Ginger Beer
Spicy, sharp, not messing around. Makes a great mixer. Also great on its own when you're pretending to be responsible.
The origin story
Before soda got boring.
Glass Only. Always.
There was a pop shop Dave used to stop at as a kid — the kind of place where the refrigerator cases were full of glass bottles in flavors you didn't know you needed until you saw them. Root beer that actually tasted like root beer. Cream soda that was worth a small argument. A lime rickey that required no explanation beyond being cold and good.
Nobody asked if it was artisanal. Nobody put it in a can with a lifestyle on the label. You just picked one, paid whatever it cost, and felt unreasonably good about the whole thing.
That place is gone. Most of them are. But the feeling doesn't have to be. Route One Bottling Co. is Dave's version of it — glass bottles because plastic is a cop-out, flavors because they're the whole point, and a lobster on the label because this is Maine and someone had to.