Kentucky's State Drink

Dorene brought me back a couple 6-packs of a very popular drink from the hills of Kentucky. No, my relatives down there aren't running some distillery. It's the soft drink that folks down there are wild about . . . Ale-8.

I'm not completely sure why people love this drink so much, it's basically a form of ginger ale, but with a lot of sugar and caffeine. Basically a turbo version of Vernors. It tastes okay, but I'm not necessarily wild about it. But anywhere you go in Kentucky, especially around where it's produced, it's everywhere. I remember going out for breakfast one morning and literally half the restaurant had an Ale-8 on their table instead of (or in addition to) coffee or juice. Go to any gathering, and there are cases of the stuff.

If you do drink it, make sure you get it in the bottles, it does taste better, but I'm not sure why. Pop in general tastes better in bottles (the best is still Coca-Cola classic in the little bottles). For the best cold bottled pop ever, go to a little dumpy market called Jernagins in Pixley, California. Growing up, that was always a treat to stop by there. It was very, very cold, not quite iced over when you opened it, but just right. I'm sure the store is long closed by now, and pop is pretty much in cans now, but on a hot summer day, Jernagins was the place to be.