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Not sure if this goes best here so if not, mods please move. Here's a little CW trivia.....
If your from Michigan or perhaps Ohio then you probably know about Vernor's Ginger Ale. However, you may not know that it was invented by a Yankee cavalryman and the legend says, as a result of his being off to war.
James Vernor was an Irish native that lived in Detroit. Before the war he was a pharmacist clerk at the Higby and Sterns Drug Store where he was trying to come up with a drink like one he had tasted and remembered from Dublin Ireland. In 1862, he Vernor joined the 4th Michigan Cavalry on 14August 1862 as a hospital steward, was promoted to second lieutenant on 20 September 1864, and was discharged on 1 July 1865. However, before he left home he had stored his secret syrup mixture of 19 ingredients including ginger and vanilla in an oak tree (or so the legend says). Four years later when he returned he discovered the aging process had transformed his mixture into a "deliciously different" taste from what it had been when he had left. This flavor is the same one we still taste today. After the war, James Vernor had his own drug store from which sold his secret recipe drink from his soda fountain. It became so wildly popular he closed the drug store went full time into the giner ale soft drink business. According to the 1911 trademark application on "Vernor's" as a name for ginger ale and extract, Vernors entered commerce in 1880. City by city, He sold bottling franchises, with operators of those franchises were required to strictly adhere to the recipe. It became big business.
James Vernor died October 29, 1927 and was succeeded by his son, James Vernor Jr. Expansion continued throughout Prohibition. Just prior to the onset of World War II, James Vernor II presided over the construction of a 230,000 sq ft (21,000 m2) bottling plant and headquarters, encompassing an entire city block on Woodward Avenue, one block from the Detroit River. Tours of the Vernors plants became major tourist attractions. The flagship Detroit bottling plant was shut down by successor owner United Brands in 1985, with the local rights to bottle Vernors granted to Pepsi-Cola.[5] Another plant on Woodward Avenue was later demolished.[
Today, Vernor's Ginger Ale shares the title of America's oldest surviving soft drink It is still very popular in Michigan, Canada, Ohio and parts of Florida (snowbirds) but is sometimes difficult but not impossible to find in other parts of the country. Some is still bottled in Detroit but Vernors passed from the family's hands early in 1966 and went through several owners but is today owned by the Dr. Pepper/Snapple group which is why it can often be found in the South. The "Deliciously Different" motto was coined by Mr Vernor himself along with a gnome advertising figure originating in 1900. Both are still used today in advertising and on their bottles as their central slogan.
The Vernor link to the Civil War is an interesting side bar and perhaps not very relevant to us here except as a piece of CW trivia. It has been said that James Vernor's son was reported to have claimed that his father came up with the recipe after the war but regardless, it is today still aged in oak barrels just as Mr Vernor did. Vernor's is a golden color, very sweet, heavily carbonated soft drink with a nice bite and unique taste. If you get a chance to find some it is very good and goes especially well with ice cream as a float (known as a Boston Cooler) and as a mix drink with whisky (and with bourbon but then, what doesn't?)
Ken R Knopp
If your from Michigan or perhaps Ohio then you probably know about Vernor's Ginger Ale. However, you may not know that it was invented by a Yankee cavalryman and the legend says, as a result of his being off to war.
James Vernor was an Irish native that lived in Detroit. Before the war he was a pharmacist clerk at the Higby and Sterns Drug Store where he was trying to come up with a drink like one he had tasted and remembered from Dublin Ireland. In 1862, he Vernor joined the 4th Michigan Cavalry on 14August 1862 as a hospital steward, was promoted to second lieutenant on 20 September 1864, and was discharged on 1 July 1865. However, before he left home he had stored his secret syrup mixture of 19 ingredients including ginger and vanilla in an oak tree (or so the legend says). Four years later when he returned he discovered the aging process had transformed his mixture into a "deliciously different" taste from what it had been when he had left. This flavor is the same one we still taste today. After the war, James Vernor had his own drug store from which sold his secret recipe drink from his soda fountain. It became so wildly popular he closed the drug store went full time into the giner ale soft drink business. According to the 1911 trademark application on "Vernor's" as a name for ginger ale and extract, Vernors entered commerce in 1880. City by city, He sold bottling franchises, with operators of those franchises were required to strictly adhere to the recipe. It became big business.
James Vernor died October 29, 1927 and was succeeded by his son, James Vernor Jr. Expansion continued throughout Prohibition. Just prior to the onset of World War II, James Vernor II presided over the construction of a 230,000 sq ft (21,000 m2) bottling plant and headquarters, encompassing an entire city block on Woodward Avenue, one block from the Detroit River. Tours of the Vernors plants became major tourist attractions. The flagship Detroit bottling plant was shut down by successor owner United Brands in 1985, with the local rights to bottle Vernors granted to Pepsi-Cola.[5] Another plant on Woodward Avenue was later demolished.[
Today, Vernor's Ginger Ale shares the title of America's oldest surviving soft drink It is still very popular in Michigan, Canada, Ohio and parts of Florida (snowbirds) but is sometimes difficult but not impossible to find in other parts of the country. Some is still bottled in Detroit but Vernors passed from the family's hands early in 1966 and went through several owners but is today owned by the Dr. Pepper/Snapple group which is why it can often be found in the South. The "Deliciously Different" motto was coined by Mr Vernor himself along with a gnome advertising figure originating in 1900. Both are still used today in advertising and on their bottles as their central slogan.
The Vernor link to the Civil War is an interesting side bar and perhaps not very relevant to us here except as a piece of CW trivia. It has been said that James Vernor's son was reported to have claimed that his father came up with the recipe after the war but regardless, it is today still aged in oak barrels just as Mr Vernor did. Vernor's is a golden color, very sweet, heavily carbonated soft drink with a nice bite and unique taste. If you get a chance to find some it is very good and goes especially well with ice cream as a float (known as a Boston Cooler) and as a mix drink with whisky (and with bourbon but then, what doesn't?)
Ken R Knopp
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