Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | Texas Monthly

Let me call you sweet-tart: if you're lucky, you'll find an old-fashioned soda fountain that will make you a cherry lime. It will make your summer day.

Article Excerpt
It was a typical Texas summer morning--sun shining, birds singing, people melting--when I ran into a young friend at the farmers' market. She was clutching that essential seasonal accessory, a cold canned drink, which happened to be one of the industry's timid forays into fusion, Coca-Cola with lime. "A lime Coke!" I said. "I drank a few of those in my day." She frowned prettily at me across the string beans and cream peas and said, "But ... they just came out. [paragraph] Actually, little missy, that particular American potable evolved about a hundred years ago. Back in the Dork Ages, a lime Coke (or a cherry-vanilla Dr Pepper or a strawberry lemonade) didn't come in a handy can. It was prepared on the spot at a soda fountain or a drive-in, with carbonated water and flavored syrup. Comparing the lime Coke of today with the sublime Coke I recall from, say, 1965 is like equating beef jerky with pit barbecue. [paragraph] Whew! It's thirsty work standing on a soapbox! And to be honest, the lime Coke doesn't even top my list of favorite beverages (alcohol-free division). The soft drink with which I've had a lifelong affaire de coeur--and taste buds--is the cherry lime, a blend of cherry syrup, fizzy water, and fresh lime juice. It's sweet and tart and utterly ambrosial, and it's disappearing from...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!