Some call it soda, some call it pop. But mom and “pop” soda creator Excel Bottling Co. in Breese, Ill., is simply known as the place “where good things don’t have to change.”
The story goes that Excel founder Lefty Meier started up the operation with reward money he obtained from nabbing a bank robber. That was way back in 1936, and the company is still bubbling along today. Using vintage equipment, Excel bottles a number of carbonated beverages, including southern Illinois favorite, Ski. A mixture of lemon and orange flavors, along with cane sugar, gives Ski its unique flavor (think a slightly more orangey and less fizzy Mountain Dew).
Although it’s quite tasty sipped straight from its vintage-inspired 12-ounce glass bottle, you could easily swap it out for the Sprite in your grandma’s pound cake recipe. And while, technically, a Seven and Seven is made with Seagram’s Seven Crown Whiskey and Seven Up, we won’t tell if you use Ski instead – and no, you don’t have to change the name.
Excel bottles a number of other retro flavors of soda as well, including Blueberry Breese and Frostie Root Beer. Pick up a bottle today at Straub’s in Clayton.
This article appears in January 2011.