A trip to a spring - Simpson Spring!

My favorite flavors to go!

I met the people from Simpson Spring at the Old Rochester Farmer's Market last month.  They invited me and some other food bloggers to a tour and tasting at their plant in South Easton, MA last Saturday.  My Dad came with me and we had a great time.

First we taste-tested three different waters - tap water, a popular bottled water and Simspon Spring water.  The spring water was our favorite.  It has minerals in it and felt good on the back of our throats.  The spring water had a pinch of sweetness in the after-taste that I really liked.  The spring water is special because it has oxygen added to it (the oxygen kills any bacteria without killing the taste).  I thought the spring water had much better flavor than the bottled water which was tasteless and the tap water was really flat.    We also got to see where the water comes into the plant from the spring and how it gets bottled and labeled.  Then it's ready to be sold all over Massachusetts.

We also got to see how they make their soda.  Simpson Spring adds syrup and bubbles to the spring water (15% is syrup - Coke has about 8%) so the taste is more powerful.  They make 11 flavors of soda: birch beer, root beer, orange, fruit punch, cream soda, sparking water, grape soda, sasparilla, ginger ale, lemon-lime and coffee.  The coffee soda was a big surprise!  We thought it sounded kind of weird but my dad tried it first and it was actually really good.  They added half and half to it and served it over ice and it was surprisingly tasty!   Dad liked it so much he bought a six-pack of coffee soda to bring home.  I picked out 3 orange and 3 root beer sodas to share with my brother. 

My Dad and I  also learned a lot about the history of Simpson Spring and their soda business.  It was really cool seeing all the old bottles and machinery.  They even used to sell soda to Macy's and bottled Moxie too.

You should definitely try Simpson Spring sodas and their water - check out their website for stores that sell their soda and water at www.simpsonspring.com , the Marion General Store or the Old Rochester Farmer's Market.  Be sure to tell them Julia the Child sent you!

Thanks to everyone at Simpson Spring for a great visit and for letting me take pictures for the blog :)