Ask any soda aficionado (myself included) how they prefer to have their sodas packaged and they’ll answer the same way “in glass bottles.” Many of them won’t have their soda any other way. Why you may ask? It’s not like we have some hidden agenda against aluminum and refined petroleum products (though the glass lobby does pay well I hear). There are actually several reasons why glass is the superior packaging method.
1. Nostalgia
Remember the ‘50s and ‘60s (your parents definitely do and if they don’t their parents do) how pretty much the only way to get a soda was glass bottle? And you had to pay an extra few cents for the bottle deposit. Those were the days back then (at least I’ve been told), when times were simpler and more fun. Mom-and-pop stores and small independent bottlers dotted the land. It was truly a golden age of soda before times of more mass market and mega-conglomerates. What better way to get back to those good old times, than glass bottled soda?
2. Environmental Reasons
It is a fact that glass bottles are the most sustainable soda packaging. Glass bottles are much more recyclable then plastic bottles and they don’t require synthetic chemicals either. So are aluminum cans you say, but glass bottles can trump those too because they are reusable as well. Remember when you had to pay those extra few cents for a bottle deposit, it wasn’t some great conspiracy to force soda drinkers to make short term interest-free loans to store owners (though I hope they were smart enough to leverage it for that), but rather it was to ensure you’d bring the bottle back. It was much cheaper (and sustainable) to clean and refill a bottle than make a new one. Glass bottles can be refilled hundreds if not thousands of times if done correctly. While it may be true that the major manufactures don’t reuse bottles anymore, a lot of microbreweries and independent bottlers still do and will sometimes even pay for empties.
3. Superior Soda Taste
This is really the most important reason right here. Sodas from glass bottles just taste better. Why? Glass is completely sterile, inert, and airtight. Plastic bottles breathe and will lose carbonation over time reducing the quality. Also, as the plastic begins to break down, chemicals can leak into the soda altering the flavor. Aluminum cans have coatings to protect the aluminum from the slightly acidic soda. However, bits of aluminum are still dissolved into the soda through microscopic holes which alters the flavor and quality of the soda. Glass bottles have none of these problems, and provide the crispest and purest flavor over the longest shelf life.
Luckily there are over a hundred different flavors of glass bottled soda offered by Beverages Direct so you can enjoy your favorite childhood drink the way it was meant to be drunk.
Eric Sortomme
The Root Beer Gourmet
www.gourmetrootbeer.com