Moxie-the drink

The threads on soda and beer,specifically bitters,made me think of Moxie.I've heard of this soft drink which currently seens to be available only in the Northeast.Its taste was described as bitter/medicinal.If you've tried,it what did you think?



"...at night I'm a junk food junkie.Good Lord,have pity on me."-Larry Groce

Ah Moxie. The first mass marketed soft drink in the U.S. It is now pretty well limited to Maine and upper New England, but we used to drink it when we vacationed in Massachusetts in the 1950s - my father found it more palatable than I did back them, but because it was featured in Mad magazine it was kinda neat drinking it (kinda). It is an acquired taste. I wouldn't describe it as medicinal, but it is a mix of sweet and bitter (two separate taste complexes) with herbal notes. Its flavor comes from gentian root.

The place to drink Moxie is at the Moxie Store in Lisbon Falls, Maine, near Lewiston. I had a Moxie float with vanilla ice cream there on a hot July day, delicious. Apparently Lisbon Falls holds Moxie Day the second Saturday of July.

Americans used to find bitter tastes (Quinine Water) more appealing, and Moxie is a remnant from that era.

Moxie isn't Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray (which I am occasionally addicted to), but it is worth trying.

Here is an ordering address for MOXIE:

Kennebec Fruit Co.
2 Main St.
New Lisbon, ME 04252
(207) 353-8173

Hope that helps.

hattyn,

Sounds like Moxie is like San Pellegino's Chinotto - herbal, bitter soda. I bought a bottle on a whim one day at Binny's - bleck! Just awful, but to each his own.

vegmojo

vegmojo wrote:hattyn,

Sounds like Moxie is like San Pellegino's Chinotto - herbal, bitter soda. I bought a bottle on a whim one day at Binny's - bleck! Just awful, but to each his own.

vegmojo

I can't stand chinotto either, but a lot of people love it with all their heart.

It tastes kind of like citrus pith to me. Vaguely citrusy, but mostly just bitter.

-ed

Chinotto is made with extracts of an Italian orange of that name that is quite similar to a Seville. That bitter soda is much sterner stuff than Moxie, which I'd say is comparable in bitterness/medicinal aftertaste to the Cuban yerba mate soda, Materva. I love Chinotto. Then again, I love Cynar, Angosturas, Strega, etc.

Other than yerba mate and bitter orange peel, a common bitter agent used in such digestifs is gentian, the key ingredient in Moxie. (Angosturas contains both bitter orange and gentian, as I understand it.)

JeffB wrote:Chinotto is made with extracts of an Italian orange of that name that is quite similar to a Seville. That bitter soda is much sterner stuff than Moxie...

Jeff:

This discussion reminds me of something I wrote a long time ago that got buried in a lemon soda discussion:

Antonius wrote:L'Amore dell'Amaro

gleam wrote:...i love aranciata, limonata, and la rossa... but chinotto just doesn't do it for me. I really can't stand the stuff...

De gustibus non est disputandum... I know people who have the same reaction to Cynar (or, for that matter, to the strong bitters such as Amara Siciliana, Averna, Lucana, Fernet Branca, etc.); they don't just dislike it but find it really repugnant. But Italians generally like things that are bitter and use them as counterpoints to other flavours. And it occurs to me now that I can't think of too many commonly consumed things in the US that feature a bitter flavour.

In this regard, I am always rather surprised at posts I see on CH General Topics concerning how to make dandelions and broccoli rape less bitter. To me, the whole point is that they are bitter and there are other greens that are naturally much less so. I also love lampascioni which can be so bitter as to make one a potential girning champion.

To me, a perfectly balanced little lunch, involving the best sandwich imaginable, is the following: first-rate Italian bread with just prosciutto di parma and fresh mozzarella or fior di latte and a good grind of black pepper, accompanied by a Chinotto... Sweetness, , a little sourness, saltiness, a little piquancy, and, as in life, a dose of bitterness at the end.

Antonius

A

Damnit, Antonius, now you've reminded me that I have to make my breads for Xmas eve. I like to use a mix of rapini and mustard greens, cooked down in olive oil with onions. It had not yet crossed my mind this year.

My noches buenas are strictly Cuban in Chicago, which equates to lechon, yuca, congri, etc., a very meat-oriented Xmas eve that was traditionally for post-midnight mass. But I sneak some Italian non-meat stuff in around the edges, mostly via the rolled breads.

Thanks for the reminder.

Maine State Senator wants to make Moxie the state's official drink.

Rotundo, who admits she doesn't drink Moxie, said the bill title has created a buzz around that Statehouse, prompting one lobbyist to call her a "goddess."

"Those who drink Moxie and love it feel passionately about it," she said.

I think Chinotto is a very interesting drink, but I can't drink a whole bottle. A little goes a long way...

Coca-Cola acquires Moxie, a soda brand that is beloved in Maine

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/fo ... 123348002/

Finally, today, I had my first taste of Moxie! A couple of days ago I broke down and decided to pay the twenty-eight bucks or so with shipping for a twelver of Maine in a can. I've always been interested in this historied drink, a drink that has been described to me as polarizing, as a cross between birch beer and battery acid, as something you have to have grown up with to love. I also read that it was bittered with gentian root -- and I do enjoy my bitters -- so I was prepared for something like a root beer with a kick of Malort at the end. (Malort is wormwood, but they're similar levels of bitter.)

I popped open the first can and poured it into a glass to fully appreciate the aromas. The scent put me in mind of Angostura bitters. I take a sip and wait. I'm tasting root beer/birch beer/sarsparilla, spicy medicinal type flavors, but I'm waiting for that kick in that pants, that real obvious gentian to bite the back of my tongue with its bitter.

But nothing. Or rather not nothing, but only a gentle tinge of gentian.

Don't get me wrong: it's good. I had just clearly set my expectations wrong. I was actually hoping for something far more bitter. One review mentioned root beer with a touch of tonic, and that's what I was hoping for at a minimum, but it wasn't even there. I gave my wife a taste -- who has absolutely no knowledge of the drink nor what to expect -- and she said, oh, it tastes like a really sweet root beer, like if you took root beer and added a Smartie to it. Okay, I wouldn't characterize it like that, but that was her honest reaction. Of course, she's the one who didn't even grimace the first time she had a malort (and I didn't tell her what it was other than a Chicago "old man's drink.")

At any rate, an interesting drink, but not quite as interesting as I had hoped.

Some mysteries are best left unsolved. The predominant flavor in most of these regionals is "sweet." After reading about Scotland's Irn Bru ("iron brew") for years I finally had an opportunity to try it. Lasted a few sips and passed it around for others to get a sip. Just sickly sweet. At some point you have to assume if it was truly a hidden gem they wouldn't be hiding it. On the other hand, their advertising is pretty good:

spinynorman99 wrote:Some mysteries are best left unsolved. The predominant flavor in most of these regionals is "sweet." After reading about Scotland's Irn Bru ("iron brew") for years I finally had an opportunity to try it. Lasted a few sips and passed it around for others to get a sip. Just sickly sweet. At some point you have to assume if it was truly a hidden gem they wouldn't be hiding it. On the other hand, their advertising is pretty good:

But that’s the weird thing. I’ve read some description of Moxie as imagine root beer, subtract the sugar, and add some dirt/roots.

It is objectively less sweet than your typical root beer, and equally as sweet as Coke or 7-Up, according to the nutritional labeling. Some people apparently perceive the sweetness different in the presence of gentian, but, like I said, neither me nor my wife found it unsweet or particularly bitter. (We are used to diet drinks, so we might perceive sugar/HFC sweetness a bit more strongly.)

I mean, I do like it. If it were available locally in diet form I would definitely keep some around. I was just hoping for more aggressive bitterness.

Ya know, I do have some gentian root lying around...hmm...

I never have a problem with sweet when properly applied. If I had no concerns about caloric intake I'd be all over Mexican Coke and Sprecher root beer, it's just that when there's no familiar flavor profile it all gets muddied by this cloying sweetness. Irn Bru tries to be an orange cream soda (as close to a flavor as I could discern) but it's neither identifiably orang nor is it a good cream soda. The flavor profile is just a broad "sweet."

CostPlus World Market sometimes has Moxie in stock if you’re looking for someplace local to get it.

Jim-Bob wrote:CostPlus World Market sometimes has Moxie in stock if you’re looking for someplace local to get it.

Thanks for the tip. I know I've looked there before, but that was SO long ago. I did find my Vegemite, though. (But now I just get that online--the price difference wasn't much; may have been cheaper, in fact. The Moxie, I assume, would be cheaper there.)