From the very beginning of The Andy Griffith Show when Andy told Opie in the pilot episode to tell Aunt Lucy to give him a bottle of pop when he got home, soda pop was a common treat though it was usually found down at Wally’s Filling Station. Like most other Mayberrians, I am a fan of pop though I try to drink the “real stuff” sparingly.
One of my favorites is Cheerwine, the sweet cherry-flavored soda pop produced in North Carolina since 1917 by “the oldest continuing soft drink company still run by the same family.” Sometimes called “The Nectar of the Tarheels,” burgundy-colored Cheerwine is more bubbly than your average soda pop. Cheerwine sold in glass bottles (Obviously the best!) is a “Retro Cheerwine” variant sweetened with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup used in their plastic bottles and cans.
When I researched Cheerwine, I was pleasantly surprised to learn there was a connection between it and the great Commonwealth of Kentucky where my parents were born. Cheerwine actually started with the Maysville Syrup Company of Maysville, Kentucky. The Kentucky company produced a soda pop called Mint Cola and eventually expanded to Salisbury, North Carolina, allowing L.D. Peeler and other investors to bottle Mint Cola. Peeler later purchased a cherry-flavored soda recipe with a cherry flavoring derived from almond, combined it with 11 other flavors and the Mint Cola base, and created the soda pop known as Cheerwine. One of my absolute favorites. By the way, a few years ago Cheerwine was named one of Zagat’s 12 Best Regional Snack Foods.
For many years, Cheerwine was not widely available in the north. Cracker Barrel and City Bar-B-Q were the only spots it was to be found. However, Cheerwine has greatly increased their distribution and it is now readily available at our local supermarket, albeit in the specialty soda pop section of the shelves.