Idaho Falls

It used to be that places had their own sense of style and uniqueness. You look at old photos, and while you might not be able to place the location, you can usually spot something unique about the setting or the people. For example, many old photos of this area often featured piles of dead jack rabbits. As the world became more connected, the little differences start- ed to disappear, and then the Internet came along, and the slate has been wiped nearly clean. Inventions like radio and television started the homogenization ball rolling, but figuratively, but not entirely literally. While Coke is found in every corner of the globe, some local beverages are still holding their own. You can tweet a text or post an image, but taste, smell and even textures are some- thing you can't get online, yet. Idaho Falls is one of the last strongholds for a unique soft drink called Ironport. It was popular nationwide early in the 20th Century, but now can only be found in the intermountain West and places like Scotty's Drive-In have been stalwart purveyors. Its taste is described as a cross of root beer and Caribbean spices. Some say the drink was named after Porter Rockwell, the Destroying Angel from the early years of the Mormon Church, whose nickname was Old Port. That might explain Ironport's strong taste and lack of caffeine. Whenever I travel abroad, I try to sample what the locals are drinking. Since this is a family publication, I'll only report on drinks of the softer variety. In Slovakia, they still are very fond of the Communist Cola called Kofola. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when truckloads of Coke and Pepsi poured into the former Soviet satellites bearing the carbonated symbols of capitalism, the locals still prefer Kofola. Interestingly enough, it tastes a bit like Ironport. In Switzerland, famous for all the happy cows sitting around making milk for Swiss cheese, they needed to find something with all the whey left over from the cheese making process. So those same inventive geniuses, who decided to arm their soldiers guarding the Pope with an all-purpose util- ity knife, said, "Let's make a soft drink out of waste milk whey and color it reddish to make it look like cola." Need I say that it too has a taste not that distant from Ironport. Starting to see a pattern here? From a local Ag perspective, we grow a lot of barley that gets made into what some not-so-devout friends of mine call barley pop, more commonly known as beer. Idaho is number two in the U.S. for barley production. The malting plant south of town is among the largest in the country. While beer generally doesn't taste like Ironport, did you know that our local barley is also used to make Monster Energy drinks? Maybe the Anheuser-Busch InBev marketing folks should look at testing an Ironport Monster flavor? I'll bet it would be a hit, just not locally, but in Slovakia and Switzerland! the World Wide Web launched it right off the cliff, making it possible for someone in China to want to look and dress like a spud from Idaho Falls. Well, maybe not, but you get the point. Everywhere was special in its own way, but differently the same. Places like Bone were different, but they were comfortable because they fit in with their surround- ings. Unlike the very western Starbucks, which I saw plopped right in the middle of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Much of what made places special has been diluted 86 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 Outdoors by Gregg Losinski IF

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