For sale is a vintage brass ADVERTISING BUFFALO HEAD HORSESHOE necklace pendant. The tongue for the buffalo can be extended and “so dry” is written on the tongue. This weird pendent is probably an advertising or promotional item for Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale because of the similarity between the pendant design and the ginger ale company’s logo which is a buffalo within a horseshoe. Further, a common advertising term for ginger ales is to describe the drink as “dry”. A rare and unusual collectible.
Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale got its start in 1901 in the basement of Birmingham’s Alabama Grocery Company. The beverage was originally made from rom a tonic formulated by Selma pharmacist Ashby Coleman to soothe upset stomachs. Grocer Sidney Lee added carbonation to make the ale. In 1930, Buffalo Rock bottlers began offering a milder “pale-dry” version of their ginger ale but it was discontinued once customers revealed they preferred the spicier stuff. The item for sale may have been part of the 1930s marketing effort for their failed “dry” ginger ale version.
There are two types of ginger ale: golden and dry. Thomas Joseph Cantrell, an Irish apothecary and surgeon, claimed to have invented golden ginger ale in the 1800s. The golden style is sweeter, spicier, and has a stronger ginger taste than the dry style. A “Dry” ginger ale was used as a marketing term to describe a ginger ale that has a spicier, “drier” ginger flavor as a result of a specific way manufacturers source and process the ginger root. The word, “Dry”, in “Canada Dry” ginger ale refers to the prohibition era. Doing without alcohol frequently is referred to as going “dry”.
