PORT ANGELES, Wash. — People have been cracking open these Made in Washington sodas since 1984 thanks to Ed Bedford, owner of Bedford’s Craft Sodas — pop that proudly states where it comes from on every bottle.
“It all started here, it's home-based out of Port Angeles,” Bedford said.
When he says 'home based' he means it —headquarters is Bedford’s modest one-story home in Port Angeles. It all started when this former beverage distributor couldn't find his favorite flavor:
"There was no real good creme soda on the market."
So Bedford came up with a recipe and made his own. Bedford’s Creme Soda was first bottled in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. Today, Bedford’s Sodas are bottled in Mukilteo. There’s that creme soda, root beer, ginger ale, ginger beer, diet ginger beer, orange creme, a ginger cola, and a marionberry creme. All except for the diet soda are made with cane sugar, and they’re all delicious.
“They’re just a little bit different than most sodas, because they're made in very small batches, we really try hard to get the best ingredients possible and we care for it through the whole process — it's not mass produced,” Bedford said.
Production runs are small, but you’ll easily find Bedford’s all over the Olympic Peninsula, in some stores across the country (Safeway carries them in many stores) and in cocktail lounges, because the peppery ginger beer makes a mean Moscow mule. But if you’re drinking his soda straight up, Bedford has this advice.
“Just drink it ice cold, never with ice — ice takes the carbonation out of it and it upsets it,” he said.
He’s serious about this — ENJOY THIS WONDERFUL BEVERAGE ICE COLD is emblazoned on every case.
Bedford's Soda has at least one famous fan.
“I've got a picture on the wall of my office. It's me and Joe Namath. We were doing a trade show together. He was next to me and he was constantly coming next door to sample the sodas,” laughed Bedford.
This craft-soda maker is semi-famous in Port Angeles, he contributes far more than cases of his soda to little league teams, BMX tracks, and the community winter ice skating rink.
“He also will show up unannounced, unsolicited, he'll show up with a check once in a while to help nonprofit events and festivals that we put on here,” said Marc Abshire, executive director of Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
At 76, Ed Bedford still loves the simple pleasure of a soda.
“I think that it just reminds me of being a kid and scraping around to come up with a dime to go buy a bottle of soda pop."
And he also loves sharing that pleasure, and a taste of his hometown, with anyone who opens a bottle of Bedford's.
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