(STARTRIBUNE) — Old-fashioned sodas are the hottest thing in cold drinks.
Buoyed by an appetite for everything retro and bolstered by demand for anti-artificial ingredients, handcrafted soft drinks are turning up on menus across the Twin Cities, from small ice cream shops to popular bars. Featuring ingredients that are fresh, seasonal and local, these sodas, phosphates and egg creams are offering unusual and often surprising flavors.
An egg cream featuring Minnesota maple syrup, anyone? How about homemade root beer? Or a cola replicating a pre-1900 formula? (Actually, that cola recipe was adjusted slightly when it was discovered that the original concoction contained cocaine, which at the time was thought to be harmless.)
The reception among the soda-sipping public has been enthusiastic.
