BevMo!, a Californian beverage retailer, offers Moxie for sale. It is bottled by Real Soda In Real Bottles of Palos Verdes, under authority of the Monarch Beverage Company.

I did not know any of this until yesterday, my first trip to BevMo!. I’d been looking for Moxie for years and years, but I’d resigned myself to the idea that I was only ever going to find any by buying a case shipment off of an Amazon Marketplace seller for 60 bucks. And yet… there it was at BevMo!, on the soda shelves.

Woohoo!

It’s true. The first drink tastes like a nice, licorice-flavored soda, followed by an aftertaste that will kick your ass when you’re not looking.

But I’m sold. I’ve already bought my second bottle, chilling in the fridge as I write this. “Original elixir” is right; it’s very unique. It’s a beverage of fierce individuality.

Over time, I have come to the realization that no one really enjoys Moxie the first few times that they drink it. They appreciate it, certainly, but enjoy it? Rarely.

It takes at least a month of steady Moxie drinking to get rid of the rather unpleasant aftertaste that the soda brings. So why do we even start drinking Moxie, without knowing the sweet and root-y taste that can be savored once the aftertaste has disappeared? There are several reasons, the most predominate being the appeal of seeming interesting and cultured. Well, as cultured as someone can look while drinking a soda. The truth is, Moxie is not a very popular drink with the kiddies. The younger one starts drinking Moxie, the more it appears to ones peers that the drinker is unique, with aquired tastes.

There are other reasons, all closely related to the first. Some young people like to reminisce about a time period that they were never part of, and what drink is better to do this with than Moxie? Sure, root beer floats serve the same purpose, but Moxie is easier to come by and travel with.

The last reason is, it makes an absolutely excellent conversation piece. This is why I started drinking Moxie. Both the people hate the drink and the people who love it will fall all over themselves to tell you their opinion on the drink—try opening a can when going out to lunch with some friends, and you’ll see what I mean.

That is why I like people who have consumed Moxie—either they tried it once and took a risk with something that most young people vocally hate, or they put a lot of thought into what sugary carbonated beverage to consume. I like people who consume this often even better, for they stuck with it until the aftertaste was gone, and the delicious treat that is Moxie was discovered.