My Favorite Grape Soda Comes From a 109-Year-Old Brand You've Probably Never Heard Of
But there's another bespoke bottling company in the South that will always have my heart because it makes the absolute best grape soda. And it's been doing just that for nearly 110 years.
If you think you don't like grape soda, it's because you haven't had fizz like this.
Grape soda is cool again. Major brands are creating new grape flavors and offering low-sugar options, but the Buffalo Rock bottling company in Birmingham, Alabama, isn't shaking up the soda scene. They're sticking to a perfected classic: Grapico.
Ever heard of it? If you live in Alabama, Georgia, or the Florida Panhandle, this grape soda is everywhere. While other Southerners put peanuts in Coke, folks around these parts enjoy a PB&J-inspired snack pairing. And if you've got a 2-liter bottle of Grapico, you're just two cans of sweetened condensed milk away from making Grapico ice cream. Yes, really.
As the label says, it's "a Southern thing."
According to Buffalo Rock, Grapico has been around since 1916, though technically it was dreamed up by the Louisiana company J. Grossman's Sons in 1914, and then sold to Buffalo Rock shortly after. And while the name would suggest otherwise, it's pronounced "GRAY-pea-co."
You can find Grapico soda in 12-ounce cans and 12-packs as well as glass 12-ounce bottles and 4-packs. You'll also find Grapico 20-ounce plastic bottles in most Alabama gas stations and vending machines. Diet Grapico is also available in select sizes, and that version was introduced in 2005.
This deep purple soda is unlike other grape sodas because it doesn't taste like a spoonful of Karo syrup. Or worse: cough syrup. The sweet Concord grape is there, but there's a signature zing—maybe a subtle spice?—like Dr Pepper or Cheerwine. I love Grapico above all because it has, according to Buffalo Rock, an "unmistakable fizz."
It's bubble town and that's how I like it. Flat soda is like drip coffee: Weak. So many fruit sodas—especially orange soda—just end up tasting like half-carbonated, sad juice. Not Grapico. It's perfectly crisp from a can or a bottle.
Even better: It's caffeine-free, which is why I'm so nostalgic about Grapico. It tastes like being a kid in the '90s. On the rare occasion I was allowed to have soda growing up, Grapico, like Sprite, was deemed safe by any adults present. (Because if you're a millennial, you know the absolute terror that Big Caffeine had on our parents.)
Now, full disclosure: These babies, like so many other sodas, are loaded with Red 40 and Blue 1, so I'm not sipping on a Grapico every day. It's a Southern treat, like Moon Pies or Blue Bell Ice Cream.
I'd say it's a Southern rite of passage.
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