Positively Philadelphia: The House Flavored Soda Built
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - One of the biggest trends today is flavored seltzer water.
One of the people who started it used to live in Philadelphia, but you can still visit his house.
"Dr. Physick's house is located at 321 South 4th Street in Society Hill," says Jonathan Burton -- executive director at the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks. "Dr. Physick is dubbed the 'Father of American Surgery.' And he's credited for being one of the first people to actually ever create a flavored soda."
Burton says Dr. Philip Physick studied medicine here and abroad:
"When he was in Edinburgh, he learned from Dr. Schweppes to treat patients with a gastric disorder with a carbonated water. And Dr. Physick takes this practice back to the States and gives it to his patients for a few years and gets some feedback that it didn't taste very good."
So his response...
"He harvested some black cherries in his backyard," Burton explains, "created some fruit syrup, and used that fruit syrup and combined it with his carbonated water for his patients to make it taste a little bit better. And you can buy it at the house today."
It's called the Dr. Physick Soda Company, and Burton says it's a delicious black cherry soda.
-----
And for this week, that's "Positively Philadelphia!"
