Vernor’s Ginger Ale

Before Coca-Cola, before Pepsi, there was Vernor’s — the oldest surviving soft drink in America, born in a Detroit pharmacy in 1866. Pharmacist James Vernor created a ginger ale so distinctive (“deliciously different,” the slogan still says) that Michiganders treat it as equal parts beverage and medicine, swearing it down sore throats and upset stomachs to this day.

The famous origin tale — that he sealed an experimental batch in an oak cask, went off to the Civil War, and returned four years later to find it transformed — is almost certainly embellished (even his own son disputed it), but the barrel-aged ginger bite is real. The original Woodward pharmacy and the great riverfront bottling plant are long gone, so there’s no factory to tour — but the experience is everywhere: crack a cold one, or do it the proper Detroit way and blend it with vanilla ice cream into a Boston Cooler. Fun fact: Aretha Franklin was famous for glazing her Christmas ham with it.