ginger ale

Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph Cantrell. The dry style (also called the pale style), a paler drink with a much milder ginger flavour, was created by Canadian John McLaughlin. History Thomas Joseph Cantrell, an Irish apothecary and surgeon, manufactured the first ginger ale in Belfast, Ireland, in the 1850s. This was the older golden style fermented ginger ale, dark coloured, generally sweet to taste, with a strong ginger spice flavour, which he marketed through local beverage manufacturer Grattan and Company. Grattan embossed the slogan "The Original Makers of Ginger Ale" on its bottles. Ginger ale is transparent, whereas ginger beer, a stronger tasting product, is often cloudy due to the residues of brewing. Dry ginger ale was created by Canadian John J. McLaughlin, a chemist and pharmacist. Having established a soda water bottling plant in 1890, McLaughlin began developing flavour extracts to add to the water in 1904. That year, he introduced "Pale Dry Ginger Ale", the bubbly drink that would be patented in 1907 as "Canada Dry Ginger Ale". A success, Canada Dry products were accepted by appointment to the Vice-Regal Household of the Governor General of Canada. The dry-style also became popular in the United States during the Prohibition era, when it was used as a mixer for alcoholic beverages.