Moxie

We've been vacationing in Maine for 15 years, but it wasn't until last year that we were hipped to the New England region's treasured and historic soda, Moxie. That week, I drank a case of Moxie, and we brought another case home with us, cracking open a can now and then through the winter months to mark special occasions.

Moxie is the oldest continuously produced soft drink in the US. What's it taste like? It tastes like the America of our forefathers, or at least our Anglo-Saxon ones. Imagine a stronger and less-immediately enoyable birch beer (oh, what an overlooked gem Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer is, but that's for another day), a Guinness Irish Stout to Pennsylvania Dutch's Bass Ale. Surely, it's an acquired taste. For what it lacks in immediate pleasure, however, it makes up for with its strong and slow-building aftertaste. Sometimes life gets a little too smooth; Moxie goes down like a fine sandpaper.

Moxie is running neck and neck as my signature drink with the Italian soda produced by the excellent San Pellegrino company, Chinotto. That's right, when you think of me living the good life, please think of me as sipping from a tiny bottle of Chinotto or, when I'm in the states, taking manly swigs from a bright orange can of Moxie!