Friday, July 12, 2013

Cock 'n Bull Ginger Beer

Start with: label is cool.
 This soda was first started in the 1940's when vodka was a little known drink. John G Martin bought a vodka recipe from a Russian family named Smirnov. Initially vodka was a flop. He went on a nationwide marketing trip to try and dig up support for his vodka. He stopped at the Cock 'n Bull restaurant, and ended up talking to the owner, who made this odd ginger beverage, ginger beer and he couldn't seem to sell it either. They invented a drink, Moscow Mule, that incorporated both beverages. The marketing campaign was brilliant. This leaked out as a drink hard to find, and sales of both products took off from there. From here history gets murky. C-B beverage is the company that owns the trademark, and I'd say the recipe. Orca beverages lists it as being a soda that "bottled in long neck glass bottles at our facility in Mukilteo, WA". Somehow in here is Pipeline brands, who lists Cock 'n Bull on their website. So, exactly who produces it in the current day and age, I honest cannot tell you.

Now, I've said this before: Ginger beer is an acquired taste. It burns, and bad ginger beers will crank up the burn and lose the flavor. Cock 'n Bull does not. It has a strong, pungent odor of ginger. First taste, wonderful. Nice ginger heat. Love it. And that wonderful burn. You can feel every inch of your digestive system reacting to the soda. Its a very good ginger beer. But I know ginger beer is not something every person enjoys. If you like ginger beer, this is a good one. I'd buy again.

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