Our flavors:
VANILLA CREAM SODA. We use the finest real vanilla for Pelican Punch™ vanilla cream soda.
KURSE BREW™ SWEET TEA. Kurse Brew™ sweet tea is a classic, Yankee-sweetened iced tea. This ain’t Savannah. It’s sweet but not diabetic coma sweet.
SARSAPARILLA SODA. Made with sassafras root extract, Pelican Punch Sarsaparilla Soda tastes a bit more exotic than root beer. Worthy of its unspellable name.
ROOT BEER. With hints of vanilla, anise, and honey, this root beer is a Garden State smash.
DIET ROOT BEER. That rare diet drink that kinda almost tastes as good as the leaded version.
LEMONADE. G-d save lemonade and all the different varieties.
KURSE ROAST™. Kurse Roast™ iced coffee has a deeply delicious, rich espresso flavor.
BIRCH BEER. Birch Beer is a Jersey thing. (Pennsylvania, too, but you get the point.) Refreshing, with a hint of minty sweetness. Its name derives from the fact that it was originally made from the extracts of tree barks — birch, oak and pine barks.
Our story:
Pelican Punch was a brand originally developed by Celestial Seasonings, the Boulder-based $100 million tea company that made Red Zinger and Sleepytime into household names. Celestial Seasonings was founded by legit Colorado hippies, who came up with utterly delightful herbal teas (which are more accurately called “tisanes”) and iconic art that perfectly fit the vibe of the company.
Then they sold out to Kraft in 1984 and were nearly purchased by Lipton. The DOJ intervened on antitrust grounds, but the very thought of Lipton, the world’s blandest company and least drinkable tea, buying a quirky and eccentric little brand is almost too horrible to contemplate. Somewhere along the way, Celestial Seasonings abandoned its Pelican Punch flavor. In 2016, a spokesperson for the company said of Pelican Punch and Cinnamon Rose, another discontinued varietal, “Sadly, they weren’t as popular as many of our other teas.
Pelican Punch became what’s known in b-school as a “zombie brand.”
But the concept—and that sublime, perfect name, Pelican Punch—were too good to allow to vanish beneath the sands of time. Ten grand on a great IP lawyer and boom! A great brand lives again.
The tea itself retains enough fans that the current blendmaster at Celestial Seasonings, Charlie Baden, occasionally whips up a batch of Pelican Punch (or other Celestial Seasonings zombie brands like Lemon Mist and Cinnamon Rose) for old fans. The original Pelican Punch had a chamomile and mint foundation, with harmonic notes of carob and licorice, perfect for a brand aimed primarily at children.
Like The Kinks on their greatest record, The Village Green Preservation Society, our whole thing at The Book House is to preserve that which remains lovely and right about days gone by.
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, china cups and virginity
We are the Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliate
God save Tudor houses, antique tables and billiards
Come visit our store in Millburn, NJ. Have a cup of coffee or a bottle of soda. Read a book. Or support independent booksellers like us by ordering online from our storefront on Bookshop. God save the Village Green.
PODCASTS
In addition to producing delicious local drinks, our company also owns America’s definitive culture website, Book and Film Globe. Edited by Neal Pollack, The Greatest Living American Writer, Book and Film Globe publishes smart, funny commentary from the world’s best writers. The site features three Rotten Tomato-approved reviewers and some of the sharpest, most thoughtful coverage of books on the internet.
And we have podcasts. Of course we do.
Check out the Book and Film Globe podcast on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
And if you like horror, check out The Dark Word. Hosted by Philip Fracassi, an esteemed writer of supernatural thrillers himself, The Dark Word is the definitive podcast covering the creators and publishing professionals behind the horror genre. Listen and follow The Dark Word at Spotify and Apple.
Shop Local. Don’t be that guy.
Independent. Local. Quaint AF.
The world is a narrow bridge. The essence is never to be afraid.