LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — The State House is raising a glass to Michigan’s original ginger beverage.

On July 22, Rep. Jason Woolford (R‑Howell) whetted Lansing’s appetite by introducing House Bill 4744, which would crown Vernors—the Detroit‑born ginger soda—as the official state beverage.

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A Michigan original, Vernors traces its roots to James Vernor, a local pharmacist testing a vanilla‑and‑spice tonic in 1862. Legend holds he tucked the concoction in an oak barrel before heading off to fight in the Civil War—only to return and discover it had mellowed into the effervescent, gingery pop known today.

The Detroit Historical Society also notes an alternate family‑backed account that pins its creation to post‑war 1866, when Vernor opened his own pharmacy and began pouring it at the soda fountain.

Over the decades, Vernors fizzed beyond Detroit, settling into soda fountains across the Midwest before bottling out for mass production. Woolford’s bill now heads toward the House Committee on Government Operations, where lawmakers will decide whether Vernors merits official recognition as Michigan’s state beverage.

If approved, Vernors would join the ranks of state symbols like the oak leaf and the robin; its status enshrined in state law.