In yet another inspired “drink and review soda from my youth” posts, I bring you Nehi Orange. The key to these eloquent and insightful ramblings is that I find the original incarnations of the beverage; glass bottles, cane sugar, you know, just like my Grandmother, “Mawmaw” gave me on the rare occasion that she wasn’t sending me out to mile the cows or pick vegetables or get a “hickory” to receive a (probably) well-earned beating for for some act of insubordination.  Where I come from, Nehi, Sundrop and Cheerwine were like the holy trinity of non-cola soft drinks, so it was always a pleasure to get one of these sickeningly sweet treats.  My favorites were always grape and orange, but when I saw a display with peach also, I picked up all three.  Nehi over the years has made a lot of flavors, many out of production now, but some still available through specialty stores like Galco’s (www.sodapopstop.com) and Old 52 General Store(www.old52.com).

On to the drink itself:  Like most of these beverages, I have an idealistic memory of them, and the reality is usually pretty far from what I remember.  Nehi Orange is sadly no exception. I could only describe it as “thin” tasting, with not much real orange flavor compensated by a lot of sweetness.  However, it wasn’t a tongue coater like a lot of fruit flavored sodas with High Fructose Corn Syrup.  I think in this category, I much prefer the excellent Thomas Kemper Orange Cream soda (http://monthlyrootbeer.com/2010/09/12/thomas-kemper-orange-cream/). For me, this drink carries a lot of memories, but I think I’ll keep them intact the way they are…

Monthly Root Beer Rating: 5