Exotic Wisconsin Company’s Amazing Sodas You Can’t Get Anywhere Else in U.S.

For over 70 years, a small beverage maker in Wisconsin has been bottling some delicious classic flavors and some other-worldly concoctions.

The Story of Twig's Beverage Co. in Shawano, Wisconsin

I'm having the most amazing childhood Summertime flashbacks to playing baseball at the park all day with my friends and then heading to this little store a few blocks away that served the most amazing flavors we'd ever tasted.

If I had grown up in Shawano, Wisconsin, I'm certain their sodas would have quenched us all after one of those baseball games.

Twig's Beverage was started in 1951 by a man named Floyd "Twig" Hartwig. During his service in the Korean War, Floyd would send his military paychecks back home to his mother. These paychecks were to be used to invest in glass bottles. Once returning from the war, Floyd and his softball buddies started up a bottling plant.

Floyd would sell a case of soda, and with the money made, go buy a loaf of bread for his wife and family. To complement this simple upbringing, Floyd would make his soft drink recipes by mixing in the ingredients with an axe handle. It wasn't until the inventor of Sun-Drop, Charles Lazier, asked Floyd to sell and distribute his product, that Sun-Drop made it's way into the Shawano area.

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To say the locals have loved having such deliciousness so close is an understatement

And over the years, Twig's has created some pretty good flavors.

 Twig's Beverage Strawberry and Rhubarb Soda

This next one would be amazing as the flavoring for a snow cone.

 Twig's Beverage Blue Raspberry Soda

There was absolutely nothing as good as a snow cone after a little league game.

Where is Shawano, Wisconsin

Shawano, Wisconsin, with a population just under 10,000, is located about 40 miles northwest of Green Bay. So special is this town that they have their very own soda for the fall season.

 Twig's Beverage Caramel Apple Soda

Twig's does a lot of seasonal and limited-run flavors throughout the year, like this unique flavor.

 Twig's Beverage Peach Cobbler Soda

This next Twig's flavor is exactly what I would have grabbed after one of those marathon childhood pick-up baseball games.

 Twig's Beverage Forget Me Not Grape Soda

If you're lucky enough to visit Twig's in Shawano, you can try all of the flavors inside their shop and museum. You can learn all about the company's history with an interesting self-guided tour that includes a movie on the history of Floyd "Twig" Hartwig and his beverage company.