Inside the Mind of a Soda Iconolcast

How did high-fructose corn syrup take over the soft-drink market? And why did root beer lose its status as one of America's most popular sodas? John Nese, proprietor, of L.A.'s famous Galco's Soda Pop Stop, has some theories, and he's not afraid to share them.

Justin Bolois

To get to Highland Park from downtown Los Angeles, you’ll hop on the 110 North towards Pasadena and eventually pass through a strip of highway that’s one of L.A.’s oldest. The five lanes shrink down to two, and the synchronized stoplights at the foot of the onramp are replaced by stop signs. If you exit at one of the avenues and head west on Figueroa, it’s likely you’ll spot the sign for El Atacor #11, a chain famous for its tacos dorados de papa. Make a left on to York Avenue, pass the La Estrella lonchero truck that tempts you with its sizzling asada, and a half mile down York you’ll see the humble storefront of Galco’s Soda Pop Stop, an Italian Grocery Mart established in 1897.

Recently, I walked into Galco’s for a second time to meet John Nese, owner of the nostalgia-tinged soda pop shop that is often credited with reviving craft soda interest 15 years ago. Normally, I don’t begin interviews by profusely apologizing to the subject, but my recording device had failed me the previous go-around, and all the colorful anecdotes, sharp insights, and pocket wisdom had been erased. This time, I placed two recording devices on the table and grumbled about the pitfalls of technology.

John sympathized. “You think that’s bad?” he asked. He said he paid $2,000 dollars to have someone tell him that the computer chip died in his car. And, he pointed out, only the dealers have access to the right equipment and computers. Which reminded him: It used to be a dollar to get a key made; now, it’s $250 to buy an electronic one from the dealer.

“How much control are we under?” he asked. Little Richard was wailing from the radio, in seeming agreement. “I mean, that really bothers me. And they’re forcing this onto the people…I’ll get off my soapbox now,” he laughed.

Selling sodas is merely his platform, one that allows him to call out the wrongs and trappings of Big Business.

Interludes like these frequently pop up in conversation with John, the longtime Highland Park native whose family emigrated from Italy. Since taking over the business, he’s turned his store into a bastion of craft soda, where the shelves are stocked with bottles emblazoned with quirky slogans (“Drink it for Vim and Vigor”) and the sounds of doo-wop music can be heard playing overhead. For him, supporting the small guys is a life’s work.

John is a friendly man, filled with a child-like enthusiasm about a beverage adored by children. His handshake is earnest. He is widely considered the guardian for independent soda bottlers. But at his core, John is a vigilant watchdog—a social activist in the guise of a small business owner, calling out injustices that, if you ask him, are often levied by big corporations and institutions that think they can operate unchecked. It’s this iconoclastic streak that’s earned him letters from Pepsi’s lawyers, threatening to file a lawsuit because he was selling Mexican Pepsi.

In his words, they’re posted so everyone can see what goes on in the world of “high finance.” Having lived in L.A. his entire life, his knowledge of public policy and cultural history is deep. Selling sodas, as I soon learned, is merely his platform, one that allows him to call out the wrongs and trappings of Big Business. It was 15 years ago when, faced with financial troubles, John decided to stock his shelves with small-batch, independent bottlers after a run-in he had with a Pepsi salesman.

Now, Galco’s carries 600 different types of pop, as well as off-the-beaten path candies, beers, and an underrated Italian sub for only $4.50. Amid the vast treasure trove you’ll find oddball flavors such as cucumber, anise, and banana; 60 types of root beer (some dry, some creamy); a Plantation Style Mint Julep; cereal-grain sodas (despite my skepticism, John insists that some have such a high mineral content that you can practically live off of them);sodas brewed like beer; pinot noir wine country soda; and, what may be most amazing of all, varieties of cola that don’t start with “Coca.”

“Coca Cola called me two weeks ago and one of their reps said, ‘You’re signed up for delivery but you haven’t bought any.’ I said yes, that’s true. She said, almost uncomfortably, ‘Why not?’ And I told her if anyone wants a Coke you can get it at any store, so why should I sell it? That’s the truth.”

Instead of selling what’s ubiquitous, Galco’s provides a prelapsarian glimpse into what the world of soda might have looked like if major corporations hadn’t taken over the market. John, who normally walks around to help inquiring customers, sat down and told me how he entered the business, sounded off on soda trends, gave insight into what makes a soda taste good, offered a revisionist history of the soda industry, and told personal stories about his relationship with his beloved city, Los Angeles. Step into the mind of a soda iconoclast…

On his family roots.

“Around 1900, long before the L.A. Dodgers moved in and built their stadium, my grandfather herded goats on the hill in Chavez Ravine. He was a shepherd, and had goats living in his backyard. He had a routine. Every morning he’d get up at 6am. The first thing he’d do is get his coffee going. The second thing he would do is pour the brandy into the coffee. It was a coffee royale. He’d drink that, put on his pot of beans, get his goats, and hike up to the top of the hill. He would stay up there until noon, have his lunch of pasta fagiole, and then he and his friends would play the card game Briscola. Inevitably, there was a fight over who was cheating or who owed what. Only later did I realize that during this they were talking about life, and how one should live it.”
On his soda epiphany.

“There was a hot-shot salesman from Pepsi. He came here and said, 'I got the best buy you’re ever gonna get on a palette of Pepsi.’ I looked at him and asked, 'How much profit am I going make on a 100 case palette.' He said about 30 dollars. 'Thanks, but no thank you,' I told him. 'I’ll send my customers to the supermarket because Pepsi will be on sale for $1.99 a 12 pack.' Well, the salesman looks at me and says, ‘You can't do that because Pepsi is a demand item, and your customers are going to demand it in your store.’ I told him my customers are going to be happy that I’m honest with them. They can buy them cheaper than I can. So the salesman comes in the next day with his regional manager. They looked around and didn’t say one word to me. And what I did order from them, I never received. They just bypassed me completely! At that point, I was really upset. When somebody is doing you wrong, and you know it, but you don’t have any recourse because they’re so big, it’s just gnawing. Finally, the light bulb clicked. I thought, you should thank Pepsi for reminding you that you own your shelf space. That’s when I went out and looked for tiny labels. People weren’t used to having a choice. At that particular moment I thought, do I want to be a part of helping to put other little businesses out of business? That’s when I thought we would do soda.”
On the shelf-space wars.

“Coke owns shelf space in the big stores, but what people don’t realize is that Coke bought it on the backs of little businesses. They financed it by jacking up the price on the little stores, telling the little stores that if they can’t buy it in big volume then they’ll have to pay more. What Coke didn’t tell the small retailers was that two-thirds of profit came from little stores! Big stores don’t have a lot of dollar profits, so Coke takes profits from little stores in order to buy more shelf space in big stores and eliminate competition. It wasn’t that Coke had a better product, they simply squeezed everyone else off the shelf. It happens all around the world.”
On the history of high-fructose corn syrup (or, how Coca-Cola dominated WWII).

Note: Most of the sodas you buy from the supermarket or corner store are packed with the sweetener high-fructose corn syrup, which has received plenty of criticism from the media. But, strictly in terms of taste, many enthusiasts will tell you that cane sugar is the preferred choice. The popularity of Mexican coke? The reason the flavor pops? All signs point to the cane sugar. “Cane sugar was rationed during WWII in the United States. There was no other Allied country that rationed it. Apparently, from what I've heard, cane sugar was used in the process of smokeless gun powder. During WWII, Coke built 17 bottling plants overseas while the war was going on, and when the Americans came home, Coca-Cola was the drink of the American solider. At the same time, Pepsi Cola almost went broke because they couldn’t get any sugar to bottle with. Coke was the only bottling company that had unlimited access to cane sugar in the U.S. So in 1947, Pepsi moved to corn syrup, saying they would never be put in a position of not being able to supply the demand for Pepsi. “When you taste Coke made with cane sugar it just pops—bam! Kosher Coke has to be made with sugar, either a beet sugar or cane sugar, because it’s a sprouted grain, and during Passover Jews don’t eat sprouted grain. One year, I tasted the Kosher Coke. It was...oh my goodness! And I bought as much as I could. But the last time I tasted it, it was dull again. And, trust me, I know the taste. The reason is because they were using beet sugar instead of cane. Beet sugar is cheaper.”
On the importance of glass and carbonation.

“Let me say this: When you get a glass bottle, the way a product goes in is the way it comes out. When sodas started being sold in cans and plastic, the product would leak. In a glass, a soda has a two-year shelf life. When you use plastic or cans, it has about a 2-3 month shelf life. So big soda companies over-carbonate everything to compensate for the drop in quality. What’s interesting is they learned that the more carbonation you put into the product, the less syrup you need. They were actually increasing their profit margins. So if you taste Dr. Pepper coming out of a can, you notice that its flavor isn’t as strong. What you’re tasting, above everything else, is carbonation.”
On the difference between real oils and artificial flavor extracts (a.k.a., how 7 UP fell off).

“In the 1950s, the number one seller in California was 7 UP, not Coca-Cola. 7 UP was made with lemon and lime oils. The oil is the zest and skin part, and that’s where the flavors are intense. But it’s expensive to make it that way. So when Cadbury Schweppes took over, they decided to use an artificial flavoring and got rid of the oils, and sales plummeted. I’m sorry, but Sprite is just terrible.”
On how the CRV (California Redemption Value) works, and why returnable bottles went out of style.

“The CRV was implemented for bottles. Here’s the subtext of this. Coke and Pepsi didn’t want to have their men picking up empty bottles. They wanted a one-way system. So they sold the state on this idea of a CRV. Is it really greener to use a one-way bottle and plastic? You listen to the water companies, ‘We use 50 percent less plastic,’ or ‘our bottle is greener,” blah blah blah. No, it isn’t! You’re crushing and recycling. But what happened to reusable bottles? What happened to bringing your bottle and getting your money out of it? You know why this happens? It’s because [the state] can’t tax returnable bottles because it’s not sold. In other words, the state can’t make a profit. The soda companies figured this out. If you have a throw-away bottle, you can charge a sales tax on it. The big companies gained something: They don’t have to put their money out to make returnable bottles. It’s the consumer that’s now paying for it.”
On smear campaigns (a.k.a., how Diet Rite cola, root beer, and RC Draft lost the war).

“In 1959, 25 percent of all sodas sold in the U.S. were root beer. It was a large segment of the market, but it was nine small root beer companies. The cola companies did a study that said sassafras root (the main flavoring component of root beer at the time) causes cancer. All of a sudden the root beer companies were wiped out, and they had to pull the sassafras root oil out of the drink. But if you talked to the farmers, they would tell you that they would cut a piece of sassafras and chew on it to keep our mouths moist. This was just another method of control by large corporations. Today the root beer segment of the market makes up two percent of total soda sold. If this was just one instance, okay, sure. But then you see the same thing repeating. Diet Rite cola used cyclamate as a sweetener. At one point it was the number-one selling soda. Then another study surfaced that showed cyclamate causes cancer. A year after that, the scientists who conducted the experiment realized they had overdosed the rats with cyclamate. They admitted their mistake, but by that point the brand had been destroyed. Years later, during the '80s, the same thing happened with RC Draft. RC Draft was on the front page of Forbes Magazine. I’ll never forget it. It read, 'Will RC Draft be the savior of RC Cola company?' And it took off. Three months following its launch, the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers committee claimed it looked too much like a beer bottle. And it destroyed the brand. Now, that in itself doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it really did. But 20 years later, the last remaining RC draft bottler in the world, located in Australia, asked me what happened to RC draft in the U.S. And I told him the story and his mouth dropped. He said the same thing happened to him two months prior in Australia, right as they were set to launch in supermarkets. The same story surfaced and ruined their business. Now that is significant."
On what makes a great root beer.

“Galco’s has 60 types of root beer, but my favorite is the Red Ribbon from Pennsylvania. Red Ribbon uses the bark of sassafras (the oils are prohibited) and is made with a pinpoint carbonator, which means the root beer has a dry finish on it due to a dry-ice method. This was a simple, effective method to avoid cross-contamination. They put dry ice in a cylinder, it breaks down into gas, and they use that gas to inject into soda. Most root beers, because they can’t use the sassafras oils, have a creamy finish on them. This one has a dry finish. If you look closely, the fill lines on the bottles are all uneven, and there’s a reason for it. Today, when sodas are made, they are mixed where the syrup and water come out of the dispenser. Red Ribbon puts a dollop of syrup in the bottle and carbonated water is added afterwards. They cap it and turn the bottle upside down. That’s a very old, but good, way of making sodas.”
On soda trends.

“What’s been going on now is Coke and Pepsi have been doing micro-brew sodas. And everyone thinks they’re small companies, but they’re not. They have tons of money backing them. They have the money to push themselves and take over the shelf space. But you don’t see the name Pepsi or Coca-Cola because they don’t want to be associated with the micro brew in fear of ruining its image. Izzie’s, for instance, is owned by Pepsi. It’s just another version of control.”
John's picks soda recommendations, and a blind taste test.

If you like Sprite, try... Bubble Up If you like cola, try... Triple Cola (has a hint of nutmeg) or Vintage Cola, by Dublin If you like Dr. Pepper, try... Dublin Black Cherry If you like orange soda, try... Bundaberg Blood Orange Soda
Taste test
My girlfriend and I conducted some taste experiments. We went to the corner store, bought a can of Coca-Cola and A&W Root Beer to compare to some of Galco’s sodas. To avoid prejudice, we each put on a blindfold before describing the flavors. 1. (blindfolded) Triple Cola: More cola essence, more body to the soda. Less stringent on the tongue. Softer carbonation. Herbal and nutmeg notes. vs. Coca Cola: Metallic taste. Fizz much louder when poured into glass. Sharp bite. 2. (blindfolded) Red Ribbon Root Beer: Sassafras almost smells like bubble gum. Wonderful dry finish. Balanced sweetness. vs. A&W Vanilla flavor. Lacks crispness. Creamy aftertaste that lingers on the tongue.

Inside the Mind of a Soda Iconolcast

On his family roots.

On his soda epiphany.

On the shelf-space wars.

On the history of high-fructose corn syrup (or, how Coca-Cola dominated WWII).

On the importance of glass and carbonation.

On the difference between real oils and artificial flavor extracts (a.k.a., how 7 UP fell off).

On how the CRV (California Redemption Value) works, and why returnable bottles went out of style.

On smear campaigns (a.k.a., how Diet Rite cola, root beer, and RC Draft lost the war).

On what makes a great root beer.

On soda trends.

John's picks soda recommendations, and a blind taste test.

Taste test

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