It has a distinct lime flavor and color. It was once the second most popular soda in the Midwest. There's a rock song named after it. What is it? Green River soda, of course.
Chicago-based Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company, maker of Edelweiss beer, bought the recipe and sales rights for Green River from Davenport, Iowa, businessman Richard C. Jones in 1919. Jones, the owner of a candy store with a soda fountain, had created Green River several years earlier. Jones wanted to create a soft drink with the “bubbling snappiness" of champagne and decided that lime flavor was the way to go. A local teenager was the first to use the name “Green River” when he ordered the drink at Jones's soda fountain and the name stuck.
During the Prohibition years (1920-1933), breweries were turning to manufacturing and selling non-alcoholic goods like soda, yeast, malt syrup, carbonated coffee and tea, and ice cream. Once Schoenhofen Edelweiss started making and distributing Green River, the lime-flavored soda took off. From the 1930s through the 1950s, sales of Green River soda were second only to Coca-Cola in the Midwest.
Schoenhofen closed in 1950, and the rights to Green River were then acquired by Sethness Greenleaf, a Chicago-based food flavoring and dying company. Coincidentally, the company also sold the vegetable-based dye that was used to turn the Chicago River Green for St. Patrick’s Day. The company sold the rights to Green River soda in the 1980s. Several other entities owned the recipe and distribution rights for Green River over the years. Today, Green River is owned by Sprecher Brewing Company, which operates out of Glendale, Wisconsin.
Green River is sold at some grocery stores in the Chicagoland area. The soda can also be purchased through Sprecher's website, which sells the soda in bottles and cans along with merchandise like Green River T-shirts and lip balm. Some establishments with old-fashioned soda fountains still offer Green River on tap.
Sales of Green River around St. Patrick’s Day account for one-third of its total yearly sales. Little Goat diner in Lakeview has been known to serve Green River floats around the holiday, and you can even bake a Green River cake with a recipe courtesy of WGN's Dean Richards.
The soda also served as inspiration for the name of a 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) song. While the lyrics to the song are about Putah Creek in Winters, California, where CCR frontman John Fogerty grew up, the name came from the soda. In a 1993 Rolling Stone interview, Fogerty explained: “The actual specific reference, Green River, I got from a soda pop syrup label. You used to be able to go into a soda fountain, and they had these bottles of flavored syrup. My flavor was called Green River." And in the CCR biography Bad Moon Rising, Fogerty says, “The drink was a green, lime drink on ice with fizz water, a soggy green snow cone. That’s what I would order and it made me the happiest.”
Maybe drinking a Green River will have the same effect on you. If you can’t find it at the store, here’s a recipe to make your own version of the lime-flavored soda at home.
Green River Soda
*Based on Amy Bizzarri’s recipe in Iconic Chicago Dishes, Drinks and Desserts.
For the syrup:
2 limes, sliced
2 lemons, sliced
3 c. sugar
2 c. water
Add all the ingredients to a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Boil gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain into a glass storage container and store in the refrigerator.
To make a glass of soda:
4 tbsp. syrup (see above)
12 oz. carbonated water (1-1/2 c.)
1 tsp acid phosphate (can be purchased online)
Green food coloring (optional)
Stir all ingredients into a glass and add ice. Add green food coloring if desired.
Sources:
Amy Bizzarri, Iconic Chicago Dishes, Drinks and Desserts. American Palate, 2016.
Aimee Levitt, “Yes, There Is a Link Between Green River Soda and the Chicago River,” Chicago Eater
(March 14, 2022).
Neil Gale, "The History of Green River Soft Drink," Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal (April 3, 2022).
Michael Goldberg, "Fortunate Son: John Fogerty - The 1993 Rolling Stone Interview - Part 2 of 3"
“Green River Soda,” Atlas Obscura.
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