It's become kind of an historic past time here at MM HQ to document the vestiges of (what must surely be) a dying breed: the regional soda pop (or, to use our brand-blind catch-all KY term, "coke"). So when I read a conversation regarding regional beverage "Ski" on my brother's Facebook page--which referred to it as a Kentucky-made drink--I was on alert. I'd never heard of this "Ski soda," the only other KY native brand of soft drink to my knowledge being the great and infamous Ale8One (the name referring to the drink's dangerously high caffeine content. And yes, take my word for it, down 2 or 3 of these and it will, indeed, be "a late one" for you).
Well, according to the FAQ page on Ski's official website:
Where did Ski originate?
Despite popular beliefs, Ski was created in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Many loyal Ski enthusiasts believe that the drink was created in Breese, Illinois or Greensburg, Kentucky, but these are simply locations of two long time Ski bottlers in historic Ski areas.
So, close, but no cigar--although having a bottling plant here within our borders is still noteworthy. It's charming to think these obscure regional beverages have "loyal enthusiasts," isn't it? In the modern geek era, everybody's an unabashedly huge fan of something, I guess.
So, I'm going to have to take my investigation further by actually tracking down some Ski. It sounds pretty good, actually; according to its Wikipedia page:
Ski is an orange and lemon flavored soft drink using actual orange and lemon concentrates manufactured by the Double Cola Company. Some have likened Ski’s unique citrus flavor to Mountain Dew, Mello Yello, Vault, or Squirt. One 12 oz. can of ski contains 69 mg of caffeine, for comparison, a can of Mountain Dew contains 54 mg.
Due to usage of real orange juice, and lemon concentrates, the Double Cola Company claims that Ski is one of the only all-natural sodas.[1]
Okay, so a more natural Mountain Dew type of option--I could see that mixing really well into a refreshing summer rum cocktail of some sort (funny how, once you reach adulthood, you think of soft drinks in terms of how well they'd work as a hard drink. Well, I do anyway). Orange and lemon is pretty interesting--a nice departure from the usual lemon-lime combo--and holy moly: 69 mgs of caffeine! That would pack a wallop. Maybe I can convince Schreck's to order me a case...
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