When I was in the 6th grade (you know---the big kids on campus), at lunch time we were allowed to walk off campus to a little store across the street. It was like -- the coolest thing -- (we lived in a farming community---cool was defined differently). You know--away from school authorities; out without parents, etc.
Anyway--the lady at the store made sandwiches, and we bought chips and coke, and candy there if we didn't want to eat in the lunchroom that day. I always bought a Pommac. It was a carbonated drink that looked like beer. That added to the coolness of eating "off campus".
I hadn't thought about it (or seen one) in years until you all started talking about different soft drinks. So I looked it up---it has a very interesting history.
Pommac is a Swedish carbonated soft drink made of fruits and berries and matured in oak barrels for 3 months. The first pommac was made in 1919. The name comes from "Pomm" as in pomme, apple in French, and "ac" as it is matured on oak barrels like cognac. The recipe is kept a secret.
In 1919, Anders Lindahl, a failed businessman from Hudiksvall moved to Stockholm, Sweden, and founded Fructus Fabriker and began to make Pommac. The recipe was made by a Finland-Swedish inventor. The drink was made for the upper classes as an alcohol free substitute for wine.
Dr Pepper distributed a formulation of it in the US as a diet drink from 1963 to 1969 in six-and-a-half- and ten-ounce bottles. It took a while for people to become accustomed to the taste, so sales were slow. When sales remained stagnant after six years, and its sweetener, sodium cyclamate, was banned, Dr Pepper discontinued the product.
Some of its loyal (particularly younger) fans thought of it as "near beer." Pommac is also served as ersatz champagne for teetotallers and car drivers on public celebrations.
Have any of you ever heard of Pommac--or had one? I thought they were very tasty, too.