Club Muscatella: A Report

Honored Members of the Academy:

One of the many reasons I love to drop by the small ethnic markets in my neighborhood is for the chance to browse and uncover/discover things completely and totally unknown to me. The Old World Market, on Broadway just south of Foster, is a case in point. I just ran out to grab a couple of quick items I knew they’d have. They had some of them (it’s always a little surprise when items basic to me are not basic to other cultures—no cream) and then I spent the next hour (or maybe it only seems that long) walking up and down the aisles looking at cans and jars and bottles of items hitherto completely unknown to me. For those who have never been, the store focuses on African (primarily West) and Caribbean (primarily Jamaican and Belizean) products. I can’t even begin to catalog them, much less assign some of them to the proper category of food (vegetable? fish? tuber?). But there’s always something (or several somethings) that find their way into my bags at the end that weren’t intended at the outset.

Today I had the pleasure of bringing home, among others things, a bottle of Club Muscatella, a light golden beverage in a soda-pop bottle that says on the back only that it was bottled at the Accra Brewery.



My feeling is that anything with that name that made it all the way to my neighborhood from Ghana has got to be worth $1.29 to find out about. No ingredients on the front or the back, nothing to indicate whatsoever might be in store except the name—Club Muscatella. And so I reason it must be akin to carbonated muscatel grape juice. Right? Upon arriving home I discover in infinitesimal print on the bottle cap the list of ingredients, which is truly unhelpful: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Citric Acid, Flavouring, Saccharine (!), Caramel Colour, and Preservative.

I do a quick Google search and actually garner two hits, including a review of it at what appears to be an online beverage review site, “Delicious Sparkling Temperance Drinks”—who knew? I defer mention of the review itself since it would render the remainder of this post superfluous. I will note, however, that one of the pages within is entitled Soda Pops of the World. That page contains links to reviews of literally dozens and dozens of items from Romania to Singapore, Slovenia to Egypt, Ireland to Ecuador. The other pages on this site—apparently the work of a single individual in Minnesota—are “The Island of Forgotten Flavors” (with fascinating soft drinks no longer made, including such gems as Korker and Drinkola, and my own favorites, Celery Cola (gee, wonder why that never made it) and Frid-gee (god only knows)—and “The Great American Root Beer Showdown.” I highly recommend a visit to the site for, if the reviews are too short and generally unhelpful except in a general way, they nevertheless offer a fascinating insight into “ordinary” drinks of other lands. Each, by the way, is rated (on a 5-point scale) for fizz, refreshment, sweetness, flavor, and overall score.

But I digress. I couldn’t wait for the bottle to chill so had to open it immediately. And herewith my report to the Academy, in full.
Scent: a slightly flowery cream soda
Fizz: gentle but persistent, not overwhelming
Taste: reminiscent of cream soda, but not as assertive, with a maple note and a bit of vanilla, too.
Overall: not a strongly flavored soda, a bit too sweet but generally pleasant and likeable. Worth a repeat purchase. Besides, it came all the way from Ghana!



Old World Market
5129 N Broadway St
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 728-2197