What flavor is rock and rye

16 oz. bottle

3.75 g sugar / oz.

History

Ben and Perry Feigenson opened the Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works in Detroit in 1907. The three original fruit flavored sodas sold well and the company expanded its facilities and line-up over the next decades. In 1921 the brand name was shortened to "Faygo". Rock & Rye flavor was added in the early 1920s along with "Ace-Hi" and several others which have since been discontinued.

"Rock & Rye" is also the name of a popular cocktail from the late 19th century made from rye whiskey sweetened with rock candy and flavored with citrus fruits and herbs which was renonwned for its medicinal benefits. Faygo's cherry-cream-soda version of the drink does not seem to have much relationship to the alcoholic version of the drink aside from its sweetness. Was it meant to evoke lost memories of the cocktail during the Prohibition years of the 1920s? Or was it meant as a ready-made mixer for cheap Canadian whiskies which were easy enough to come by in Detroit during those years?

Rock and Rye cocktails have made a small comeback in the past few years, but for anyone living in Michigan or familiar with Faygo, the name evokes this unique and subtle flavored soda pop foremost.

Faygo has been made at the same Gratiot Avenue bottling plant since 1935. The brand created many well-known and beloved advertising campaigns, commercials and characters in the 1960s - 80s. The family-owned company was sold in 1985 to National Beverage Corporation, a holding company which also owns Shasta, La Croix, Big Shot and several other soda brands. Nowadays Faygo produces over 50 different flavors of carbonated and uncarbonated drinks.

Review

This has a refreshingly cool flavor, something in between a cherry pop and a cream soda. The taste is fleeting, difficult to place. Its not strongly cherry or vanilla enough to seem wholy one or the other. It has a bit too much citric acid sour punch to be a dreamy cream soda, yet the cherry flavor isn't strong enough to really call it a cherry soda either.

It almost has a cola-like dry bitters taste, like a fruity cola. Dr Pepper-ish, or more like Mr. Pibb. A complex and intriguing drink.

fizz 3

refreshment 3

score 4

sweetness 3

flavor 4

Ingredients

Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, caramel color, potassium benzoate (as preservative), FD&C Red #40, artificial flavor, gum arabic.

Made by

Faygo Beverages, Inc. Detroit MI 48207

USA

www.faygo.com

Rock and Rye is a term (both generically and brand names) for a bottled liqueur or mixed cocktail composed of rye whiskey and rock candy (crystallized sugar)[1][2] or fruit.[3]

As early as 1914, United States government publications discuss disputes regarding beverages labeled "rock and rye", including a case of a beverage so marketed which was found by the Bureau of Chemistry to consist of "water, sugar, glucose, and artificial coloring matters, sold in imitation of a rock and rye cordial".[4]

Among non-alcoholic beverages, Rock and Rye continues to be a popular flavor of the Faygo brand of soda pop.[5]

Related products mentioned in the early 20th century include Rock and Rum and Rock and Gin.[6]

Slow & Low produced by Hochstadter's since 1884 produces a Rock & Rye drink that according to the label is "served straight and as a proper old-fashioned since the 1800's Rock and Rye Union Made with Straight rye Whiskey Raw Honey, Navel Orange, Rock Candy and Bitters." It is 84 Proof Produced by Hochstadter's from Scobyville, NJ.

In media

In the film National Lampoon's Animal House, Boon (Peter Riegert) orders a "double Rock and Rye and seven “Carlings" at a bar.

Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodeloo by The Grateful Dead, lyrics by Robert Hunter references Rock and Rye in the lyrics. “Half a cup of rock and rye /Farewell to you old southern sky / I'm on my way”[7]

Rock and Rye has long been supposed to be a cure for various types of cold and flu. Damon Runyon mentions the belief in one of his tales of Prohibition New York, “The Three Wise Guys”:

...I step into Good Time Charley's on the afternoon in question, I am feeling as if maybe I have a touch of grippe coming on, and Good Time Charley tells me that there is nothing in this world as good for a touch of grippe as rock candy and rye whisky, as it assassinates the germs at once.

It seems that Good Time Charley always keeps a stock of rock candy and rye whisky on hand for touches of the grippe, and he gives me a few doses immediately, and in fact Charley takes a few doses with me, as he says there is no telling but what I am scattering germs of my touch of the grippe all around the joint, and he must safeguard his health.”

References

^ A.J. Rathbun (12 September 2007). Good Spirits: Recipes, Revelations, Refreshments, and Romance, Shaken and Served with a Twist. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-1-55832-336-0.
^ "This is How to Bring Rock and Rye Back from the Dead". Liquor.com. 2015-01-13. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
^ "Mr. Boston spirits". Retrieved 31 December 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ United States. Bureau of chemistry (1914). Service and Regulatory Announcements. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 74.
^ Lawrence L. Rouch (2003). The Vernor's Story: From Gnomes to Now. University of Michigan Press. pp. 34–. ISBN 0-472-06697-8.
^ American Import & Export Bulletin. North American Publishing Company. 1937. p. 171.
^ David Dodd, 1997 (1997-01-01). "The Annotated "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo"". UCSC. Retrieved 2018-02-26.