Last updated on March 23rd, 2026 at 08:32 am
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.
The festival — now in its eighth year — takes place in historic Circle Park in downtown Sebring, drawing thousands of visitors to the centerpiece of a renovation project engineered by HGTV’s Erin and Ben Napier of “Hometown Takeover.”
Among more than 200 sodas being served at the festival, you’ll find traditional ones colas, ginger ales, root beers, and cream sodas, as well as novel flavors such as prickly pear, expresso, peach cobbler, candied bacon, key lime, cucumber and pepper.
A flavor we want to try this year is the Jackson Hole Snake River Sarsaparilla, and one we’ll probably skip but the kids will probably love is Avery’s Monster Mucus.
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.
Readers and editors at USA TODAY 10 Best have voted the Sebring Soda Festival as Runner-up for the Best Specialty Food Festival in the U.S.
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. New flavors have colorfujl names: Fungal Fruit, Monster Mucus, Swamp Juice, Zombie Brain Juice
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.
At the core of the celebration is Sebring Soda and Ice Cream Works, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor on Circle Park in downtown Sebring where hundreds of soda flavors are available every day.
Sebring Soda was one of several businesses on Circle Park renovated to restore the city’s historic charm by Erin and Ben Napier on Season 3 of HGTV’s ‘Hometown Takeover.’
Read our story: Sebring showcases downtown HGTV makeover
About the Sebring Soda Festival
The two-day festival features more than 100 vendors, food trucks and more than 30 tasting booths throughout downtown Sebring.
New this year is a DockDogs competition in which dogs sprint down a dock chasing a toy and leap into a pool, a competition based on the length and height of the jump.
“It’s so much fun to watch,” said Casey Hartt, tourism director for Visit Sebring. “Some of them can cover 20-30 feet before they hit the water!”
Sebring Soda Festival, Circle Park Drive, Downtown Sebring. To sample sodas, buy a punch card for 10 sodas ($8), 28 samples for $21 or 48 samples for $32. Admission to the festival is free. Kids Zone armband is $10. Tickets: Buy your punch card here.
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’
