Bottled drinks - not easy to find . . .

This is an extremely important topic.  I am so surprised it does not come up in the discussions - it seems a highly needed piece of info - to post up a list of vendors with ratings for each one should be available on this website.  After all, each one of us has an expensive, rare item that needs to be filled - or it's useless.

Previously I have had a lot of trouble finding my favorite drinks in glass bottles.  But I have found what I consider to be a lifesaver - www.popsoda.com  -  I recently purchased cases of bottled Mountain Dew, Suqirt, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, Cream Soda, and Pepsi.  One warning - the shipping is outrageous, as you could expect, due to the weight.  An order for 5 cases for $100 recently had a shipping fee of $90 (ouch !!! ).  

Diet Coke in bottles still eludes me.  The website sells "Coca Cola Light" from Mexico, which is the same thing as Diet Coke, but it confuses people who use my Coke Machine.  I just want it to say "Diet Coke" on the bottle - apparently no one has it.

Unfortunately, I recently had a run-in with the website's owner about the Pepsi's I bought.  The bottles were in horrible shape, and I asked for a refund.  He called and argued with me on the phone for an hour.  And he said, "fine, I will give you a refund this once, but I will not sell you bottles from Mexico again".  That cut out half the stuff I need.  In otherwords, if he refunded me the monay - I would not be allowed to buy anything from Mexico again (don't worry - they use "distilled water" in the bottling plants down there).  

He said I am the first ever to complain and that anyone would buy these bottles off the shelf.  Check out the pic for yourself and see what you think.  All 24 bottles were the same way.  My guests refused to drink them.

Anyway, the important thing is that he has bottled pop's that I need.  If anyone knows of another source, I'm all ears.

[johnieG]

They sell diet Coke in 6-pack 8oz. bottles in local grocery stores here in suburban Detroit $4.95/6+deposit, and I here tell they MAY still be selling Pepsi in bottles in the U.P(upper peninsula "Eh?" Michigan, athough it's a "seasonal" thing (the pepsi rep didn't mention WHICH season)  '>

I'm surprised you guys are willing to throw this kind of money at soda. It's costing me about $.09 per 6.5 oz bottle of Coke and less for the more generic orange soda etc. It's a little more labor intensive but worth it to me.

I  have purchased about 10 cases of old Coke bottles and 4 soda kegs. I then go to the local Coke distributor and get 5 gallon BIBs of Coke or whatever which I then dump into a sanitized keg. From there I filter water and mix it with the syrup in a separate keg and carbonate it. I sanitize the bottles and use a counterpressure bottle filler (homemade) to fill them. I get caps at homebrew stores and identify contents by cap color, ie. red=coke, silver=diet coke.

The end result is perfect bottled soda in correct vintage bottles (most of mine are from the 50's) for dirt cheap + a little labor. When I calculate it out it takes me about 30 seconds per bottle to fill.

The total cost of my setup, including kegs (but not bottles) was ~$175. I have filled about 40 cases this way.

Nate

[Pat Pixley]

you know Miller , bud, and other work well (In some machine's)
they also make Faygo in glass .  I also have heard about  the
pepsi and 7Up  deal  in the U.P.

They also make Orange and grape Crush  then there is Jones
pop There IBC  root beer   and there all at the old party store's

 My slider hold's MGD ,Bud light, Coke , Diet coke, Sprit and
  bottle water it the bottom. And it hold's it very well.

Pat P.    '>

There is another problem with these Dr Pepper's I got from popsoda.com  -  their caps are blank.  So, unless you own the machine (me) - you have no idea what drink is in there.  I plan on printing up decals and sticking them on the caps - but it's a hassle.

Beer in the vintage coke machine - oh I can just hear the purists wincing !!!  Say it ain't so !!!  Hehe, I got some Bud Light's in mine, too.