I almost hesitate to post this here since I hear they either hand make it with relatively few people or they at least don't make industrial-sized batches, so availability can already suffer, but... On the Ginger Ale side, you've got to find and try the red cap (hot) Blenheim if you've found the others to be lacking in punch.

I get mine from Beverages Direct (web/mail-order).

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The World Market insert in my local paper had 12 count boxes of assorted Kemper soft drinks for $.88 a bottle, so I picked up 3, based on my experience with their root beer. There were 2 vanilla cream, 2 orange cream, 2 root beer, 2 ginger ale, 2 black cherry and for some absurd reason, 2 "low calorie" root beers. Since there were boxes with only diet versions, I assumed the cane sugar boxes would all cane and was really pissed off at the 2 bottles no one in my house would ever drink. Further inspection of the label on the box showed that I should have expected these ugly intruders, but I completely missed this at the store.

I agree the black cherry is insipid, and the ginger ale weak. Not bad, just weak. The orange cream worked bu the vanilla cream was just so-so. The 2 bottles of diet root beer will get poured down the drain, which is where sucralose belongs.

I have recently been enjoying a root beer called "Natural Brew" and absolutely love it. The Thomas Kemper can't touch it. It is owned by the Smucker's company but only distributed in the east, despite Smuckers west coast roots. They also have a ginger ale and several other flavors, but I know if I buy a 4-pack of any other flavor but root beer, I'll be wishing I was drinking that, and not allow myself to enjoy it.

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This has become a thrice-daily routine for me:

Take out Coke Zero can.
Take out Organic Unprocessed Cane Sugar.
Put ice in big glass.

Put 1tbsp sugar in small glass
Put 1tbsp water in small glass
microwave small glass for 1 minute
Stir liquid for five seconds to make sure it's all dissolved

Fill big glass half full of soda
add cane-syrup mixture
empty can into big glass


Viola, 60 calories for 13oz of the best (and I've tried 4 or 5 brands) cane-sugar cola I've ever tasted, cheaper than any cane-sugar cola on the shelves.

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If you want to trwat yourself, try Jones Soda Company. There is a reason why they are the only Soda company to break into the Coke/Pepsi mega markets in professional sports stadiums (No coke, no Pepsi at Seattle Seahawks games). Not only do they have the standard root beer, orange creme, vanilla creme, cherry, lemon-lime, and grape, but they also have odd flavors like FuFu berry, Blue Bubble gum, green apple and crushed melon.

Their site is: jonessoda.com

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I wish Vernors would go back to using Cane sugar instead of High-Fructose.

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I don't care much for Jones Sodas, for the most part. They just leave me flat, no pun intended. Their seasonal specialty flavors seem designed and named for the 5 grade set, but I suppose they garner the company quite a bit of free press for their infantile silliness. About a year ago, I ordered a case of Dr Pepper from "Dublin Dr Pepper" in Texas, the only bottler to use cane sugar in their Dr Pepper. It was certainly much better than the undrinkable crap normally sold, but a tad expensive to ship east.

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When it comes to ginger-ale I can't get enough of Reed's Ginger Brews: http://www.reedsgingerbrew.com/ soooo gingery, and the apple one tastes like you are drinking an apple pie. Yum.

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I made ginger ale the other day from a recipe in the current Country Home magazine. Basically a simple syrup made from 1 part each sugar, water and sliced ginger. It reminded me a little of Vernor's.

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My favorite ginger ale is from Bundaberg (actually a ginger beer.)

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I used to love Vernors growing up and tried it again recently, only to be disappointed. It was sickeningly sweet and not like I remembered. Now that you say that they changed from sugar to HFCS it makes sense and saddens me.

I also want to second the nomination for Reed's for spicy ginger ale.

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