The Holy Grail of Beveraging

This past weekend, I conducted a solo scouting mission through a broad swath of Alexandria and Annandale. I walked off with quite a haul: from Korean/French baked treats to Peruvian ice creams to South Asian sweets. But the most ground-breaking find amongst my trove turned out to be an Indian soda.

I stopped in at Shivam Music & Spices at Seoul Plaza, hoping that they might have a few scuffed and dusty bottles of Indian soda tucked away in the back. Sure enough, after walking past shelves stacked high with Bollywood DVDs and Bhangra cassettes, I saw a cluster of sodas peeking out from the lower shelves of their refrigerator.

I’ve had Thums Up previously, but the logo and its accompanying misspelling are just so eye-popping, I couldn’t resist buying it again. Though I remember the flavor as being similar to Mexican Coke, Thums Up actually has a much drier, more bitter taste than most colas. And it has a great deal more carbonation than Coke. Indeed, the Thums Up website implores the consumer to “Taste the Thunder!” and touts its “confident, mature, and uniquely masculine attitude.” I suspect some of that “thunder” may be from a little extra caffeination, as I’m feeling an amount of pep somewhat greater than Coca-Cola but somewhat less than Jolt. According to Wikipedia, Thums Up was originally introduced in India in 1977 to replace Coca-Cola’s withdrawal from the Indian market, but was ultimately acquired by the Coca-Cola Company in 1993.

But this unassuming bottle of Duke’s turned out to be my beveraging Holy Grail. At first glance, Duke’s looks like it wouldn’t be out of place idling in the cooler at an Esso station in 1964. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that it was necessarily of Indian provenance. And its light amber contents made me think it was probably a ginger ale. But once I was able to scrutinize it more closely, I discovered that the bottlecap read “Duke’s Masala Soda.” Very promising. As soon as I pried the bottlecap off, I discovered that they really did mean “masala”, as in the  mix of spices commonly used in Indian food. In fact, the spicing was so powerful that AK started coughing from just a whiff, and I nearly sneezed when I passed it under my nose. The only other soda to have provoked that sort of physical reaction is Blenheim's Hot Hot Ginger Ale.

It seems like they added the masala flavoring over a base of very weak ginger ale. But somehow Duke's Masala Soda works. You may not like it, but it’s unusual enough that you’ll likely finish the whole bottle before deciding how you feel about it. I think it’s one of the exotic beveraging greats- up there with Jarritos Jamaica and Sangria Senorial. And oddly enough, further scrutinization of the bottle cap has revealed that Duke’s Masala Soda is a Pepsico product. I’m assuming that, like Coca-Cola’s acquisition of Thums Up, Duke’s must have been a homegrown Indian company that was later acquired by Pepsico.

I also couldn’t pass up scoring this box of “Psyllium Husk!” The Art Deco style packaging looks like it hasn’t changed since its introduction 65 years ago. And you’ve gotta love the inexplicable antique telephone logo for a product that is essentially India’s answer to Metamucil: dried seed husks that apparently alleviate constipation when “taken accordingly to need with a glass of water, syrup, milk, fruit juice or salted curd or lassi.”

But the best part about the packaging is that the factory that churns this stuff out is apparently a selling point. How else to explain the fact that The Sidphur Sat-Isabgol Factory is listed in a font that’s only slightly less prominent than the name of the product itself, and the background features a row of factory buildings and two smokestacks offering evidence of the industry within. Though I haven’t yet required the services of the psyllium husks, rest assured that if I ever do, I’ll be taking it accordingly with salted curd.

Check out Shivam Music & Spices to score your own bottle of Duke's Masala Soda at:
4231-C Markham St.,
Annandale, VA
(703) 916-8616

—AC