As the temperatures climbed to the 90s on Wednesday, July 15, the Warsaw Mercantile provided welcome respite and refreshment as 29 shoppers perused fresh produce and savored variations on historic, traditional floats created by Julie Knoche as she mixed Millstream sodas and Hinterland Dairy vanilla ice cream to create a grape-flavored Purple Cow, or orange Creamsicles, and black cherry, blueberry lemonade, root beer, butter brickle, and cherry floats. One customer pronounced the butter brickle delight as “sweet but crisp.”
Knoche’s joyful experiences as a teenaged “soda jerk” at Nauvoo’s Grandpa John’s Café served her well as she offered generous portions of ice cream smothered in customers’ preferred soda flavors. She fondly recalled café customers coming from Fort Madison on days she worked so they could experience her singular milkshakes piled high with whipped cream.
In keeping with the Mercantile’s role as the old-fashioned community general store, the brown glass-bottled sodas and ice cream are available for purchase throughout the year. Sarsaparilla and cream soda and favorites from the 1800s stand proudly in the bottled lineup.
Floats were first served in 1893 in Colorado, and Mercantile customers appreciated the opportunity to step back in time as they sipped new flavors while keeping the old ones.
Plan to visit the Mercantile during a Taste of Warsaw on Saturday, Aug. 1 for a reprise of this historically tasteful opportunity at one of the community’s historic gathering places.