Craft beer festivals are old hat. Wine and food festivals, they’re everywhere.
So Sebring, a small town along the lovely Lake Wales Ridge in Central Florida, started something new — Florida’s first (and only) craft soda festival. It’s the Sebring Soda Festival and it’s April 6-7, 2024.
The festival, now in its fifth year, takes place in the historic downtown of Sebring and now draws thousands of visitors. It gives visitors a chance to sample and buy more than 200 sodas.
You’ll find traditional ones — colas, ginger ales, root beers, and cream sodas – as well as novel flavors — prickly pear, espresso, peach cobbler, candied bacon, key lime, cucumber and pepper.
Craft sodas have blossomed besides craft beer, often made by breweries. They also have benefited from the growth of cocktail culture and mixologists, along with a growing interest in beverages that can be an alternative to alcohol.
What makes something a craft soda? Well, all the sodas at the festival are made from sugar (vs corn syrup) and all are made in small batches. And you’ve probably never heard of most of them.
Craft sodas have a story to tell
Craft sodas at the event have some great back stories, dating from the era before Big Soda reigned supreme, and many of the soda makers will be at the festival.
Moxie, the state of Maine’s state soft drink. In the late 1800’s, Dr. Augustin Thompson, a Civil war veteran, playwright, and homeopathic physician, wanted to make a cure-all which did not contain harmful ingredients like cocaine and alcohol. Moxie Nerve Food was invented and patented in 1885 and was the very first bottled carbonated beverage made in America. Today Moxie is still a craft soda produced in Maine. (It’s now owned owned by Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Northern New England. )
Avery Soda, still made in a barn in Connecticut. Sherman F. Avery began making soda in the red barn in New Britain, CT in the summer of 1904. Avery’s quickly became known for its variety of flavors, especially the Cream, Birch Beer, Root Beer and Ginger Ale. Avery is a family-owned business that produces its sodas in small batches and packaged in glass bottles, still based in the same barn.
Boots Beverages from Bellville, Texas. When the craft beer business exploded in Texas, Mark Kristen revived his father’s soda brand dating to the 1940s. Flavors available at the festival will include Caramel Apple, Dewberry, Coconut Cream, Sarsaparilla Root Beer, Orange Cream Dromsicle, Lemon Meringue, and Lucky Ginger Brew.
Other craft sodas participating include Sprecher Brewing Company (Glendale, WI), Fest Cola (New Orleans, LA), Boylan Bottling Company (New York, NY), Cheerwine (Salisbury, NC) Durango Soda Company (Durango, CO) and others.
One of the founders of the event is Liz Barber, who co-owns Sebring Soda and Ice Cream Works, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in a historic building in downtown Sebring, 201 Circle Park Drive, Sebring. At Sebring Soda, hundreds of flavors of soda are available every day. Perhaps because of the success of the soda festival, a second soda shop is opening in the area in March 2023, this one in nearby Lake Placid.
About the Sebring Soda Festival
Admission is free to the festival.
To try the sodas, you must buy a “punch card” that allows you to sample several. ($6 for eight samples; $15 for 24 samples; $25 for 48 tastings.)
You can buy your punch card here.
Sebring Soda Festival website.
2023 schedule for Sebring Soda Festival (Will be updated for 2024 when info is available
Friday
This year’s festival kicks off at 2 p.m. on Friday with tastings, vendor booths and food trucks, along with live entertainment and kids’ activities.
Saturday
Events starts at 10 a.m. with all-day live entertainment, activities and more than 200 sodas to sample.
Places to explore near Sebring Soda Festival
Sebring is located in an area of rolling hills and small towns. We’ve visited many times and here are Florida Rambler stories about some of our favorite nearby places:
- Lake Placid, a charming nearby town.
- Highland Hammocks State Park: Ancient oaks caress the soul from Florida Rambler.
- Paynes Creek Historic State Park
- A terrific river for kayakers is 20 minutes outside Avon Park: Arbuckle Creek
- The Lake Wales Ridge area is hiker heaven. Nearby, there are 10 miles of good trails at the Nature Conservancy’s Tiger Creek Preserve.
- A scenic drive through Florida cattle country along the Cracker Trail
- Lake Kissimmee State Park: Where Old Florida lives on, a Florida Rambler guide.
- Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, a remote park beloved by astronomers because of it dark skies
- 7 fun and funky things to do in Lake Wales
- ·Bok Tower Gardens: Beautiful oasis atop Florida ‘mountain’
The author, Bonnie Gross, travels with her husband David Blasco, discovering off-the-beaten path places to hike, kayak, bike, swim and explore. Florida Rambler was founded in 2010 by Bonnie and fellow journalist Bob Rountree, two long-time Florida residents who have spent decades exploring the Florida outdoors. Their articles have been published in the Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald, the Orlando Sentinel, The Guardian and Visit Florida.