Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: Vernor’s Ginger Ale

June 6th, 2005

Filed under: General

Vernor's Ginger AleI walked into the break room at work today and there it was: a 2-liter bottle of Vernor’s Ginger Ale. It was my dad’s favorite soda, so I grew up on it. Sadly, I hadn’t been able to find Vernor’s since I moved away from Indiana six years ago. Now here it was, staring me in the eye.

Vernors is no ordinary ginger ale — due to a happy accident of history, it’s aged in oak barrels so it has a definite smokey kick to it.

While not as rare as it used to be, it’s still hard to find in all too many areas of the country.

Sure, it’s an acquired taste, but for my money, it’s the best ginger ale there is.

6 Responses to “ Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: Vernor’s Ginger Ale ”

  1. Orac
    June 7th, 2005 at 8:22 am

    I grew up in Michigan and developed a taste for Vernor’s there. Every time I make it back home to visit the parents, if I drove rather than flew there, I consider it essential to pick up a case or two of Vernors to bring back to the East Coast with me.

  2. Shane
    June 7th, 2005 at 11:18 am

    Off topic, but I thought you might like this…

    Medical Case Histories on
    Mount Olympus

  3. chasdom
    June 7th, 2005 at 11:30 am

    My uncle who now lives in Wisconsin does the same thing when he visits us here in Michigan, except for him it’s both a few cases of Vernor’s and a few cases of frozen White Castles.

  4. Anonymous
    June 7th, 2005 at 1:01 pm

    In my mind Vernor’s and RPGs are inextricably linked. Our DM when I was in high school was a big Vernor’s fan, so it was always around when we played.

  5. Rick!
    June 7th, 2005 at 9:44 pm

    I also grew up drinking a lot of Vernor’s — more specifically, Vernor’s mixed with milk.

    It’s actually really good.

  6. Lyle
    June 8th, 2005 at 2:29 am

    I’ve been drinking ginger beer of late (non-alcoholic, but with a much stronger ginger flavor) so I’ve missed the smoky taste of Venor’s in the past because I was probably looking so hard for the ginger. I’ll have to try it again with a mind focused on the smoky.

    An oddball Ginger Ale tangent: I created an odd bit of conditioning in myself during my college days. Back then, I liked ginger ale but rarely drank it because it was rarely available in restaurants and I rarely bought beverages at the market since I didn’t have a car (and would therefore have to carry it back to the dorm). Airlines usually did carry ginger ale, so I would always ask for it when the beverage cart came by during my flights from my parents’ home and college. Before these flights, I’d deliberately tire myself out to make sure I’d sleep on the plane, making two constants in my travel… sleep and ginger ale. I guess in four years the two became so intertwined in my mind that now ginger ale makes me sleepy.

Leave a Reply

« Country Music and the Legion of Super-Heroes Grand Rounds »