Ice-Cold Glass Bottle Sodas in China Grove

Glass is completely neutral, so nothing leaches into the drink and the fizz holds better than it does in plastic. Many glass bottlings also use real cane sugar instead of corn syrup, including the Cheerwine bottles in our cooler. Mostly, though, it tastes like being a kid again.

It was created in 1917 in Salisbury, ten miles from this shop, when a general store owner stretched scarce wartime sugar with wild cherry flavor. The same family has run it for five generations, and their hometown festival draws tens of thousands every year. Around here it is simply the house soda, right down to our Cheerwine fudge.

Yes, the old-school slushie machine spins both hometown flavors. Fittingly, the slushie itself was invented in 1958 when a Kansas storekeeper's soda fountain broke and he started freezing glass bottle sodas instead. We sell the machine's descendants and the bottles side by side.

Sun Drop has been a Carolinas obsession for generations, and its most famous fan was Dale Earnhardt, born one county over in Kannapolis. His son even brought the Sun Drop race car back in 2023. Since 2016 the regional bottling has been handled by the same Salisbury company that makes Cheerwine.

Cheerwine and Sun Drop anchor it, with Uncle Scott's Root Beer from Mooresville and a rotating cast of Frostie and other classics moving through. The fun is in the hunt, so browse the cooler on your way to the candy wall and see what is chilling today. A cold bottle in hand makes browsing the chocolates case even better.

Nearly everything else in the shop. Classic picks are a slice of fudge, a bag from the candy wall, or a seat at the counter while a milkshake gets spun for someone else in your party. If you are picking up bottles for an event, message us ahead and we will have them cold.