Flavor 8 making old-fashioned sodas

NEW LONDON - Many of you may remember the old-fashioned sodas you used to drink out of returnable glass bottles.

The throwback beverage continues to make a comeback, as another local producer amps up production.

Old equipment is matched up with new technology at the Flavor 8 Bottling production facility in New London.

"I just love the sound. To tell people come on in and look at the way soda was made in the 1940s and 50s, it just appealed to me," said Flavor 8 co-owner Dave Talo.

Using machines from that era, the two man operation which began in February, specializes in producing and distributing eight different flavors of old-fashioned soda.

"You have to learn how to tweak them to make it taste as good as you can. We've done it now for three, four months and we figure we got it down pretty well," said Flavor 8 co-owner John Mathison.

Mathison is in charge of mastering the beverage recipes. Inside a refrigerated mixing room, he formulates different syrups for each kind of soda.

Unlike many mainstream sodas, Flavor 8 does not contain high fructose corn syrup. Instead the makers use a natural sweetener - sugar.

"It just tastes better you'd have to actually try it. Have a soda made with sugar next to a soda made with the high fructose-you'll pick the sugar almost every time. It's just better," Mathison said.

Mathison and Talo package the soda in returnable glass bottles. During the process, the bottles are sterilized, then the new beverage is made.

"We do it here kind of in the old school syrup drop method where we drop the syrup in the bottle, the required amount and the carbonated soda comes in after it," said Talo.

Then the beverage is capped, rotated to mix the ingredients, and inspected for any debris before being placed into a case, ready to be delivered to one of Flavor 8's growing list of clients.

"Our long term goals is to handle all of Northeast Wisconsin. We really want to go past that but we want to service everything in Northeast Wisconsin, basically be the soda of Northeast Wisconsin if we can get there," Mathison said.

At around $8 or $9 a case, Mathison said the so-called gourmet soda is affordable for families. But with two other local soda makers in the area, what sets this company apart from the others?

"This is all we do, our accounts know and our customers know that we give it we're able to give it 100% of our attention. That number one. Number two, we think our soda tastes fantastic. We put a lot of work into the actual taste of the product," Talo said.

And it turns out - small-time soda makers are more often collaborating than competing against one another.

"We do bottle buys together, we exchange bottle caps if we're short and the whole thing, the fraternity of glass bottle people ... it is very tight, and no one tries to cut anyone's throat competitively," Talo explained.
 
A old-time tradition brought back to life in hopes of filling a taste for times past.

If you'd like to see the soda-making process at Flavor 8 in New London - call (920) 982-5363.