Cheerwine: Not a Pittsburgh Tradition, but It Should Be

In the midst of driving our Texas friends around Pittsburgh and showing them all that this great city has to offer this past weekend, Jay and I also discovered a new non-Pittsburgh tradition. It all started when Jay and I watched some documentary on our local PBS station (nerd alert) that featured a story about a cherry flavored soft drink that hails from North Carolina: Cheerwine. And while Cheerwine has nothing to do with wine or alcohol, it certainly does bring cheer to its imbibers with its sweet cherry taste and special carbonation. Or at least, that’s what the program said. But Jay was not satisfied with that. He had to know for himself. Was this beverage really all that it’s made out to be?

It certainly seemed to be a popular drink in the South, but we had never heard of it up here in Pittsburgh, much less seen it. How could we get our hands on a bottle or can? Would we be forever searching, going from store to store in hopes of finding it?

Then came Cheerwine Finder to the rescue! Apparently, Jay was not alone in his quest to find this cherry flavored concoction. There were other cheerless souls out there searching for a beacon of tooth-rotting goodness. Surprisingly, Penn Mac (warning, website has sound) in the strip apparently sold Cheerwine. We knew we had to get some!

So after lunching at Primanti’s with our friends, we sauntered on over to Penn Mac where Jay searched for some Cheerwine. No luck at first. Then Jay asked a manager if they had any, to which they replied that they hadn’t stocked any on the shelves in months…but they would check in the back. And lo and behold they had a whole case! Yes, an entire case of 24 bottles of Cheerwine.

Naturally, we bought the whole thing. It made more economic sense–otherwise the bottles were $2 each! We just crossed our fingers hoping we would like the stuff, and we left the store feeling very successful.

Turns out we did like Cheerwine. A lot. And in less than a week, we’ve nearly consumed the whole case! (Hey there were four of us over the weekend!). I’ve never been one to drink a lot of soft drinks, but I must say Cheerwine is now one of my favorites. It really does have a different carbonation than other drinks, and when you buy it in bottles, it’s made with the real stuff: cane sugar. Dessert in a bottle.

So, I lift my empty bottles of Cheerwine and propose that consuming it should become a new Pittsburgh tradition.