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Need bottles of pop (or soda, as we say in Massachusetts) for your vintage vending machine? There is a store that carries glass-bottle sodas that will fit in old soda machines. Ifs Ands & Butts is a retail store in Texas with a mail order department that helps customers determine the type of bottles their machines can handle. The store has an incredible selection of soda pop, offering 135 varieties of gourmet, nostalgic, imported and unusual non-alcoholic soft drinks in glass bottles. And they ship worldwide.
Hamilton Rousseau is the owner of Ifs Ands & Butts http://www.ifsandsbutts.com/sodas/listalphabet.htm, a micro-soda bar, used book store and smoke shop all in one. The retail store is located in an historic district of Dallas. "The inviting cosmopolitan interior of the shop is arranged and decorated to serve variously as a smoking room, reading room and conversation room."
If you can't make it to Dallas, you can still get old-fashioned service by telephone, according to Rousseau. He is an expert in the types of soda bottles that will fit in vintage machines.
Rousseau explained, "The very old machines sold only the small Coke-type bottles (6.5-to-8 oz)." Two of his top sellers fit these machines. The original sugar Coca-Cola old-style heavy glass refillable bottles that he gets from the Netherlands (called Dutch Coke), and the original sugar Dr. Pepper in small Coke-size no-refill bottles made in Dublin, Texas. These Dr. Pepper bottles have the old 10-2-4 logo, an Imperial Pure Cane Sugar emblem and a Made in Dublin TX since 1891 seal of authenticity.
Rousseau's shop also carries a wide variety of long-neck glass-bottled sodas with the old-style metal crimp-top crown, including many of the famous old names: Coke, Pepsi, RC, Nehi, Crush, Nugrape, Dads, A&W.
These long-necks will fit most machines made for the 10-to-12 oz sodas that were very popular in the fifties. Many Micro-bottlers and regional brands also use these long-neck light and heavy glass bottles, which means many of them will work in the newer machines as well, even the ones that have bottles hanging on tracks along which you slide the soda of your choice.
You can get gift certificates, gift packs or just order for your own consumption. Most sodas cost $10.95 per 6-pack or $39.95 per case of 24. The shipping & handling charge is $9/6-pack and $20/case for continental U.S. orders (non-US S&H is extra).
Check out the site, and see if you would be tempted to drink a soda pop that is called "Vanilla Egg Cream"!
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