Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Best. Ice. Cream. Float.Evar.

Vernor's Ginger Ale and high-grade vanilla ice cream. This works okay with Blenheim and should be fine with Fever Tree (sold as a drink mixer but excellent by itself) or even Ale-8-One,* but simply shines with Vernor's -- so much so that when I looked up the brand, I discovered the combination has its own name, a "Boston cooler." To my relief, this appears to have nothing to do with the East Coast city of the same name.
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* Not, strictly speaking, a ginger ale per se; instead, it's a unique taste that is somewhat related. Quite regional -- I stumbled over a local supplier a couple of weeks ago. Highly recommended.

10 comments:

Standard Mischief said...

stopped drinking Vernor's a few years ago when the taste was different. It was always an occasional treat because it was always like three times the cost of anythinge else around here. Have they gone back to the original formula?

Drang said...

Vernor's Ginger Ale. Detroit's noblest contribution to American food.

Unless you're a Juggalo, then it's Faygo Red Pop. (Prefer Rock and Rye, myself.)

The story goes that Dr. Vernor was working on a patent cure for something-or-pother--common in the middle 19th Century--and forgot the keg inj the basement when he went off to the Civil War.

Robert Fowler said...

Vernor's is it. I can't get it here in Iowa. Bunch of heathens. I really need to make a trip home and pick up a case or 10.

Drang said...

Shopping results for Vernor's
Around here it's usually sold as a mixer, and overpriced, but the Commissary at Ft Lewis carries it with pop.

Guffaw in AZ said...

Beg to differ.
Schweppes
Curiously refreshing!

Quizikle said...

Drang's got it down. Proper "Boston Coolers" are made with Vernor's (any other "Ginger Ale" is just ginger ale - only suitable for diluting with alcohol) and Stroh's Vanilla Ice Cream (a remnant of Prohibition). Never heard of them anywhere except the Detroit area.

Big Boy's. The Elias Bros version

Yep. Rock & Rye. Then Red Pop. Then everything else (Which way did he go? He went for Faygo!)
Q

Quizikle said...

PS: Sorry you had to wait so long to discover them...
Q

Roger said...

My Dad used to tell the story of riding the train from mid-michigan to detroit,to stay with his aunt for a few weeks every summer, in the 50's. She lived a few blocks from the vernors factory.

He and his cousin would walk down to the factory and go to a back door. A man inside would give them a glassful straight from the barrel to drink. It hadn't been diluted yet, so it was a little brutal on the sinuses.

He said it was the most amazing flavor he had tasted.

I prefer Faygo Grape.

Roger

DaddyBear said...

Ugh, Ale8One, also known as Swampwater. That stuff's addictive. Luckily, I never developed a taste for it.

Roberta X said...

I came late to Ale81 but I grew up getting Vernor's as a special treat.

The bottle I had recently was perhaps not as "hot" as the classic, and maybe a little sweeter, but the ginger and oaky notes were close enough to trigger happy memories of the bubbles invading my sinuses.

I still think Fever Tree holds up nicely among the mild ginger ales and Belnheim for the hotter side, but there is only one Vernor's.