This 150-Year-Old American Soda Is Hard To Find, But You Can Buy It At Cracker Barrel Country Store

Those who love food history often search high and low for any vintage eats they can get their hands on, whether it's 1930s peanut-butter-and-coconut candy or Prohibition-era cocktails. There's nothing like the nostalgic trip you get from trying an old-school food. If you're into retro drinks, put Moxie soda next on your list. Created in 1876 by Dr. Augustin Thompson, it originally started as a medicinal drink called "nerve food" that was promoted for alleviating nervous system ailments. It contained gentian root, an ingredient still present in Moxie today, plus sassafras and wintergreen. Soda water was later added to the formula, and Thompson eventually dropped the medicinal angle due to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 outlawing unfounded health claims.

Thompson invented Moxie in Lowell, Massachusetts, and it became the state soda of Maine in 2005. Declines in demand over the years have made Moxie hard to find outside of New England, but the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store stocks it alongside other vintage drinks. The Old Country Store's breadth of items from yesteryear calls back to the traditional general stores that populated rural areas in past centuries. In contrast, the Moxie brand broke away from its traditions. Wintergreen and sassafras aren't present in the new Moxie formula, meaning the soda's previous medicinal, root-beer-like flavors are absent — but the earthy bitterness of gentian root remains. Reddit users have compared its taste to cough syrup, black licorice, NyQuil, and Dr Pepper.

Moxie has a taste people either love or hate, making it much-debated. One Reddit user says, "It tastes like stagnant water from underneath pine trees," while another Reddit comment praises it and claims it "has the complexity of a well-crafted cocktail." Speaking of cocktails, some people have mixed Moxie with various types of alcohol to take full advantage of its bitter flavor. Using it in ice cream floats or dirty sodas are clever ways to offset its bitterness, though others who've tried it complain it's already too sweet from the high fructose corn syrup.

If Moxie doesn't suit your taste buds, Cracker Barrel's store also sells another old-school soda called Nehi in palatable grape and peach flavors. Nehi soda was released in 1924 by the Chero-Cola Company to expand its offerings. Nehi became popular among consumers before eventually declining in favor of Royal Crown Cola, which bought the Nehi Corporation in 1935. Now owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, Nehi soda often crops up in Southern states such as North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, but small companies across the United States also bottle it. The next time you're in a vintage Southern grocery store, see if you can spot this drink on the shelves.