NEW BRITAIN — The race to the White House this year isn't red, white and blue--it's purple!
Soda maker Rob Metz says he's just looking bring a little fun and perhaps some taste to this year's presidential campaign.
"The Trump Tonic was kind of a no-brainer, the flavor is 'Make America Grape Again,' Metz said. "It's got a lot more flavor and a lot more acid. We thought that was pretty appropriate."
Meanwhile, the Hillary Hooch is also a purple concoction, as operations manager Will Dunn noted. Fittingly, the actual ingredients are "classified," but he did leak a few of the secrets: "We blended strawberry, a bit of blue raspberry and we also added some citric acid to make it a little sour."
Metz is the general manager of Avery's Beverages, a 112-year-old soft drink company in New Britain, Connecticut.
For the third straight presidential campaign, Avery's has released two candidate-based specialty sodas and will be conducting a highly unscientific straw poll to track the race.
Metz says his company is tracking sales and will post the results weekly on the company's Facebook page, but he says bottles are flying out the door. The two flavors are running neck and neck for now -- and a third flavor, the "Write-In" flavor, was also introduced.
"There is a lot of disaffection with the choices" for president, Metz said. "Whatever political statement you want to make you can now write it in."
Avery's has good track record in predicting the future. "Barack O'Berry" out-sold both "John McCream" in 2008 and "Cream de Mitt" in 2012.
For more information on Aver's Soda, click here, and head to the company's Facebook page for information on where to buy the election-inspired drinks.
