel Turned State Symbol
Moxie was designated the official soft drink of Maine on May 10, 2005, earning itself a spot in state history alongside other official symbols. 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 originated around 1876 as a patent medicine called “Moxie Nerve Food” by Augustin Thompson in Lowell, Massachusetts, who claimed it contained an extract from a rare, unnamed South American plant, which is now known to be gentian root. 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. The flavor? Let’s be real, it’s an acquired taste that divides people faster than politics at Thanksgiving dinner.
Maine is where Moxie is arguably most beloved, and for more than 30 years the town of Lisbon has held a 3-day Moxie Festival the second week in July, celebrating all things Moxie with a clambake, fireworks, cooking contest, parade, book sale, car show, race, and more. 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.
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. In 1920, it actually outsold Coca-Cola. How things have changed. The name has become the word “moxie” in American English, a noun meaning energy, determination, and spunk.
Big Red: Texas’s Bright Crimson Love Affair
Big Red was created in 1937 by Grover C. Thomsen, R.H. Roark and Robert Montes in Waco, Texas and originally known as Sun Tang Red Cream Soda. The name was changed to “Sun Tang Big Red Cream Soda” in 1959 and to “Big Red” in 1969 by Harold Jansing, then president of the San Antonio bottling plant, after hearing a golf caddy refer to the soda by that name.
Big Red was initially marketed exclusively in Central and South Texas and around Louisville, Kentucky, and in Southern Indiana. The only beverage that consistently outsells Big Red in San Antonio is Coca-Cola. That says something profound about regional loyalty, doesn’t it?
The flavor is actually a combination of lemon and orange oils, topped off by a dollop of pure vanilla for a creamy aftertaste, though many first-time drinkers swear it tastes like liquid bubblegum. Its availability varies significantly by region, with the strongest presence in the southern United States, particularly Texas, where it’s considered a cultural staple. Big Red is indeed still being manufactured and distributed today, primarily by Keurig Dr Pepper, which acquired the brand in 2008.
Big Red is a must at any Juneteenth celebration, along with ribs, beer, and watermelon, and is also an essential ingredient for an authentic South Texas barbecue, the perfect palate-cooling antidote to the spicy heat of the meat. By 2002, Big Red had climbed to become America’s sixth-largest soft drink company, maintaining this position through 2004.
