Not the fish, the soft drink
November 11, 2010 12:04 PM
What was Barq's Amberjack?
I remember buying a product called Barq's Amberjack several times in the late 80s / early 90s. It came in a glass bottle, was fairly cream soda colored, and had a lighter taste than regular Barq's. Looking back, it occurs to me that I only ever found it in one place in my hometown in Tennessee, an old horizontal lid cooler type drink machine. I don't remember seeing it in grocery stores or anywhere else.
There's a surprising lack of information about this drink on the internet. A regular search for 'barq's amberjack' turns up nothing but a few people asking this same question I'm asking.
So ... did you ever have this drink? Was it limited in release to certain areas? How long was it on the market? What did it really taste like?
Any information you have on this elusive and apparently short-lived beverage would be helpful.
I remember buying a product called Barq's Amberjack several times in the late 80s / early 90s. It came in a glass bottle, was fairly cream soda colored, and had a lighter taste than regular Barq's. Looking back, it occurs to me that I only ever found it in one place in my hometown in Tennessee, an old horizontal lid cooler type drink machine. I don't remember seeing it in grocery stores or anywhere else.
There's a surprising lack of information about this drink on the internet. A regular search for 'barq's amberjack' turns up nothing but a few people asking this same question I'm asking.
So ... did you ever have this drink? Was it limited in release to certain areas? How long was it on the market? What did it really taste like?
Any information you have on this elusive and apparently short-lived beverage would be helpful.
This collectible bottle resource says it was a brief packaging run in the late 80s (this would have been right around the time of the acquisition by Coke, don't know how/if that relates) and doesn't seem to suggest it had anything to do with a distinct flavor or beverage. You can dig up the odd reference to the bottles as collectible (apparently not particularly valuable) as in here. So the name definitely existed.
A potential source of confusion is that between the acquisition of the main company by John Oudt and John Koerner and Coca Cola's acquisition of all Barq's properties in 1995 there were a couple of other outfits (in New Orleans and Baton Rouge) producing soda independently under the Barq's name based on older oral agreements with the original family owners, according to the Wikipedia article.
posted by nanojath at 12:50 PM on November 11, 2010
A potential source of confusion is that between the acquisition of the main company by John Oudt and John Koerner and Coca Cola's acquisition of all Barq's properties in 1995 there were a couple of other outfits (in New Orleans and Baton Rouge) producing soda independently under the Barq's name based on older oral agreements with the original family owners, according to the Wikipedia article.
posted by nanojath at 12:50 PM on November 11, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Of course, when I looked it up, it says that the "jack" part refers to the method of freeze distillation, but who knows :P
posted by Madamina at 12:09 PM on November 11, 2010