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Down in South Carolina there's a small bottler of a ginger ale so hot that it verges on painful to drink. It's called Blenheim's, and it comes in 3 varieties. (Hot, Not as Hot, and Diet).
If I'm just looking for a casual every day ginger ale, then I like Schweppes. Canada Dy is OK, but just middle of the road boring and I like Schweppes better as a company because they make Bitter Lemon, which is awesome. (but very hard to find in Raleigh, NC)
Then there's Vernors. It's a golden, supposedly aged in oak creation. It was just pointed out to me that it's no longer called Ginger Ale on the can - it's Ginger Soda now. I like it a lot, but my wife can't stand it.
The worst ginger ale I've had was from a vendor at the fairgrounds; the trick is you buy the metal cup for $4 and get $2 refills or something. 'Uncle Willie's' or something like that. They had Orange, Cola, Diet, lemon/lime, Citrus and ginger ale. The orange was fine but the ginger ale was vile.
One I used to enjoy was Parkway Ginger Ale which was bottled in or near West Jefferson, North Carolina. I'm not sure if it is still available. There was this mint flavored ginger ale that was surprisingly good under the Tom Tucker name that I tried in the metro Washington, DC area that I liked.
Down in South Carolina there's a small bottler of a ginger ale so hot that it verges on painful to drink. It's called Blenheim's, and it comes in 3 varieties. (Hot, Not as Hot, and Diet).
If I'm just looking for a casual every day ginger ale, then I like Schweppes. Canada Dy is OK, but just middle of the road boring and I like Schweppes better as a company because they make Bitter Lemon, which is awesome. (but very hard to find in Raleigh, NC)
Then there's Vernors. It's a golden, supposedly aged in oak creation. It was just pointed out to me that it's no longer called Ginger Ale on the can - it's Ginger Soda now. I like it a lot, but my wife can't stand it.
The worst ginger ale I've had was from a vendor at the fairgrounds; the trick is you buy the metal cup for $4 and get $2 refills or something. 'Uncle Willie's' or something like that. They had Orange, Cola, Diet, lemon/lime, Citrus and ginger ale. The orange was fine but the ginger ale was vile.
What do you like?
Vernor's, a Michigan institution, is no longer aged in oak barrels, when I was a girl you had to let it sit in the glass for 10 minutes before drinking and even then it burned your throat, brought tears to your eyes, and made you sneeze. Now that was Ginger Ale!
Stroh's Ice Cream, another Michigan institution, used to make a Vernor's ice cream, and Sander's, a Michigan candy company, used to to serve Vernor's ice cream sodas. Wow!
Try Vernor's hot for a sore throat; every true Michigander knows how comforting that is.
I saw a spot about Blenheim's and one of the Food Channel programs. Would really like to try it sometime. Sure both my husband and I would be fans.
I wondered about Vernors still being aged in Oak barrels. Sorta doubted it. Too bad.
Blenheims is unreal. It isn't as carbonated as Vernors, but you can't drink it fast. I can barely sip it slow and I've got a decent tolerance for spicy - some other nice things about it - only comes in glass bottles, and there's no High Fructose Corn syrup - just good old sucrose.
It is British so hard to find here, but "burns" the way ginger is originally "supposed to." Yum. As you can see they call it beer instead of ale. Oh well, it's all good.
I saw this posted to another cooking forum about a year ago and tried it; it was awesome. It doesn't taste like ginger ale exactly but it has a very crisp, light taste. That recipe says the lemon juice is optional, but I wouldn't skip it because it was a nice flavor addition.
I've been meaning to try it using brewer's yeast instead of baker's but haven't gotten around to it yet.
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Parkway and Tom Tucker
