Cream soda
Big Red
Big Red, Inc. · red cream soda
Austin, Texas, USA (produced in Waco, Texas)
Big Red is the cult-classic "red cream soda" of Central Texas: a vivid ruby pour whose flavor famously has nothing to do with cherries. Underneath a vanilla cream base sit orange and lemon oils, which together read to most drinkers as bubblegum or cotton candy rather than fruit. It is aggressively sweet and syrupy with a loud, candy-bright nose and a thin, soft-carbonated body, more nostalgic novelty than refined craft cream soda, but undeniably distinctive and beloved.
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The maker
Big Red began life in 1937 in Waco, Texas as "Sun Tang Red Cream Soda," dreamed up by Grover C. Thomsen, R.H. Roark, and Robert Montes. It picked up its current name in 1969, reportedly after a golf caddy's nickname stuck, and the company moved its headquarters to Austin in 2009 while keeping production in Waco. A Central Texas institution, it grew into one of the country's better-selling regional soda brands and is closely tied to Texas barbecue culture.
Ingredients & nutrition
Carbonated water, High fructose corn syrup, Natural and artificial flavor, Red 40, Citric acid, Caffeine.
12 fl oz · 150 cal · 38 g sugar(per serving, as labeled)