(or – What is there to cheer for really?)

Every so often a product can hold a certain place of mysterious interest. Cheerwine has held one of those slots for a long long time now – and so on my drive to the great north I decided to seize the opportunity to dig through the mystery, put the Cheerwine theories that have been floating around my noggin to some serious sipping tests and also (on a very base level) to quench my almost unquenchable thirst for both knowledge and also mostly for the whole “I like to drink soda pop” thing all at the same time.

I know nothing of the history of the product. What I do know is that it is both a cherry-nated and cola-nated beverage that is presumably designed to bring me some form of ‘Cheer’ by being the ‘wine’ of cola industry – which (to me) sounds tasty fun and classy all at the same time.

I bought a 12 (twelve) pack of cans somewhere in North Carolina and waited until I had a proper glass of crushed ice and a well-rested palette all ready to go. The room was rippling with excitement when I cracked open my first can . . . and I must say that the initial blast of cherry effervescence that hits your nose is nothing if not exhilarating. Then the first taste hit my lips – and I became Mayor Under whelmed, from the under whelming town of Under Welmington – or something like that. There just wasn’t anything there . . . I mean it smelled great – maybe even beyond great – but the taste never made it past the doldrums better left to such sub par sodas as “k-cola” or “chex cola.” Kind of depressed at the whole outcome, I finished the glass and put the rest of the 12 (twelve) pack away – hoping that it just needed to age for a bit or something . . .

Jump forward about a month and a half – and I decided to hop back into the barrel with another can . . . but this time I tried something a little bit different. Instead of using crushed ice – I used ice cubes. Holy cow what a difference there was in that glass! Crushed ice must be the kryptonite to “cherry-goodness” – and when the battle between Cheerwine and tiny bits of ice went all sorts of down in my tumbler – the ice must have gone all “melty” . . .totally knocking and semblance of taste right to the curb – leaving me with a nice smelling shell of a cola.

Since figuring out the trick s of the trade – I have been breaking the Cheewine out every so often on special occasions – pre-chilling both the glass and the can and enjoying my happy classy treat from the Carolina that seems to be on the toppermore situation wise – when compared to the one on the South that is . . .

I’m just talking about North Carolina ya’ll . . .

Uhm – yooze guys . . .

Ahhh – you all . . .

I just don’t know how to end things (sometimes).