Nectar Soda is red, fizzy drink sort of like Cream Soda made in New Orleans.
It is sold in glass and plastic bottles, with a foil label.
There is also a diet version now.
The product’s slogan is “Mardi Gras in your Mouth.” To people from Louisiana, it reminds them of everything about summer in New Orleans.
Cooking Tips
It can also be used to make ice cream floats.
History Notes
Nectar Soda was developed in New Orleans in the late 1800s by local druggists. One in particular, a man named I.L. Lyons, is particularly credited with its invention. It was first sold to pharmacists as a syrup to mix with soda water at their soda fountain counters. Then, it was sold as a bottled soda pop in its own right.
It lost popularity and went off the market in the 1950s.
Nectar Soda was revived in 1999 by a Susan Dunham, based on Lyon’s own recipe. She first sold it in an amber glass bottle to help keep light out, but the packaging was changed on the advice of marketing experts to clear glass in the late 1900s to help market the product outside of New Orleans, because outside of New Orleans amber / brown glass implied beer.
Marketing experts also recommended that the name be changed as well, because other Americans might associate “nectar” with a fruit drink, but that was a step too far from tradition and so the original name was kept.
