ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610250130
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SALISBURY, N. C.
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
The production of Cheerwine, a wild-cherry-flavored soft drink developed during the sugar shortage of World War I, used to be confined to the basement of Lewis D. Peeler's Salisbury grocery store.
Now it's housed in a 37,000-square-foot factory and bottled by six licensed producers.
"From a one-man horse and buggy to present time," said Clifford A. Peeler, the late Lewis Peeler's son, who still shakes his head when he thinks about it. "We used to spend all day with a foot-powered machine to get out a hundred cases."
Today, with automation, they can do that in about a minute. Good thing - the company produces 100 million cans of the stuff a year.
Clifford Peeler, 93, has been drinking Cheerwine ever since his father started Carolina Beverage Corp. back in 1917.
"It would have been a bad situation if I put something else in the refrigerator," he said. Of course, it was an ice box then.
A "hearty burgundy" beverage once relegated to Western North Carolina, Cheerwine can now be found in Virginia (it first entered the Roanoke market in 1985), Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and South Carolina. It is still a strictly Southern soft drink - for now.
Mix a glass of cherry Kool-Aid with a glass of Dr Pepper and you'll get some idea of what it tastes like. In Cheerwine's hometown of Salisbury, "people drink it, cradle to grave," said Mark Ritchie, Peeler's grandson.
Peeler is the chairman of this quintessential family business; Ritchie is the president and the one who leads a short tour through the quality-control room and the plant, where vats of Cheerwine concentrate give out an aroma akin to cherry cough drops. The mix is so strong, he says, that 10 gallons can be used to make 1,330 24-can cases of soda.
Over the years, Cheerwine, served in most barbecue restaurants in this part of North Carolina, has slowly and steadily earned its shelf space in local grocery stores.
It's won favor with a few celebrities, too.
Ritchie's office wall sports pictures of former President George Bush gripping a cup of Cheerwine between his teeth. The company has shipped cases of Diet Cheerwine to Ronnie Milsap in Nashville and cases of the regular long necks to the Miami Dolphins' Dan Marino.
The current election campaign is doing its share for the soft drink, too: Elizabeth Dole's mother, Mary Hanford, serves Cheerwine to all who visit her Salisbury home, a detail that probably won the beverage its first mention ever in Vogue magazine.
Cheerwine's logo hasn't changed much over the 80 years, though Ritchie has placed the words "soft drink" on the label, to make sure people don't think it's wine. (People never mistake root beer for beer, he says, but that beverage has a much higher profile.)
Advertising should rectify the situation, and Ritchie's doing his level best to make sure the logo becomes well-known.
The first of the year, for instance, he will be test-marketing a new Cheerwine candy in the Carolinas. Next summer, he hopes to try out a Cheerwine ice cream flavor.
And if next month sees the Doles in the White House, jelly beans and pork rinds will have to move over.
"There's no doubt in my mind Elizabeth Dole drank Cheerwine throughout her life," Ritchie says. "Needless to say, when she and Bob Dole came in early in June, we were happy to supply the soft drinks."
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS STAFF Cheerwine soft drink isby CNBserved in most barbecue restaurants in western North Carolina.
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2. headshot of Ritchie color