Soda King By LEAH ETLING
Santa Barbara's Mike Shinn doesn't drink alcohol, but he's a soda connoisseur, collecting unusual tastes of the carbonated beverage
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
 As a kid, Mike Shinn was never one to beg his mom for soda instead of juice or to guzzle down Coca-Cola all day instead of water in college. But today, the 26-year-old is a veritable soda king. Like many great hobbies do, it all started with a little bit of Moxie.
That is, the sort of Moxie that inspired the annual festival in Lisbon Falls, Maine. That town's residents get together each year to celebrate their favorite soda.
Mr. Shinn saw the festival on television and wanted to know more. So he started researching unusual sugary sodas. Sodas with far more eclectic tastes than plain old-Coke. The sort of sodas that you might find stuck in the back of the fridge in an old general store or at that backwoods diner you wandered into on your cross-country road trip.
He tried the Moxie first, finding it at a market in Los Angeles. He bought cherry, orange and regular flavor.
"Just like the people on TV said, it was an acquired taste. It tasted like a mix between Coke and Dr Pepper. After a few swigs, I decided that it was okay. The small stand in the farmers market sold about 30 types of sodas -- none of them Pepsi or Coke products. Suddenly it occurred to me that if Moxie and 30 sodas at this small shop were out there, that there had to be dozens of other sodas out there. I emptied my wallet and brought home about a dozen sodas."
His wife, Lindsay, is supportive of his habit. At their recent wedding, they served guests 25 different flavors of sodas instead of beer or wine.
"I don't drink alcohol and have enjoyed sodas since I was a kid. It's a great alternative and I don't have to worry about driving afterwards," said Mr. Shinn. "At one point I just got sick of the same old Coke and Pepsi. Now, I've tasted flavors that I could never have imagined before. I've been introduced to new fruits that I had never heard of."
He has become more discriminating over time, though. No more grape or ginger sodas -- he doesn't care for the taste.
And his co-workers at UCSB get a kick out of it -- when he started the habit, part of the office routine was to check in to see what kind of soda Mr. Shinn had that day.
Before long, Mr. Shinn realized that he needed a way to keep track of the names, flavors and retail availability of the sodas. With all the sodas, he was recycling the bottles rather than hanging onto them.
His Web site, http://sodas.mikeshinn.com , resulted. It's a one-stop shop for unusual soda info.
On the site, Fresca is the most popular choice -- 9 thumbs up. Mr. Shinn swears by Coke bottled in Mexico for its extra sugary flavor.
You can read about what sodas Mr. Shinn has tried, good places to get them and what he's looking for now. There are pictures of the sodas -- a much easier way to store the memory than a big pile of bottles in the garage. Visitors can also add their own review of a particular soda.
Even though he doesn't save all the bottles, they are one of the attractions of the drinks, he said.
"People have put a great deal of work into designing these bottles. There is your basic 12-ounce can or 20-ounce plastic bottle that you can get in a vending machine -- but these sodas often come in a variety of extraordinary packages. Ramune, a Japanese soda, comes in a small bottle that has a marble in it! Before you drink it, you have to puncture the plastic top to release the marble. The Ramune soda flows from the main bottle into the marble's chamber before exiting the top of the bottle.
"Once a little bit of soda comes out, the marble stops up the opening and you have to tip the bottle before you can get another drink. I'm told that families use this soda in Japan when they're out shopping -- they allow each of their kids a drink before the marble stops up and then they have to give the soda to their sibling."
In addition to cultural traditions, he's also learned a lot about soda history.
"It's more generally known that Coke, Pepsi and many other sodas originally had narcotics mixed into their cola. What's less known is the involvement of the FDA in the early part of the 20th century, especially during the Depression. Before the FDA, there were really no regulations on what a soda could have in it. What's more, most of the sodas boasted qualities that may not have actually had an effect on the drinker. For example, Moxie was originally touted as an 'elixir' that cured common ailments like nervousness and insomnia."
The best place in Santa Barbara to get unusual soda, he says, is the Plaza Deli at La Cumbre Plaza, where root beer is the owner's specialty.
"The owner, Larry (Leninger), has upwards of 700 root beers in his collection," Mr. Shinn confided.
The most unusual place he's purchased soda was during a trip to Shanghai, China.
"In Shanghai, I found a lot of U.S. microbrews. I expected to find a lot of Chinese sodas, but mostly I found U.S. sodas there. A lot of the Chinese sodas that I did try often had soybeans floating in them or they were jellylike."
A particularly rare find was Natural Brew Winter Brew that a friend picked up in New York.
"The taste was similar to root beer, but a little less bite and a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. It was really a perfect combination -- especially around the Christmas season."
Mr. Shinn generally tries up to a dozen sodas when he travels somewhere new, and hits delis, which are most likely to have them.
"There is a British Shoppe in Santa Monica that sold me a half-dozen British sodas. I think I've discovered that I'm not a huge fan of currants."
In a sign that the soda fad is catching on, Amazon.com recently started carrying the drinks in their Gourmet food section. In Pasadena, Galco's is a grocery store almost entirely dedicated to soda.
But if you decide to try one, be sure to rate it on Mr. Shinn's site. One soda that didn't go over well was a homebrewed root beer he and his wife made from a kit -- one taste, and they threw it away.
"Since I started the site, I've gotten friends from around the world sending me sodas or giving me leads to where I can find a new root beer," said Mr. Shinn. "It's a lot of fun."
HARD-TO-FIND BEVERAGES
Mike Shinn is looking for these small-production sodas:
* Bireley's Orange
* Blenheim's Hot Hot
* Blenheim's Not So Hot
* Borgnine's Coffee Soda
* Delaware Punch
* El Bochero from Spain
* Hourney Desert Sage Root Beer
* Journey Ancient Cola
* Journey Caribbean Cream
* Levis
* Manzana Postoban -- Columbia
* Maracana -- Brazil
* Norda -- Italy
* Heimer's
* Root 66 Key Lime
* Sidral Mundet -- Mexico
* Swerve
* Victoria's -- Mexico
* Virgil's Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg Root Beer
STEVE MALONE / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Mike Shinn says he doesn't expect wife Lindsay to rate every soda he tries, but she usually has a taste of each one. IBC Cherry Limeade, below, is a much rarer find than the popular IBC Root Beer.
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