The Best Regional Sodas

I’m not much of a soda drinker. At home, I almost never drink soda and often go months without having any. I usually don’t have soda when we travel either… unless it’s something that isn't available back home. I can’t resist trying a local favorite, whether it's a food or a drink! Today I thought it would be fun to share the best regional sodas we tried during our travels to all 50 states. 

Faygo

Faygo is probably my favorite of all the sodas we've discovered on our travels. Every flavor we tried was delicious. I particularly loved Rock & Rye. Faygo is made in Detroit, which is where we found it. 

Foxon Park

My runner-up is Foxon Park. All three of us loved this Connecticut favorite and enjoyed it during our travels in the Constitution State. My favorite flavor is their lemon-lime classic, Gassosa. 

Ale-8-One

We were there on the wrong day for a tour, but we did visit the lobby of the  Ale-8-One factory when we were in Kentucky. Ale-8-One is lightly carbonated with a unique ginger citrus flavor that is memorable and absolutely delicious. 

Sprecher

Sprecher is a Wisconsin brand that we discovered during our time in Milwaukee. Their cream soda is fantastic and their root beer sensational. In fact, the New York Times named it Best Root Beer. 

Cheerwine

Cheerwine has been a beloved drink in North Carolina since 1917, which means it was 101 before we first tried it in 2018! Google tells me it's available to us locally now, but at the time it wasn't. I really enjoyed Cheerwine's cherry flavor - so refreshing on a hot day. 

That's my top five, but I do have to name a runner-up: Verners Ginger Soda. Like Faygo, it's also a Detroit brand. 

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I want to address the linguistic elephant in the room. I call any sweet, carbonated beverage “soda” but if you travel across the US you’ll hear it called “pop” or “coke.” Faygo, for example, calls itself pop. I'm fine with people calling it pop, but I'm not crazy about "coke" since Coke is a specific beverage and it's not like you can hear the capitalization in speech. Anyway, you may find this map, found at Pop Vs. Soda, interesting. I did. 

Have you enjoyed a regional soda? Agree or disagree with my choices? Let me know in the comments.