Cheerwine

I’m a Yankee, born in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, so I never really heard of this soda until I moved south. I’ve lived in Dixie for nearly 20 years now and I still hadn’t tasted one. Until today.

I’m pretty much a Diet Dr. Pepper guy, but when I went to the vending area at work this afternoon looking for a carbonated beverage, the machine that normally has the DDP didn’t. I checked the other two machines and as expected they didn’t either, so back to the first machine I went, looking for an alternative drink.

It did have regular Dr. Pepper, but that tastes too sweet to me now. Lemonade, nah. Lipton Brisk Iced Tea, not a chance as that stuff is an aberration. Bottled iced tea is to real iced like instant grits is to regular grits and to quote Sam Tipton of Wazoo, Alabama, “No self respectin’ Southerner uses instant grits.” Wait a minute here is a row of 20oz. bottles selling for a buck instead of the $1.25 of all the others. Let’s see, there is Sundrop and Cheerwine, Sundrop looks lemon lime like and I didn’t want that taste, so I guess I’ll go for the Cheerwine, how bad can it be?

When I got back to my desk I twisted off the top and took a smell. Smelled kind of like paint. Pour half a bottle over ice and tasted it. Tasted vaguely like paint too. I drank three quarters of it in hopes I would become accustomed to the taste, didn’t, so I poured out the last bit into the sink in the Men’s room. Color was kind of dark and it took me three rinses to get the water to come out of the mug clear. When I dried out the inside of the mug with a paper towel the towel came out red tinged, kind of like paint.

Must be an acquired taste.