So, I make Fizzy Waters a regular stop while I am in Canal Park, but it’s not the only place I get tasty sodas.

My increasing taste for soda started with the public resistance to high fructose corn syrup. I started swapping out Coke for Mexican Coke, Mountain Dew for Mountain Dew Throwback, all of which are made with “real” sugar. It started to bug me when I saw allegedly “gourmet” sodas made with HFCs, even my bread made with HFCs.

So a joint like Fizzy gives me some real options. But it’s not the only such location. Ganucci’s Italian Market sells very affordable Italian sodas — including sodas in 3 oz. bottles. When I was younger, I would have called a soda in a three ounce bottle a ripoff. Now, I recognize that, properly formulated, a 3 oz. soda packs all the flavor in the soda experience that I need.

Of course, all of this stems from a childhood love of soda that (at that point) was only available straight from the source: A&W root beer was a special treat, only available if we were willing to eat from our car the six months a year where it was warm enough to do that. (I worry now that A&W at the drive-ins is no different from the fountain stuff available in other restaurants.)

Why is this on my mind? One of those three-ounce soda-type creations was provided by Canal Park Brewery for Ottertoberfest at the Aquarium, a tasty rootbeer that resists the desire to chug because it is so awesome. (It’s also on my mind because I still miss the 1919 root beer stand at the State Fair.)

Where do you get your sodas?