The Popular Pennsylvania Brand Of Soda You'll Find On Tap At The Shady Maple Smorgasbord

When you put aside the age-old rivalry between Coke and Pepsi and lay down the debate about Sprite vs. Sierra Mist, you'll discover that the realm of unique sodas/soft drinks expands far beyond a handful of big-name brands. Bubble Up is one of our favorite vintage sodas no one remembers anymore, which takes its place alongside classic brands such as Frostie Blue Cream Soda and Big Red. The residents of eastern Pennsylvania, though, might suggest that Reading Draft deserves its time in the sun, and if you happen to visit Shady Maple Smorgasbord, you can try more than one kind on tap.

Shady Maple Smorgasbord, the 200-foot buffet of Pennsylvania Dutch foods, serves a large fountain of Pepsi products, but off to the side next to a non-descript juice fountain is a row of six Reading Draft soft drinks. While the brand is known for over a dozen beverages, Shady Maple Smorgasbord offers the Creamy Red Birch Beer, Diet Root Beer, White Birch Beer, Sarsaparilla, Vanilla Cream, and Black Cherry drinks right from a tap. Restaurants and stores in Pennsylvania serving Reading Soda Works products aren't necessarily uncommon, but the beverages are typically offered in glass bottles. Shady Maple Smorgasbord seems to be somewhat unique in the fact that it serves the soft drinks out of a fountain, not bottles.

Reading Soda Works has been a staple of Pennsylvania since 1921, handcrafting soft drinks in its bottling company that promise a crisp flavor and an old-timey feel, thanks to glass bottles and natural ingredients, such as 100% pure cane sugar. The brand creates its soft drinks through a unique carbonation process using carbonic gas, unlike the process used by big-name soda makers. Reading Soda Works also sells its carbonic gas for other retailers to utilize.

The company has operated out of the same location throughout its 104-year lifespan, and although the classic Root Beer is how many people discover the Reading Draft brand, there are also the birches, ginger beers, cream sodas, and seltzers that keep people coming back for more.

Finding a restaurant that sells Reading Draft from the tap isn't impossible, since the brand offers fountain-style bags of soft drinks direct-to-consumer, but it is uncommon. Shady Maple Smorgasbord, otherwise known as the Pennsylvania restaurant with the largest buffet in the U.S., is an outlier in the area and thus a place where customers can sample Reading Draft without needing to visit Reading, Pennsylvania. Whether you're visiting Shady Maple to indulge in one of the extravagant salad bar options, eight meat stations, or weekly sales and events, you can make a pit stop at the beverage station to try one of the Reading Draft soft drinks for yourself.