Inside a small warehouse nestled between a Forest Lake boat repair shop and Interstate 35E, Jesse Hopkins pushes an array of buttons on a 1950s mint-green hunk of metal. The restored machine buzzes and hums as lime liquid flows from tubes into glass bottles and then overflows onto the floor.
"It's always a little finicky," said Hopkins, of Blaine, as he pats the 10,000-pound machine. But that's part of its charm.
The liquid is from Hopkins' start-up beverage business, Whistler Classic Soda. The machine is the key to making the low carbonated, all-natural vintage pop. Made from simple recipes, Whistler soda has been bubbling since May, but the flavors and concept are decades old. Hopkins' line of classic soda pop is filling something not commonly found these days: returnable glass bottles.
"As a kid, I loved it when my mom brought home an eight pack of bottles, always in returnable bottles," he said. "And when that vanished, I missed it."
Hopkins' team, made up of family and friends, produces a line of 10 vintage-inspired flavors, including root beer, cream soda, fruit punch, lime and the best seller — black cherry.
Hopkins, who is an assistant principal at a St. Paul Park middle school, didn't set out to be a soda maker. He had created a home brewery as a hobby and thought about turning it into a business, but financially it was out of his reach. But when he brewed the beer, he also made soda for his kids and friends who don't drink alcohol. His homemade pop was a hit, and his original business idea changed to making soda.
Many months were spent researching the craft of making vintage soda. Hopkins reached out to the nearest soda-making company, Flavor 8 Bottling in New London, Wis., and for two years spent weekends learning from founder and owner Dave Talo.
When it came time for Talo to upgrade his mint green bottling machine, Hopkins jumped at the chance to buy it and start Whistler.