The Only Ginger Ale You Should Be Using For A True Boston Cooler

If you've never had a Boston cooler, don't go looking for one in Boston. Despite the name, this is a drink that was born in the Motor City, Detroit, and is as much a part of the city's food traditions as the signature Detroit-style pizza. If you've never tried a Boston cooler, it's essentially a carbonated milkshake, made by blending ginger ale with vanilla ice cream. However, for a true recipe, don't reach for any old ginger ale. To make the drink in proper Detroit fashion, you'll need to use Vernors, the Detroit-born ginger ale that makes an authenic Boston cooler so delicious.

Boston coolers only need two ingredients — Vernors and ice cream — but it's how you combine them that makes the drink unique. Unlike most ice cream soda drinks, which are floats with ice cream on top of the soda, a Boston cooler is a blended drink, which gives it a more uniform texture and also allows the distinctively spicy flavor of the Vernors to blend seamlessly with the sweet, creamy ice cream. While the classic drink is non-alcoholic, you can also make a boozy version by blending in vodka, whiskey, or even a bit of ginger liqueur.

You may be surprised to learn that Vernors is actually the oldest soft drink still on the market in the United States. The "deliciously different" ginger ale was first produced by James Vernor, a Detroit pharmacist, and sold at his pharmacy, which doubled as a florist shop, starting in 1880. In the late nineteenth century, pharmacies were less strictly medical than they are today, but even so, Mr. Vernor found that his ginger ale was more profitable than either pharmaceuticals or flowers, and closed his shop to open a soda fountain and ginger ale company in 1896.

While it's tempting to say "the rest is history," there's more to the story of both Vernors and the Boston cooler. There are competing theories about how the Boston cooler got its name, with one idea going that the drink took its name from Boston Boulevard in Detroit, which was near James Vernors' original soda fountain. Others say that the Boston Edison neighborhood of Detroit gave the blend its name. Still others say the Vernors version is an adaptation of what started as a rum-based cocktail served in Boston. But in 1967, Vernors copyrighted the term "Boston Cooler" for a Vernors-and-vanilla ice cream bar, making Vernors ginger ale the Boston cooler's one and only official ginger ale.