Hosmer Mountain Bottling

Had been looking for glass-​bottled soda to add to my home poker game. Was going to pickup a 24-​pack of Mexican Coke (around $ 22) and found Hosmer Mountain Soda just 20 minutes away.
Visited their location and was very pleased with the results. You get a 24-​pack (you can mix & match flavors) for around $ 11 plus a $ 5 bottle deposit fee (return your bottles the next time you come for the money back or buy again and you don’t pay the $ 5 deposit again)
So price-​wise they’re beating out the competition right there. Then comes the delicious bold flavors. My favorites thus far are:
Root Beer
Strawberry
Grape
They have strong, bold flavors and are really well-​priced. We haven’t tried all the flavors just yet. They have a Cola Red which is their version of Coke which is ok, but not as good as Coke imho. They also have a Cola Blue meant to be their version of Pepsi, just picked it up but haven’t tried it yet.
Got their Lemon-​Lime and it tasted like Mountain Dew to me, which if that’s your thing more power to ya, but wasn’t for us.

What can I say, there really is nothing like it. I mean their Birch Beer is soooo good! I wait every year to visit my in-​laws in Glastonbury to get some Hosmer Mountain Birch Beer. I have also tried their Cream Soda and Orange soda which are both excellent!

Just got back from Hosmer. All I can say is it lived up to all expectations. Bill was wonderful. He saw that we were first time customers. Treated us really well. Gave us a quick tour of the inventory. Offered us a taste of the soda. Fantastic customer service.
This soda store is what it looks to be. A side of the road soda store. No frills, no crazy marketing. The product speaks for itself. Just had the energy drink and the Sarsaparilla. Factastic. Best I’ve ever had. I highly recommend doing what we did. Get the 24 pack of soda that you can pick all the different varieties. VERY inexpensive too. Save the bottles to get the deposit back on your next visit! Fantastic little place!

no coke, no pepsi. hosmer. this is one of those relics from bygone days. when people had seltzer and milk delivered to their doors. well, the soda from here is unique and delicious and CT is lucky to have a few funky old school indy soda makers. Too many flavors to choose from — i usually mix a case of whatever sounds good — usually ginger beer, birch beer, root beer, sarsparilla. you get the picture — i like my root beverages and they have many.

Hosmer is the good old days.
We see the little shack on the side of the road and instantly our brains release endorphins for we know all is good and well with the world.
Buy their sodas!

theres a sign on the road that reads 15 miles to the soda shack! soda shack baby!
one thing that ive found in southern new england is the amount of indy bottlers, and hosmer is one of my fav’s this place is a mecca of soda.
i chose two top shelf cane soda’s, the cream, which is fine, smooth rich, good as a treat every so often, and the sarsaparilla, which, is now my favorite soda. one trick, pour it over crushed ice in a tall/​tom collinseque glass, the head is delightful and yes, i am referring to the soda. rootie past root beer, like a guinness poured with a caring hand.
anyway, this is about soda, and for 80 cents or so a pop, literally, you cant go wrong.

Old school pop-​shop. The Birch Beer is the best I’ve ever had. Prices are good– look for coupons in the paper for an even better deal.

Great selection of locally made soda (the good stuff with real sugar).
I like the Cream Soda the best. They often have new custom flavors too. The cost per case is pretty cheap especially when you come back and get bottle refunds (more than just 5 cents)

Great flavors and great prices. Mix your own case. Flavors include, cola (one like coke, one like pepsi), root beer, saspirilla, orange, raspberry, black cherry, birch beer, lemon-​lime, strawberry, grape, chocolate, cream, diet selection, seltzers, Red Lightening (their version of the energy drink) and spring water. I might have missed a few, but those are a good chunk of them. Get there frequent buyers card to eventually get a free case.

Has to be the best soda I have ever had!!! just amazing! very inexpensive but even if it wasn’t, it’s worth every single penny!!! I love it! been drinking this soda since I was little!

I’m not a big soda drinker but the Soda Shack is an occasional guilty pleasure of mine. I LOVE their birch beer and hot ginger beer!

Great little place. The soda is made right in Willimantic, CT, but this is a distribution point only.
Drinks:
There’s a whole bunch of flavors, and some of them are really good. My favorites are the orange dry, grape, sarsaparilla, root beer, birch beer, black cherry, strawberry and cream soda. I’d personally pass on the ginger ale, tea, pink lemonade and cherry cola. I haven’t tried their blue cola and red cola (obviously attempts at recreating the two leading brands), as why not just get the original for that? The ginger beer is supposedly good, but I’d wager to say it’s a love it or hate it kind of thing, so if you’ve never had a ginger beer, only get one at first. Most of the others are pretty good, I leave them somewhere in the middle.
Price:
Pricing is reasonable. If you pay attention you’ll find COUPONS in the mail periodically (in that little flip-​book that’s shaped more or less like a checkbook, but opens left to right instead of top to bottom. See the pic I uploaded for an example).
Insider Info:
I recommend getting a whole case of mix-​n-​match flavors your first time, and then making a list, so you can keep record of how much you liked/​disliked each flavor, and thereby maximize the tastiness next time!
They offer «buy ten cases get one free» hole-​punch cards. (or something like that).
The calorie value on some of these is quite high (higher than other more traditional sodas even), so you may want to keep that in mind.
Sarsaparilla, for those that don’t know, is more or less root beer, but with sarsaparilla root flavor that adds a little «bite.» I have a hunch that Barq’s is a sarsaparilla enhanced root beer. So if your prefer a sweet root beer go for the standard root beer Hosmer offers, and if you want a little bite, go for the sarsaparilla. (Or just get both!)
KEEP YOUR EMPTIES! — The used to have a deposit on the carrying cases, but I think it might be on the bottles now instead. Your first case will be more expensive than the rest as a result, but the next will be an even deposit swap.
There’s an option for DELIVERY, but I’ve never used it.

My family gets a case or two every year when we go on vacation. As the original reviewer posted, you mix and match your own case of soda from many wonderful flavors. Awesome rootbeer, cream soda and birch beer. The pinapple, orange dry and gingerale are also favorites. They also have amazing ginger beer that is only sold in 6 packs that I highly recommend.

This is the most awesome little Homemade soda place!
This particular location, known as Hosmer Mountain Soda Shack (but was already typed into Unilocal as listed above, and since they had the right address, I left as is)…am surprised no one ever Unilocaled this location as it is much more easily accessible, at least for Hartford people!
I have never been to the ”original” location, which I imagine must be a much bigger place, this is just like a shack on the side of the road. But what a yummy shack, they have all the flavors here!
So, what you do is you go and pay for your first case, and pay the bottle deposit fees, and then you get to pick out a whole case of all their yummy flavors!
The Root Beer I’m told is voted 4^th best in the nation (I love the root beer, the Orange Dry (not as sweet as normal Orange, altho they have that as well), Grape, the Ginger Ale is awesome, the Lemon Dry, the Pineapple are delish too… Hubby loves the Strawberry, the Black Cherry, the Colas (red is like Coke, Blue is like RC).
Anyway, you take your case and you have as long as you want to return them, and when u do, you only pay the cost of the new sodas, as you have already paid the deposits. If you ever decide to stop, they refund the bottle deposits at your last drop off. We are not really soda drinkers, but this stuff is so yummy, it’s nice to have some one hand! Even in the frigid winter, it makes a nice treat!
Their winter hours at this location are limited. Closed Sun/​Mon. Tu/​W/​F they are open 12 – 6. Thursday is their one late day, they are open 12−9pm. Summer hours are same closing times, they just open at 10:30 am instead of noon.
—-This place reminds me of a place we had in MA growing up called the Pop Shoppe. It was the same type of thing, and it was very fun as a kid to pick out the flavors! Same here, so if you have kids, they will enjoy the choices and have a good time here! — -