Tag Archives: soda

In the late 19th Century, Dr. C. R. May of Marlboro County, South Carolina, began adding Jamaican ginger to the mineral water from a local artesian spring near the village of Blenheim as a treatment for indigestion. The head-wilting concoction proved so popular with bloated plantation owners that Dr. May bottled and sold it as a soft drink. With flavors like “hot” and “not as hot” you know Blenheim ginger ale boasts a prodigious amount of the spicy root. When we’re in the Lowcountry we use it as a natural decongestant or to wash down a bag of hot-boiled peanuts.

The South Carolina Encyclopedia:

Despite a marketing push that began in the late 1990s and continues today, Blenheim ginger ale is not widely distributed outside the Carolinas. The spicy ale has, however, developed a cult following among food and wine aficionados. In a February 25, 1998 New York Times article, journalists Bill Grimes described the taste in this way: “The first swallow brings on a four-sneeze fit. The second one clears out the sinuses and leaves the tongue and throat throbbing with prickly heat.”